\indent & \noindent (LaTeX2e unofficial reference manual (November 2018))

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### 15.2 `\indent` & `\noindent`

Synopsis:

    \indent

or

    \noindent

Go into horizontal mode (see Modes). The `\indent` command first outputs an empty box whose width is `\parindent`. These commands are robust (see \protect).

Ordinarily you create a new paragraph by putting in a blank line. See \par for the difference between this command and `\par`. To start a paragraph without an indent, or to continue an interrupted paragraph, use `\noindent`.

In the middle of a paragraph the `\noindent` command has no effect, because LaTeX is already in horizontal mode there. The `\indent` command’s only effect is to output a space.

This example starts a fresh paragraph.

    ... end of the prior paragraph.

    \noindent This paragraph is not indented.

and this continues an interrupted paragraph.

    The data

    \begin{center}
      \begin{tabular}{rl} ... \end{tabular}
    \end{center}

    \noindent shows this clearly.

To omit indentation in the entire document put `\setlength{\parindent}{0pt}` in the preamble. If you do that, you may want to also set the length of spaces between paragraphs, `\parskip` (see \parindent & \parskip).

Default LaTeX styles have the first paragraph after a section that is not indented, as is traditional typesetting in English. To change that, look on CTAN for the package `indentfirst`.

Unofficial LaTeX2e reference manual