Probable dumb question

Hi,
I'm not too sure if I'm posting this in the right forum... but I have a question that's been bugging me for a while, concerning how many spaces to leave for paragraphs... how many is appropriate? Normally, when I start a new paragraph, I skip maybe two spaces... but this isn't enough, is it? Is 5 the appropriate one? I've heard both 2 and 5.... I've been writing for a long while now, so any mistakes I've made would take a while to correct, but better address those now...
Thanks.

Do you mean spaces between paragraphs that separate scenes?

Generally, in a novel format, you don't skip paragraphs except for scenes. Unless that's in the guidelines and/or it's for the Web...

Oh, no actually; I should have said that clearer... I mean, when starting a new paragraph, how many spaces is it right to indent on the first line?

If you indent, use 5 spaces. Your word processing software should let you Tab for that.

Myself, I don't indent. I simply add extra blank lines between paragraphs.

Bohemian - if you're using Word, a quick way to fix your draft is to do a Find and Replace. Control + H and then hit More - Special - Paragraph Mark. Add two blank spaces after the Paragraph Mark symbol (using the spacebar) and then, in the Replace box, put just a Paragraph Mark.

Hit Replace All and that gets rid of all the two blank spaces at the beginning of paragraphs.

Then, to set the indent to five spaces, just Select All and either move the first line indentation slider over five spaces or go to the Format - Paragraph menu.

As a bonus, this way you'll never again have to use the spacebar to indent.

Oh wow, thank you both-- but when I hit Paragraph Menu, do I change the ident to 0.5? (When I hit 0.5, it makes all of the text go over 5 spaces... I know I'm probably doing something wrong)
I can't believe I never just used the tab before... this makes me feel beyond computer illiterate, so amateurish. Thanks again so much.

That's a common error. If you're using MSWord, don't use the regular indents. You have to change "Special:" to "First line" and set it there. If you write with anything more sophisticated than Notepad, you should never have to manually insert spaces or tabs to indent your paragraphs.

Yeah, I haven't done much with the Paragraph box - it confuses me, too.

I just start off each new page by dragging the little indent tab (the little silver down-pointing arrow at the upper left) to the half-inch mark.

This way you don't have to hit Tab - just hit Return/Enter at the end of a paragraph and you're already indented for the next.

To others out there - is this an okay way to format a MS one's submitting (as on disk or e-mail), or should I replace these with Tabs?