General ⇒ why does my \parindent not work?

[seano]

Maybe I'm just too tired, but I really have no idea why my document, which clearly has

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\setlength\parindent{1cm}

included in the document preamble, still insists on having NO indent.

In case it helps, here's my list of accumulated packages (which are all included before the change to the paragraph indenting):

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\documentclass[12pt,a4paper,twoside,openright,pdftex]{unbthesis}
\usepackage[left=4cm, right=2.5cm, top=2.5cm, bottom=2.5cm]{geometry}
\usepackage{natbib}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage{amssymb}
\usepackage{amstext}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{float}
\usepackage[format=hang,margin=10pt]{caption}
\usepackage{subfig}
\usepackage{fancyhdr}
\usepackage[german, ngerman, english]{babel}
\usepackage[latin1]{inputenc}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{footmisc}
\usepackage{algorithmic}
\usepackage{listings}
\usepackage{fancyvrb}
\usepackage{tabularx}
\usepackage{tabulary}
\usepackage[section,above]{placeins}
\usepackage[smaller,printonlyused]{acronym}
\usepackage{relsize}

[balf]

I've just taken a look at unbthesis.cls; I don't understand much of the code, but there seems to be an 'indent' option, which is set by default to 0pt; the option, entitled 'uglification' (!) sets it to 20pt. May be you should try with this option?

Another solution might be to specify your value of \parindent just after \begin{document}.

Regards,
B.A.

[seano]

Thanks for the quick response, but unfortunately neither of those worked:
I couldn't find anything to do with indent or uglification in my version of unbthesis.cls (I have "Version 1.0 released 2005/11/10")
I also tried changing \oarindent within the document but that had no effect either!?!

[localghost]

Perhaps the "Electronic Thesis and Dissertation LaTex Class Guide" from the UNB can be of any help.


Best regards
Thorsten

[seano]

No, no clues there.
Have checked the setspace package too, but that doesn't seem to be the problem either.

The strange thing is that the command \setlength\parindent{1cm} doesn't seem to work anywhere. I have tried it in the preamble, after begin(document) and in the called files.

The response is always the same. Nothing.

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

Okay, now I'm confused. This problem doesn't seem to be related to any packages (it still occurs even if I remove them) OR the document style (it still occurs when I use \documentclass{article} or \documentclass{book} or ...)

So, maybe I am asking the wrong question. I want paragraph indents that look like the following. How do I do this?

1.1.1 This is the section heading
This is the first paragraph. It is not indented because that would look silly underneath the section heading. This is the first paragraph. This is the first paragraph. This is the first paragraph. This is the first paragraph. This is the first paragraph. This is the first paragraph. This is the first paragraph. This is the first paragraph. This is the first paragraph. This is the first paragraph. This is the first paragraph. This is the first paragraph.
__________This is the second paragraph. It is indented so that everybody notices that it is a new paragraph. This is the second paragraph. This is the second paragraph. This is the second paragraph. This is the second paragraph. This is the second paragraph. This is the second paragraph. This is the second paragraph. This is the second paragraph.
__________This is the third paragraph. It is also indented.This is the third paragraph. This is the third paragraph. This is the third paragraph. This is the third paragraph. This is the third paragraph. This is the third paragraph. This is the third paragraph. This is the third paragraph. This is the third paragraph. This is the third paragraph. This is the third paragraph.

Obviously the underscore characters shouldn't be there, but even this forum doesn't seem to let me do indenting today!

[localghost]

1.1.1 This is the section heading
This is the first paragraph. It is not indented because that would look silly underneath the section heading. This is the first paragraph. This is the first paragraph. This is the first paragraph. This is the first paragraph. This is the first paragraph. This is the first paragraph. This is the first paragraph. This is the first paragraph. This is the first paragraph. This is the first paragraph. This is the first paragraph. This is the first paragraph.
__________This is the second paragraph. It is indented so that everybody notices that it is a new paragraph. This is the second paragraph. This is the second paragraph. This is the second paragraph. This is the second paragraph. This is the second paragraph. This is the second paragraph. This is the second paragraph. This is the second paragraph.
__________This is the third paragraph. It is also indented.This is the third paragraph. This is the third paragraph. This is the third paragraph. This is the third paragraph. This is the third paragraph. This is the third paragraph. This is the third paragraph. This is the third paragraph. This is the third paragraph. This is the third paragraph. This is the third paragraph.

How in your opinion should the source code look like to get the paragraphs indented?

[seano]

Oops. My mistake...
For some reason I've been writing my paragraphs like this:

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Some paragraph text \\
A new paragraph \\
A third paragraph \\

Which I now realise is, um, not correct
Now I just need to go through and change them all to \par. Oh well.

Thanks for your patience.

[balf]

A blank line will suffice.

B.A.

[localghost]

Leave a blank line between the paragraphs and everything will work fine.

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\section{This is the section heading}
  This is the first paragraph. It is not indented because that would look silly underneath the section heading. This is the first paragraph. This is the first paragraph. This is the first paragraph. This is the first paragraph. This is the first paragraph. This is the first paragraph. This is the first paragraph. This is the first paragraph. This is the first paragraph. This is the first paragraph. This is the first paragraph. This is the first paragraph. 

  This is the second paragraph. It is indented so that everybody notices that it is a new paragraph. This is the second paragraph. This is the second paragraph. This is the second paragraph. This is the second paragraph. This is the second paragraph. This is the second paragraph. This is the second paragraph. This is the second paragraph.

  This is the third paragraph. It is also indented.This is the third paragraph. This is the third paragraph. This is the third paragraph. This is the third paragraph. This is the third paragraph. This is the third paragraph. This is the third paragraph. This is the third paragraph. This is the third paragraph. This is the third paragraph. This is the third paragraph.

[seano]

Yes - I realise this, but I'm not really comfortable about relying on blank lines to define my paragraphs. I'm going to have a document with a LOT of diagrams in it, so the presence or absence of a blank line in the file will not be so obvious.

On the other hand, it's easy to forget to include \par at the end of each paragraph.

Is there a general consensus on what's better? Or is this one of those "personal preference" things?



PS. Yes, it has occurred to me too that I have left a blank space between each line in this post, and no, I didn't do it on purpose. It just happened...
PPS. I am beginning to rethink my personal preference (with regards to paragraph breaks that is!).
PPPS. Cool! It just started snowing. Oops, no, now it's hail. Oh well.