How to "indent paragraphs" in a post?

[craigr577]

I don't know where to ask my question, so if this forum is for "anything" maybe this is the place: Is it possible to make indented paragraphs? Here are some things I've tried:

I saw the 4 "simple spaces" before this paragraph when I was typing, but you don't now because they disappear during "Preview Post" and in the actual thread.

****This paragraph began with 4 "hard spaces" but they got changed to ****.

And when I try to use html code, with "&nbsp;" between the HTML tags provided above, <>, by typing [H-ML]&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;[/H-ML], here is what happens:
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Instead of beginning the paragraph with 4 hard spaces (as it would in an HTML web page) it does what you see above and here, when I typed "[H--L]&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;[/H--L]Instead of beginning..."

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;And the same thing happens when I use CODE-tags instead of HTML-tags, as you see above. (and it's also the same with PHP-tags)

So, is there any way to make indented paragraphs?

[Doctor Q]

There's an indent tag.

For example, if you type "The slow brown fox jumps over the workaholic dog." it will come out like this:
The slow brown fox jumps over the workaholic dog.
You can't control how far it indents, but that's the easiest way to do it.

In the editing toolbar, it's this icon: http://images.macrumors.com/vb/images/editor/indent.gif

[craigr577]

There's an indent tag.
Thanks. I hadn't seen this (oops) and it could be useful, even though...
as you see when I used it here, this indents the entire paragraph instead of just the first line. I guess there is no way to do what I want in these forums, because I cannot insert more than one space -- your program turns each hard space I type into *, and it ignores &nbsp; which is the hard space (nonbreaking space) of HTML -- so there is no way to indent only the first line.

[Tom B.]

___ What about just putting some White underscores or something like that before your first line. It's not perfect but it works.

The only reason I haven't changed them to White on this post is that I can't highlight on my iPhone.

[Doctor Q]

&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;I did this by putting the characters &#160, repeated a few times, in front of my paragraph. Is this the effect you were trying to get? One gotcha is that if you preview the post, they change to real spaces, so you have to change them back to the &#160 strings before clicking Submit Reply.

[craigr577]

What about just putting some White...
****Thanks for the great idea -- use camouflage (blend it with the background) to make it disappear. This does what I want, and I appreciate your help.

[rdowns]

Here's a link to common vB code you can use.

http://forums.macrumors.com/misc.php?do=bbcode

[craigr577]

Here's a link to common vB code you can use.
http://forums.macrumors.com/misc.php?do=bbcode
Thanks. This is a useful page, with the code + examples.
I did this by putting the characters *, repeated a few times, in front of my paragraph.
&&&&Thanks. I'll try the nonbreaking space using what I knew (the nbsp-symbol) and now know (the 160-symbol) to see if both work, or neither, without using "preview post". But probably I'll usually just use the "white camouflage" method.
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;This is with "&nbsp;" without preview,
****and this is with "*" without preview.

WHITEcomment [in edit] about the results: Well, obviously I'm missing a step in the process, because the "code symbols" disappear in yours (and I can't even see the letters when they're highlighted) but appear as-is or as-* in mine. Anyway, the white-out works, and is simple. And the page of vb code will be useful, or at least fun to play with.
____Actually, on my monitor I can see the indent-letters a little bit (because evidently the "white" and the background aren't a perfect match in color?) even without highlighting, so using something small (like _ or .) is useful to minimize visibility.