How to ensure that the first lines of paragraphs are indented

[Gerry Wolff]

With the article I am writing, I would like the first line of each
paragraph to be indented (except for the first para of each section).

My understanding is that Latex is supposed to do this automatically.
But at present, none of the paragraphs are indented on their first
lines.

I have tried to force the indentation with this line in the preamble:

\setlength{\parindent}{6mm}

but it makes no difference.

At present, I have the following lines at the start of the file:

\batchmode
\documentclass[a4paper,12pt]{article}

\usepackage{fancyvrb}
\usepackage[round]{natbib}
\usepackage[dvipdfm]{graphicx}
\usepackage{amssymb}
\usepackage[dvipdfm, bookmarks=true]{hyperref}
\usepackage{times}
\usepackage{epsfig}
\usepackage{color}
\usepackage[ragged]{footmisc}

\bibliographystyle{apalike}

\newcommand{\superscript}[1]{\ensuremath{^{\textrm{\scriptsize #1}}}}
\newcommand{\subscript}[1]{\ensuremath{_{\textrm{\scriptsize #1}}}}

\setlength{\parindent}{6mm}
% \setlength{\parskip}{2ex}

\raggedright

[Vahid Damanafshan]

Latex does this automatically, and for first para, use \noindent. Meantime, why are you loading so additional and queer packages?

--
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Vahid Damanafshan
vdaman...@yahoo.com
vdaman...@gmail.com

[jon]

On Sep 13, 7:02 pm, Gerry Wolff <gerrywolf...@googlemail.com> wrote:
> With the article I am writing, I would like the first line of each
> paragraph to be indented (except for the first para of each section).
>
> My understanding is that Latex is supposed to do this automatically.
> But at present, none of the paragraphs are indented on their first
> lines.

your problem is that you're using \raggedright: you need to set the
length of \parindent /after/ you declare \raggedright because the
second command sets \parindent to zero. (the idea is that ragged
right text should not have parindents because it looks terrible ---
not sure if that's true myself (ragged right looks bad regardless...),
but i think that's the underlying idea.)

however, \raggedright is not your best choice. use the ragged2e
package instead; it does a much better job (and many more options):

\usepackage{ragged2e}
\setlength{\RaggedRightParindent}{6mm}

... one other point: are you sure you want to use so rigid a
parindent? it is not useful if to do so if you change font or font
size (etc.).

finally, some of your packages --- e.g., times --- are outdated. it
might be wise to update your preamble somewhat.

cheers,
jon.

[Gerry Wolff]

Many thanks! That's done the trick. Thanks also for the other tips.

Regards,

Gerry

[David Johansen]

> finally, some of your packages --- e.g., times --- are outdated.  it
> might be wise to update your preamble somewhat.

What is the current replacement for times?

Thanks,
Dave

[jon]

\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{mathptmx}

or:

\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{tgtermes}

a useful resource is:

http://www.tug.dk/FontCatalogue/

cheers,
jon.