Simplest approach to hanging indent paragraph?

[Paul Johnson]

What is the best advice now for LyX users who want paragraphs shaped
like this

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

But we want to control both the indentation of the lines 2-3 as well
as the negative indentation of line 1. A negative indentation on the
first line of an itemized list would be about right for this.

Searching in the LyX archive, I find that I asked this before. This
message that Herbert Voss sent in response to my question in 2001:

http://www.mail-archive.com/lyx-users-UqbJ+GOpo4+***@public.gmane.org/msg08531.html

Is there simplification available now?

I notice the tips & tricks page is gone now, as this link no longer
leads anywhere:

http://www.lyx.org/help//layouts/layout.html#hangindent

I am wishing there were a simpler solution *within LyX* to do this,
without creating a layout file or such, because I primarily need this
for use of students in our computer lab. I've been pushing them to use
LaTeX and LyX, and if I say "that is not possible" they just say "we
will use Open Office instead." So the "you can't get there from here"
problems with LyX are creating a bother. Students tell me MS Word has a
"hanging" option for paragraphs that makes this super simple. When I
told them "we don't need that because real publishers don't do that"
they turned up with several journals in which itemized lists and
bibliographic entries are formatted in that way.

[Helge Hafting]

Post by Paul Johnson
What is the best advice now for LyX users who want paragraphs shaped
like this
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
But we want to control both the indentation of the lines 2-3 as well
as the negative indentation of line 1. A negative indentation on the
first line of an itemized list would be about right for this.
Searching in the LyX archive, I find that I asked this before. This
Is there simplification available now?
I notice the tips & tricks page is gone now, as this link no longer
http://www.lyx.org/help//layouts/layout.html#hangindent
I am wishing there were a simpler solution *within LyX* to do this,
without creating a layout file or such, because I primarily need this
for use of students in our computer lab. I've been pushing them to
use LaTeX and LyX, and if I say "that is not possible" they just say
"we will use Open Office instead." So the "you can't get there from
here" problems with LyX are creating a bother. Students tell me MS
Word has a "hanging" option for paragraphs that makes this super
simple. When I told them "we don't need that because real publishers
don't do that" they turned up with several journals in which itemized
lists and bibliographic entries are formatted in that way.

Have you tried using the "verse" paragraph type instead of "standard"?
It looks like your example above. Perhaps a bit counterintuitive when you
aren't writing poetry, but it has a hanging indent and is very simple to
use.

For lists, see if the paragraph type "labeling" might be useful. Here
the indent
is adjustable thorugh paragraph settings.

If you really want a negative indent (first line of paragraph stick into
the margin)
try setting the document to use indented text and put \parindent=-2em
in the document preamble. (Or in an ERT box in the first paragraph you want
to be this way. In this case, make sure there is a space after the
command.)

Helge Hafting
Helge Hafting

[Kenward Vaughan]

Post by Helge Hafting

Post by Paul Johnson
What is the best advice now for LyX users who want paragraphs shaped
like this
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
But we want to control both the indentation of the lines 2-3 as well
as the negative indentation of line 1. A negative indentation on the
first line of an itemized list would be about right for this.

...

Post by Helge Hafting
Have you tried using the "verse" paragraph type instead of "standard"?
It looks like your example above. Perhaps a bit counterintuitive when you
aren't writing poetry, but it has a hanging indent and is very simple to
use.
For lists, see if the paragraph type "labeling" might be useful. Here
the indent
is adjustable thorugh paragraph settings.
If you really want a negative indent (first line of paragraph stick into
the margin)
try setting the document to use indented text and put \parindent=-2em
in the document preamble. (Or in an ERT box in the first paragraph you want
to be this way. In this case, make sure there is a space after the
command.)

The \parindent works fine for the 1st line, but not the 1st paragraph,
which is stubborn in its insistence about being non-indented (at least,
after a heading of some sort).

:(


Kenward

[Paul Johnson]

Post by Kenward Vaughan

Post by Helge Hafting

Post by Paul Johnson
What is the best advice now for LyX users who want paragraphs shaped
like this
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
But we want to control both the indentation of the lines 2-3 as well
as the negative indentation of line 1.

...

Post by Helge Hafting
Have you tried using the "verse" paragraph type instead of "standard"?
It looks like your example above. Perhaps a bit counterintuitive when you
aren't writing poetry, but it has a hanging indent and is very simple to
use.

The big problem was paragraph positioning. Verse has margins that are
too big.

\parindent=-3em pushes the first line back into the margin and does
not indent the rest of the paragraph.

I found the magic bullet. After hours and hours of stumbling around the
Internet, I found ERT

\leftskip=3em

to push the whole paragraph in . Then

\parindent=-3em

works to pull back the first line. This is a good solution, EXCEPT if
you are doing this to the first paragraph of a section. As another
poster noted, LyX (and LaTeX) are stubborn about that one.


The Verse environment is a better approach, the only problem is margins
are too big. But ERT \leftskip fixes it:

\leftskip=-3em


Man, this one was hard to find. Here is where I got this idea:

http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO/other-formats/html_single/TeTeX-HOWTO.html

I worry that using the verse environment might be dangerous because some
layouts might have fancy fonts or nonsense for verses.

Post by Kenward Vaughan

Post by Helge Hafting
For lists, see if the paragraph type "labeling" might be useful. Here
the indent
is adjustable thorugh paragraph settings.
If you really want a negative indent (first line of paragraph stick into
the margin)
try setting the document to use indented text and put \parindent=-2em
in the document preamble. (Or in an ERT box in the first paragraph you want
to be this way. In this case, make sure there is a space after the
command.)

The \parindent works fine for the 1st line, but not the 1st paragraph,
which is stubborn in its insistence about being non-indented (at least,
after a heading of some sort).

Yes, This is true.

Post by Kenward Vaughan
:(
Kenward

[Andrei Popov]

Hello Paul,

Post by Paul Johnson
works to pull back the first line. This is a good solution, EXCEPT if
you are doing this to the first paragraph of a section. As another
poster noted, LyX (and LaTeX) are stubborn about that one.

I'm not sure, but maybe \usepackage{indentfirst} will help in
combination with what you posted previously?