Write text with some fixed amount of space from the margin

Question

How would I write the following in LaTeX:

_Abstract_  
XXXX This is the  
XXXX abstract.

_Keywords_  
XXXX keyword1, keyword1  

In the above the letter X stands for space.

Answer 1

Using the adjustwidth environment from the changepage package it is possible to push the left/right margins of the text in by any given amount. The environment has the following syntax:

\begin{adjustwidth}{<leftskip>}{<rightskip>}
  ...
\end{adjustwidth}

where it pushes the left margin in by <leftskip> and the right margin in by <rightskip>. To make the indentation align between the Abstract and Keywords, use the same <leftskip> length in \hspace{<leftskip>}.

Here is a minimal working example:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{changepage}% http://ctan.org/pkg/changepage
\usepackage{lipsum}% http://ctan.org/pkg/lipsum
\begin{document}
\section*{Abstract}
\begin{adjustwidth}{1cm}{1cm}
  \lipsum[1-2]
\end{adjustwidth}
\section*{Keywords}
\hspace{1cm} keyword1, keyword2

\section{Introduction}
\lipsum[3-5]
\end{document}

The Abstract and Keyword titles were typeset as \section*, although this can be changed. For example, the article document class provides an abstract environment which typesets a heading and indents the abstract (like the adjustwidth environment) \leftmargin from the left and right. As such, you could use \hspace{\leftmargin} to have the Keywords indent the same distance. For completeness, in order to obtain the same formatting then, you could use

% <other content and document preamble>
\begin{abstract}
  % <your abstract goes here>
\end{abstract}
\textbf{Keywords} \par
\hspace{\leftmargin} keyword1, keyword2, ...
% <article content>

Finally, lipsum was merely used for dummy text.

Answer 2

For the KOMA classes there is the addmargin environment which is similar to adjustwidth. It has the syntax

\begin{addmargin}[<left indentation>]{<indentation>}
 contents
\end{addmargin}

By only supplying the mandatory argument, the same indentation will occur on both left and right side, while the optional argument will overwrite that for the left side.

There is also a starred version of the environment, for twosided layouts, where the optional argument sets the inner indent.

\documentclass{scrartcl}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\begin{document}
\lipsum[1]
\begin{addmargin}[2cm]{0cm}
\lipsum[2]
\end{addmargin}
\begin{addmargin}{2cm}
\lipsum[3]
\end{addmargin}
\lipsum[4]
\end{document}

Answer 3

Try \phantom{XXXX} which will leave the same space as XXXX would have occupied. There are also \hphantom{XXXX} and \vphantom{XXXX} to leave only horizonal or vertical space taking zero space in the other dimension.

Answer 4

Ideally you can find a document class that supports abstract.

Or you could try \hspace{5cm} or \hskip{5cm}, I forget.