Indents in Kindle Create, using a Word source file

Writing.

Simple, step by step instructions on how to maintain indents for regular text, as set in Word.

In a nutshell: you need to set the indent used in Word styles.

Read on for examples and instructions.

Formats

The often preferred format for text (study) books and online platforms like Wattpad is 'block format'. For novels and most e-books it's typically 'indented'.

Block format:

Indented:

You'll notice that in most properly formatted e-books and printed books you'll find that the very first line in a chapter is typically not indented, and uses a drop cap.

Whilst a novel is still in manuscript format (ie. being worked upon) this indent is often left in place: (click to enlarge)

Here's an example page from a Terry Pratchett novel:

If your ebook looks like this, you have done something wrong...

You *can* set the margin in Word using the ruler, but this may not give you the expected result...

... because, once loaded in Kindle Create, you CAN change the indent per paragraph, but there's no way to do it for all paragraphs at once.

In this page I changed the indent of a page of text in Word using the ruler, but as the style did not contain the updated ruler position, the indents were gone:

Setting Word style for 'Normal' text

Instead, what you have to do is change the Word Style 'Normal': (click on image to enlarge)

1. RMB on the 'Normal' style

2. Modify

3. Format Paragraph

4. Indentation / Special / First Line - set a value

Loading a document with the indents set in the style for 'normal' text results in an indented text, also in Kindle Create:

Now all that's left is go through the document, look for mistakes, and add drop caps or suppress indents, where needed.

I haven't been able to tell Word to skip indents for the first paragraph of a chapter, but that's quite doable inside Kindle Create.