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I want to indent all the text in all the paragraphs in a document I am writing. Below is the method I am using to accomplish this. It works well enough but I was wondering if I could somehow put the command:

\begin{adjustwidth}{5mm}{}
\end{adjustwidth}

into each paragraph in the preamble so I wouldn't have to repeat it over and over again?

\documentclass{report}
\usepackage{changepage}
\begin{document}
    \paragraph{Paragraph}
        \begin{adjustwidth}{5mm}{}
            Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Phasellus diam purus, aliquet quis suscipit a, venenatis sit amet dui. Donec sapien nibh, semper eu purus sed, sollicitudin vestibulum dui. Integer nec massa eu augue mattis commodo.
        \end{adjustwidth}
\end{document}
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  • Welcome! Are you sure that you want to use \paragraph here at all? It seems odd for that to be the first section in the document. Or is this just an example and your actual document has e.g. \section, \subsection etc. before the first \paragraph? If not, you might just mean that you want all paragraphs to be hanging paragraphs? See hanging to see if that's what you want.
    – cfr
    Jun 18, 2015 at 2:54
  • Most paragraphs will be indented automatically unless you use a package or class that prevents this. Note that, by the same default, the first paragraph following a command like \section will not be indented. For some languages, this is typographically incorrect; if that is the case, loading babel with the correct language specification is often enough to fix this problem.
    – jon
    Jun 18, 2015 at 2:54
  • 1
    @jon Or indentfirst if babel isn't enough.
    – cfr
    Jun 18, 2015 at 2:55
  • 1
    (Building on cfr's comment.) The command \paragraph is somewhat like \section, but "lower down" in the sectional division hierarchy. Unlike in HTML, e.g., you do not use it simply to indicate the start of a new paragraph...
    – jon
    Jun 18, 2015 at 2:56
  • @cfr -- yes indeed!
    – jon
    Jun 18, 2015 at 2:56

2 Answers 2

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2

i think there's a misunderstanding here.

\paragraph is a sectioning command, next lower in the hierarchy after \subsubsection. a regular text paragraph begins after a blank line or \par; there isn't any need to identify it further.

an ordinary text paragraph is usually indented automatically, by the amount \parindent. the only exceptions are if \parindent is set equal to 0pt (or the equivalent), or if the paragraph starts immediately after a heading, and it has been specified in the document class that it shouldn't be indented.

if it's desired that the heading \paragraph should be indented, it's trivial to redefine that. here is the definition from the report class:

\newcommand\paragraph{\@startsection{paragraph}{4}{\z@}%
                                    {3.25ex \@plus1ex \@minus.2ex}%
                                    {-1em}%
                                    {\normalfont\normalsize\bfseries}}

the \z@ at the end of the first line is the indentation. all that's needed to change that is to (1) change \newcommand to \renewcommand, (2) change the indentation amount, and (3) wrap this definition in \makeatletter ... \makeatother to handle the "internal" forms of some commands (those containing an @ sign) properly.

there are also packages that support changes to headings.

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1

Indentation is dealt with automatically by LaTeX. When writing your document leave a blank line between your paragraphs and they will be indented as needed!

\documentclass{report}
\begin{document}
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Phasellus diam purus, aliquet quis suscipit a, venenatis sit amet dui. Donec sapien nibh, semper eu purus sed, sollicitudin vestibulum dui. Integer nec massa eu augue mattis commodo.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Phasellus diam purus, aliquet quis suscipit a, venenatis sit amet dui. Donec sapien nibh, semper eu purus sed, sollicitudin vestibulum dui. Integer nec massa eu augue mattis commodo.

\section{Lorem}

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Phasellus diam purus, aliquet quis suscipit a, venenatis sit amet dui. Donec sapien nibh, semper eu purus sed, sollicitudin vestibulum dui. Integer nec massa eu augue mattis commodo.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Phasellus diam purus, aliquet quis suscipit a, venenatis sit amet dui. Donec sapien nibh, semper eu purus sed, sollicitudin vestibulum dui. Integer nec massa eu augue mattis commodo.

\end{document}

This gives:

indentation demonstrated

Note that the first paragraph of a new section will not be indented. This is stylistically fine because the function of indentation is to indicate that a new paragraph has begun, and the first text after a new section has begun is obviously a new paragraph. In the context of a new section the indentation serves no purpose.

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  • what you've left out here is the fact that \paragraph is not an ordinary paragraph of text, but a subheading level next below \subsubsection. therefore, it behaves like (and is defined in the same manner as) other sectioning commands. indentation of \paragraph can be defined globally, by a (trivial) modification to its definition. but i think the basic problem is owing to a misunderstanding.
    – barbara beeton
    Jun 18, 2015 at 13:50
  • I was running with the assumption that @Freddie didn't actually need \paragraph. I figured that they might have experience with a language like HTML where it is appropriate to enclose text in <p> tags, and that they might assume that TeX is similarly afflicted. I'm sure that \paragraph is a useful structure, but generally speaking it isn't necessary.
    – Paul Stiverson
    Jun 18, 2015 at 14:09
  • fair enough (the question isn't sufficiently precise for me to make that assumption). for regular paragraphing you've got a good answer.
    – barbara beeton
    Jun 18, 2015 at 14:14

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