Indenting First Line - AutoFormat Not Working

[JanuaryStars]

When I write papers I want the first line of every paragraph indented. It
used to be that after a couple of paragraphs it would pick up on my style and
automatically start indenting the first line of my paragraphs when I started
a new one. Suddenly it stopped doing this a few months ago and I can't
figure out why. No matter how many times I start a new paragraph with an
indented line it will not pick up on my style and AutoFormat it.

When I go to "AutoFormat as You Type" I have all of the options checked,
including "set left and first indent with tabs and backspaces" and "define
styles based on your formatting." I cannot figure out what other options I
could change to fix this problem. It's driving me crazy! Please help!

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Well, this could be "Format beginning of list item like the one before it,"
but I doubt it. I suspect you just need to apply a first-line indent to your
paragraphs. When you press Enter at the end of an indented paragraph, you'll
get another one just like it. If you intersperse these direct-formatted
Normal-style paragraphs with any headings, however, the Normal paragraph
you'll get after the heading will revert to the defined, unindented format.

A better approach is to use Body Text for your unindented paragraphs and
Body Text First Indent (modified to have the size indent you want) for the
indented ones.

 

[Graham Mayor]

Most people find that the autoformat as you type options are more irritating
than helpful, but they are stored in the Word Data key in the registry. If
you rename that key to olddata with Word closed it will build a new one that
may be more responsive to your request. See
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/AppErrors/ProblemsStartingWord.htm.

It would however make far more sense to simply create a style or styles with
the parameters you require.

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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


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[JanuaryStars]

"When you press Enter at the end of an indented paragraph, you'll get
another one just like it."

But this is the problem. I press Enter after an indented paragraph but it
does not indent the next one. I have no headings, bullets, or anything else

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

If the paragraph has an actual first-line indent (not a tab character at the
beginning), you should get an indented paragraph. The only exception would
be a case where you are using a style that has a different style set as the
"Style for following paragraph." For example, Word's built-in heading styles
all have Normal as the following style. Or if you're using bullets or
numbers and press Enter twice. You have covered both those possibilities
below, so I assume neither is the problem.

If you'd like to send a sample problem document to my email, I'll take a
look.