I just wrote 80,000 words without indenting my paragraphs

ambmae

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I'm getting my manuscript ready to query and I start reading about formatting. Crap. I just wrote an 80,000-word manuscript without indenting a single stinkin' paragraph. Does anyone know if there is a way to make google docs automatically add indentations to the first line? I tried to google it but came up with nothing. I'm really hoping I don't have to go through and manually add every indentation, but if I do, it's my own darn fault.

Seriously, people, this is the closest I come to swearing, feeling so... gah... right now!

Thanks in advance for any and all insight.

Gotta laugh to keep from crying.
 

Roxxsmom

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I'm having trouble envisioning this. Do you mean you left a space between paragraphs instead?

I don't know how it works in Google Docs, but is there a ruler or slider at the top the way there is in word? If you set a 1/2" indent with the slider, maybe it will automatically insert them at the beginning of each new paragraph (after the return). Not sure what to do about getting rid of the extra spaces, though.
 

amergina

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Yup!

1) Open the doc.
2) Select the text you want to indent. (So like, if it's a section or chapter, select the first couple words, scroll to your section or chapter break, hold shift, then select after the last word.)
3) Go to the ruler at the top (If there's no ruler, go to the view menu, and select Show ruler) and grab the top rectangular part of the thing that looks like an arrow. This is the first line indent.
4) Drag it left until you get to 0.5.

Repeat for each section.
 

ambmae

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Yup!

1) Open the doc.
2) Select the text you want to indent. (So like, if it's a section or chapter, select the first couple words, scroll to your section or chapter break, hold shift, then select after the last word.)
3) Go to the ruler at the top (If there's no ruler, go to the view menu, and select Show ruler) and grab the top rectangular part of the thing that looks like an arrow. This is the first line indent.
4) Drag it left until you get to 0.5.

Repeat for each section.

It works! May whatever you believe in send you heaps of goodwill and blessings. Thank you.
 

avekevin

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Another way to accomplish the same thing without depending upon document formatting is to do a find and replace. This will place hard tabs at the start of every paragraph:

Find: ^p (looks for paragraph hard returns)
Replace: ^p^t (replaces it with a paragraph hard return and a tab)

This method will require a little bit of cleanup - for example on chapter headings.

This works in Word but something similar should also work in Docs.
 
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amergina

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Another way to accomplish the same thing without depending upon document formatting is to do a find and replace. This will place hard tabs at the start of every paragraph:

Find: ^p (looks for paragraph hard returns)
Replace: ^p^t (replaces it with a paragraph hard return and a tab)

This method will require a little bit of cleanup - for example on chapter headings.

This works in Word but something similar should also work in Docs.

Except you really really really should not use tabs for manuscript formatting. That's what first line indents in paragraph formatting are for! Tabs are for tabular data.

Tabs screw up formatting later down the line, whether you trade or self-publish. I know it's a hold-over from typewriter days, but if you use tabs, either you or your publisher is going to have to strip them all out later.
 

avekevin

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A perfect example of why I joined this forum...I don't know what I don't know. Nothing to see here...please move on :)
 

Gileam

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Open MS word and copy the entire document into there.
On the Home, tab go to select and choose All
On the Home, tab go to paragraph and click the box on the lower right-hand side
it will open a window and give you an option called special with a drop-down box.
Choose the First line - and the depth you wish the first line to be indented by.

This will add indents to all the first line of each paragraph and the dialogue text.