How to Use the Paragraph Menu
Every paragraph has its own menu: click in a paragraph and a small gear appears at its top right. Use it to give that one paragraph its own drop cap, indents or letter spacing, or to turn it into a heading or blockquote.
What’s in the paragraph menu
| Choose | To |
|---|---|
| Paragraph | The menu’s title: turn it into a subheading (Heading 1 to Heading 4), a Blockquote, Handwriting or a Callout Box. |
| Duplicate block, Copy to clipboard, Delete block | The three icons beside the title: copy the paragraph right below, copy its text, or delete it. |
| Set as First Paragraph (Drop Cap) | Move the section’s drop cap to this paragraph. |
| Force Drop Cap | Give this paragraph a drop cap of its own. |
| Disable Indentation | Remove this paragraph’s first-line indent. |
| Apply First Line Style | Give this paragraph the section’s first line style, such as small caps. |
| Letter Spacing | Tighten or loosen the space between its letters, in print. |
| Copy indents, Paste indents | Copy this paragraph’s indents, and paste them onto another. |
| First-Line Indent | Indent its first line by its own amount. Below 0 pulls the first line out: a hanging indent. |
| Left Indent | Move the whole paragraph to the right. |
A heading’s menu has only the title and the three icons. The gear turns blue while a tick is on, and purple when the paragraph has its own letter spacing or indents.
Lists, tables and text conversations have no gear, and it hides while words are selected.
How to move or add a drop cap
The drop cap shows in the preview and in your exported book, not in the editor.
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To move the section’s drop cap, open the paragraph menu on the paragraph that should have it and tick Set as First Paragraph (Drop Cap).
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To add another, open the next paragraph’s menu and tick Force Drop Cap. Tick it on as many paragraphs as you like.
Untick it to undo. To style drop caps or turn them off, see drop caps.
How to adjust letter spacing in one paragraph
Letter spacing is for your print book: it changes your print-ready PDF, not your EPUB. Tighten a paragraph to pull a short last word up a line, or to close gaps that run down the page.
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Open the paragraph menu and click the Letter Spacing number.
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Type a value and press Enter: below 0 tightens, above 0 loosens. − and + change it a little at a time.
Small values do it: it runs from −0.05 em to 0.1 em. Watch your print preview while you set it; Print - Single Section (Fast) shows each change quickly. To go back, set it to 0.
A paragraph with its own letter spacing prints exactly as you set it: Fix runts leaves it alone. To find every one, tick Letter Spacing in the sidebar’s Elements tab.
How to make a hanging indent
A hanging indent keeps the first line at the margin and moves the rest of the paragraph in, the usual look for a bibliography or glossary.
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Open the paragraph menu and set Left Indent first: how far in the rest of the paragraph sits.
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Set First-Line Indent to the same amount below 0 (24 and −24, for example).
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For the next entry, click Copy indents, open the other paragraph’s menu and click Paste indents.
Indents show in your print-ready PDF, your EPUB and your Word document. To set them for your whole book or a whole section, see indentation.
Questions
How do I create hanging indents?
In the paragraph menu, set a Left Indent, then a First-Line Indent of the same amount below 0. Then click Copy indents and Paste indents onto each paragraph that should hang the same way.
How do I indent the first line of one paragraph?
Set First-Line Indent in its paragraph menu. For every paragraph in your book, see indentation.
Why isn’t my paragraph indented?
Open its paragraph menu: Disable Indentation and Force Drop Cap both remove the first-line indent. To indent a whole section, use its Options menu.
Does Letter Spacing change the space between lines?
No, only the space between letters. The space between lines is Line Spacing, in Print Settings › Body Text.