ubuntu-developer-manual team mailing list archive

[Kyle Nitzsche <kyle.nitzsche@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 01/13/2011 01:21 PM, Kyle Nitzsche wrote:
> > It appears that first lines of paragraphs are indented unless they are the
> > first line of a chapter or section.
> Yep. This is the correct way to handle paragraph indentation.  (I
> could quote references such as The Chicago Manual of Style and some
> design books, but you didn't seem impressed by that last time. :-)) 

My 'philosophy' on this question:
First-line indented paragraphs are useful when the paragraphs are expected to be 
lengthy (novels, etc.). In such cases, they save vertical space because you 
don't need space between paragraphs to differentiate them visually: the indents 
delimit paragraphs.

In technically oriented writing, brevity is the sole of virtue. Short sentences 
and paragraphs significantly benefit comprehension and content navigation. A 
significant percentage of the paragraphs in technical writing are one liners, 
which are first-line indented. And a significant percentage are not one-liners. 
You end up with a mix of line indents that is, I think, visually confusing. 
Better to never indent first lines and (automatically) separate paras with a 
little white space. (my 2 cents)

See the attached screenshot from my launchpad chapter for an example of how 
first line indents may be confusing.

Cheers,
Kyle

Attachment: indent-3.png
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