LiveCode negative "firstIndent" - or other way to achieve the effect ("hanging indent")?

Question

Using the firstIndent property on a field, I can make the start of a paragraph indent relative to the standard margin, so that if the line wraps, the continuation starts to the left of the first character on the line above.

But if I set a negative value for firstIndent, it has no effect.

Is there a way to achieve the effect that the line starts to the left, but if it wraps, subsequent lines are indented over to the right?

score 3 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 08 '13 at 23:06

3

You can do that by setting a value for 'leftindent", and negative value for 'firstindent' (note you need to specify a line number when setting leftindent)

set the leftIndent of line 1 of field "A" to 200
set the firstIndent of field "A" to -50

answered Mar 08 '13 at 23:06

Alex Tweedly

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1

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Excellent tip. By the way: the 'effect' that this question refers to is called "hanging indent". Perhaps the title should be edited to make it easier to search for it. – Knud Potente Mar 09 '13 at 03:04
Thanks Alex - I didn't think about line properties - that does the job very nicely! – Ben Rubinstein Mar 11 '13 at 09:34
(Knud, good point - I've also edited the title of the question) – Ben Rubinstein Mar 11 '13 at 09:41

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 18 '13 at 21:56

1

Note that the "leftindent" property of lines in a field was only introduced in LiveCode version 5.5, and that as of LC 5.5 the "firstIndent" property can now be applied to lines as well as entire fields:

set the firstIndent of line 2 of field "xyzzy" to -10

answered Mar 18 '13 at 21:56

mwieder

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Thanks Mark - that'll be my excuse for not knowing about it! How do firstIndent and leftIndent interact if they can both be applied to a line - do they just cancel each other out? – Ben Rubinstein Mar 20 '13 at 08:54

LiveCode negative "firstIndent" - or other way to achieve the effect ("hanging indent")?

2 Answers2