Negative indent?

Question

Is a negative indent of a particular paragraph possible or does another command need to be used? I.e., the first line should begin inside the margin.

Can a command similar to \noindent be constructed that flushes the first line (of a paragraph) to an arbitrary value, or does a negative indent already exist, or is there an easy-to-make solution?

Answer 1

You can simply use \hspace*{-3cm}blablabalbabal.

Answer 2

Just set \parindent to a negative value, e.g.

\setlength{\parindent}{-1em}

If you want to keep original \parindent for other paragraphs, make the change local, e.g.

\bgroup
\setlength{\parindent}{-1em} 
PARAGRAPH
\egroup

Answer 3

We can set the \parindent parameter locally and force the beginning of a paragraph in the same group. The end of the group will restore the former value of \parindent, but the different value has already been used. Note that \negpar should not be followed by a blank line.

\documentclass{article}

\newcommand{\negpar}[1][-1em]{%
  \ifvmode\else\par\fi
  {\parindent=#1\leavevmode}\ignorespaces
}

\begin{document}

Some text with normal indentation. And other text to fill the 
paragraph over a couple of lines or maybe three, just add 
nonsense text forever and ever and beyond for years.

\negpar
Some text with negative indentation. And other text to fill the 
paragraph over a couple of lines or maybe three, just add 
nonsense text forever and ever and beyond for years.

Some text with normal indentation. And other text to fill the 
paragraph over a couple of lines or maybe three, just add 
nonsense text forever and ever and beyond for years.

\negpar[-2em]
Some text with negative indentation. And other text to fill the 
paragraph over a couple of lines or maybe three, just add 
nonsense text forever and ever and beyond for years.

Some text with normal indentation. And other text to fill the 
paragraph over a couple of lines or maybe three, just add 
nonsense text forever and ever and beyond for years.

\end{document}