First line

Two commands control indenting of the first line: indenting and setupindenting.

The first command determines the amount of the indent for the first line.

\setupindenting[12pt]

<cmd name="setupindenting">
 <opt>12pt</opt>
</cmd>

The indenting command, determines when indenting will occurr. By default, ConTeXt will not indent blocks of text that it determines do not look good, such as a block of text after a vertical space. To override this feature and gain complete control over indenting, set indenting to “first”.

\indenting[first]

<cmd name="indenting">
 <opt>first</opt>
</cmd>

This indents all paragraphs by the amount of the setupindenting command. You probably don’t want headings and titles indented, so just before you write your header, use the noindenting command.

\indenting[first]
\setupindenting[12pt]
body text ...\par
% turn off indenting for a section head
\noindenting
section head\par
% body text will again be indented
more body text..\par

<cmd name="indenting">
 <opt>first</opt>
</cmd>
<cmd name="setupindenting">
 <opt>12pt</opt>
</cmd>
body text..
<!--turn off indenting for a section head-->
section head\par
<!--body text will again be indented-->
more body text ...\par

Tips

• You don’t need to use the indenting command to get indenting to work. If you do not, ConTeXt will use the default of not indenting paragraphs after vertical spaces.

Indenting blocks

To reduce the width of a text, as for a quote, use the envirnoment “narrower.” Set up the dimensions with the setupnarrower command.

\setupnarrower[left=24pt, right=30pt]
\startnarrower[left, right]
 body text..
\stopnarrower

<cmd name="setupnarrower">
 <opt>left=24pt, right=30pt</opt>
</cmd>
<env name="narrower">
 <opt>left, right</opt>
 quote text
</env>

Tips

• If you do not use the setupnarrower command, ConTeXt will set right and left to 12pt.

• If you only want to indent the left, leave off the right for the option in setupnarrower. Likewise, leave off the left if you only want to indent your text to the right.

Non-justified text

By default, ConTeXt justifies text. In fact, creating pretty text is one ConTeXt’s main feature. If you want your text non-justified, use the setupalign command with the option of right.

\setupalign[right]

<cmd name="setupalign">
 <opt>right</otp>
</cmd>

Tips

• To align text to the left, set the option to left.

• To center the text, set the option to middle.

• Justified text is easier to read because the spaces between the words are the same.

• Kudos for the developers of ConTeXt for making non-justified text so easy to use. In other forms of TeX, using non-justified text required complicated code.

Changing alignment on a block of text

The above code works for setting the alignment for the entire document. To change just a block of text, start a new alignment enviornment. Within this enivronment, the text will take on the justification assigned to it.

\startalignment[middle]
{\bfd ABSTRACT OF THESIS}\par 
\blank[.5in]
\stopalignment

Tips

• As the exmple shows, this structure is good for titles of sections. The examples below don’t allow the fexibilit that of the startalignment environment.

Changing alignment of small portions of text

Most likely, you will use one type of alignment for your document, such as justified or non-justified. However, you will often want to change the alignment for just a portion of text, such as the date at the top of a letter, or a title.

Basic customization

The setupfootnotes command allows you to many features for footnotes. This command takes one option, but within that option you can set many properties.

% set up a defintion for the amount of distance
% between the body text and footnotes
% and between the footnotes and footer
\def\DistanceBef{\blank[24pt]}
\def\DistanceAft{\blank[24pt]}

\setupfootnotes[
 % use Roman numerals instead of numbers
 conversion=romannumerals,
 % turn on rule (default)
 % use "off" instead of "on" to get rid of rule
 rule=on,
 % set body font size
 bodyfont=10pt,
 % set width
 width=5in,
 % distnace marker extends into the margin
 margindistance=12pt,
 % distance of footnote from body text
 before=\DistanceBef,
 % distance of footnotes from footer
 after=\DistanceAft,
 ]

At present I am a sojourner in civilized life
again. \footnote{Thoreau...}

Changing the footnote number

There are a number of ways to set the number for the footnote marker.

To reset the number for every page so each new page starts at 1 (or the symbol or character associated with 1), set the byway option in the setupfootnotes to bypage.

To reset the number for every section, so each new section starts at 1 (or the symbol or character associated with 1), set the byway option in the setupfootnotes to section, where section is the name of your section. This document uses uses only the part section. In order to have my footnotes start at 1 after each part command, I would type way=bypart.

To reset the number manually, set the byway option in the setupfootnotes to bytext. Before each footnote, issue the setnumber command. Put footnote as the option, and the desired number minus 1 as the parameter. If you want the number to be 3, use 2 as your parameter.

\setupfootnotes[way=bytext, conversion=characters]

% set the number manually
% the next footnote will be *3*
\setnumber[footnote]{2}

The twelve labors of Hercules\footnote{Hercules had to perform 12
near-impossible tasks to become a god} were trifling in comparison
with those which my neighbors have undertaken;

Tips

• Always use a number as the parameter of the setnumber command. If you want another footnote marker such as a Roman numeral, use the conversion option (see above), and ConTeXt will convert whatever number you choose to the appropriate symbol.

Space between footnotes

Crete custom space between footnotes by using the setupfootnotedefinition command. Like the setupfootnotes command, this command has an after and before property, only in the case of setupfootnotedefinition, these properties determine the space between individual footnotes rather than before and after the complete block of footnotes.

%set up the amount of space before each footnote
\def\DistanceBef{\blank[12pt]}
% set up the amount of space after each footnote
\def\DistanceAft{\blank[12pt]}

\setupfootnotedefinition[
 after=\DistanceAft,
 before=\DistanceBef,
]

At present I am a sojourner in civilized life
again. \footnote{Thoreau started writing {\sl Walden} in 1846. ..  }
...

I would fain say something, no so much concerning the Chinese and
Sandwich Islanders \footnote{Hawaiians} 

First line indent

To create a footnote with a first line indent, use the hspace command right before your footnote text. You will have to define the actual spacing in a separate command issued previously.

% define amount of space
\definehspace[footnoteSpace][12pt]

At present I am a sojourner in civilized life
 again. \footnote{\hspace[footnoteSpace]Thoreau started writing ...}

hanging indent

In order to create a footnote with a hanging indent, you will have to indent the first line by the negative amount of the indent using the hskip command. At the same time, indent the entire footnote by the positive amount of the indent. Last, push the text up by the negative amount of a line by using the vskip command in order to delete the extra space created by the indentin environment.

% define amount to indent
\setupnarrower[left=12pt]

At present I am a sojourner in civilized life
again. \footnote{
\startnarrower[left]
% create a negative vertical space equivlent to the line height
\vskip-14pt
% indent the first line by the negative amount
\hskip-12pt Thoreau started writing {\sl Walden} in 1846, a few
months after . . .
\stopnarrower}