So, I'd say it's not a standard, but rather a stylistic choice.

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ehrenfest
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[SOLVED] indentation standard

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/LaTeX/Document_Structure

It says there that "By default, the first paragraph after a heading follows the standard Anglo-American publishers' practice of no indentation."

I have never heard of this so-called standard! Has anybody else? How can I get my first paragraphs indented?
 
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You may find this page useful.

http://web.mit.edu/answers/latex/formatting/latex_indentfirst.html
 
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ehrenfest said:
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/LaTeX/Document_Structure

It says there that "By default, the first paragraph after a heading follows the standard Anglo-American publishers' practice of no indentation."

I have never heard of this so-called standard!
Pick up any book, a textbook will do. Now, look at the first paragraph of a chapter-- you'll see that it isn't indented. To be a standard, it doesn't necessarily have to be documented, it could just be that everyone does it!
How can I get my first paragraphs indented?
Well, you can do what we all do when we have some problem with latex-- google it (then you'll get the site Kurdt shows you as the first hit).
 
cristo said:
Well, you can do what we all do when we have some problem with latex-- google it (then you'll get the site Kurdt shows you as the first hit).

Indeed. Google is your friend. :smile:
 
cristo said:
Pick up any book, a textbook will do. Now, look at the first paragraph of a chapter-- you'll see that it isn't indented. To be a standard, it doesn't necessarily have to be documented, it could just be that everyone does it!

Actually the first book I picked up "Introduction to Solid-State Physics" by Kittel does indent but the second book I picked up "A First Course in Abstract Algebra" by Fraleigh does not.
 
For a standard, it doesn't seem to be very standard. :wink:

I'd never heard of it before, and picking up the stack of articles currently on my coffee table, about half of them indent the first paragraph and the other half don't. But, those that don't have the indent also do other things to set off the first word of the first paragraph, like start with a larger letter.