For useful stuff, skip to the line
in green below. All the rest is
propaganda background info.
Flynn MacNiall wrote:...
So, then, why should i NOT use the Tab Key, what does scribophile.com say "don't use a the Tab Key" when submitting a manuscript?
...
Why?
In a small document of just a couple of pages and nothing of lasting/reuse value, it makes little difference. You go through and make the changes you need without losing track of anything, print and forget. You should still use styles instead, because it does not constitute more work, and it builds a healthy habit. Why it is healthy? Read on...
In a huge manuscript you need to establish standards which are centrally managed. This is why styles are useful.
When you use tab, you must insert that tab at the start of every paragraph. If you set a first line indent in the style used for the paragraphs, you do it once and it propagates to every paragraph using that style, which is every paragraph in your document unless you have explicitly selected a different style for parts of your text.
If you reformat your document to use different marking for paragraphs (spacing, drop caps), you need to remove those tabs again.
If your manuscript is imported into software which reflows it (like readers for vision impaired, or epub solutions/"digital book" apps), the tab stops may not translate well, and messes up the layout.
Every time you merge or split paragraphs, you must be careful to also remove/insert the tab as appropriate.
How?
As this is a major reformatting of your document, you may want to work on a copy, not the original. Save your work with a different name!
robleyd's post above involves 4-5 mouse clicks and a number entry which, with any luck, fixes your entire manuscript. His post looks like a lot of info, but that's just because it includes pictures. The
Styles and Formatting window can be opened from the
Format menu if it is not already enabled. You can also find it "docked" in the right side panel by clicking the second tool icon on the right edge of that panel, or you can press function key F11 to toggle the floating version of it.
If you find that this doesn't work immediately, the most likely cause is that manual paragraph formatting has been applied. A quick way to remove all manual formatting (NB! this includes common emphasis like italic/bold/underline): select all text (keyboard shortcut
ctrl+A) and select menu
Format - Default formatting (shortcut
ctrl-M).
Note that if your document was ever edited in "Microsoft Word context" (saved from MS Word, or saved as a MS Word document), there may be "rogue styles" which make the process a bit more complicated.