This page updated 12 Dec 2011
Version note: Applies to TMG 7 & 8
Codes to allow the centering of text in narratives, and to indent text (also called block indenting), were introduced in TMG 7.01. The functions of these two codes were improved in TMG 8 to make them easier to use. The following section describes the current functioning of those codes. The differences in functioning in TMG 7 is described in the next section.
The Center and Left Indent (Block Indent) format options can be very useful in a variety of situations, but perhaps most commonly when including a quotation from an obituary, news article, or the like. They are also useful in formatting Introductions and Conclusion sections, as described in my Journal Introduction and Conclusion article.
Both formats can only be applied to whole paragraphs of output text, and automatically set off the text enclosed in the codes into a separate paragraph (see section below for differences in TMG 7). Like most formatting codes, they can be typed in or selected from the right-click menu in the Memo and Sentence fields. If the desired text is entered first, then selected, the right-click menu applies the codes at the beginning and end of the selected text. They use the following forms:
Centering – most often used for titles:
[CENTER:]This text will be centered.[:CENTER]Left Indent – also known as block indent, is often used for a larger quotation:
[LIND:]This text will be indented on the left side.[:LIND]
This leads to the following considerations:
The text will automatically be set off in a separate paragraph. In effect, TMG adds a carriage return both before and after the centered or indented text, but only if one is not already present.
If either centered or indented text is entered in the same Memo field with other text, or there are two or more blocks of centered or indented text, the blocks of text will immediately precede or follow one another in separate paragraphs. If a blank line is desired between them two carriage return must be entered between the blocks. They can be entered either with the carriage return code – [:CR:] – or created with the Enter key. A single return has no effect on the output, making it possible to set off regular and centered or indented text in the Memo field so it appears as it will be output.
The following example of a newspaper clipping we might want to quote shows how these codes might be used:
The following newspaper report of her wedding appeared 5 Nov 1905:
Schoolday Love Leads to Wedding
Miss Irma Sander, Handsome Heiress, Becomes Mrs. Howard Fenker
Cupid Undaunted Through College and Business Separated the Lovers
Romance That Began in Intermediate School Led to the Bridal Affair
Back of the quiet wedding Wednesday night of beautiful Irma Sander, daughter of Adolph Sander, millionaire pork packer, of 3430 Brookline avenue, Clifton, and Howard Fenker, 930 West Ninth street, has developed a romance dainty enough to have formed the plot of a piece of fiction. Miss Sander and her young husband, who are now on their honeymoon trip, met when they attended the First Intermediate. Howard and Irma were "sweethearts" those days and when they entered Hughes High school in the same class the romance grew apace. The boy and girl were ardent lovers all through High school, and the fact that Miss Irma was the daughter of wealthy and admiring parents and had a social career in prospect didn't make a difference with the lovers. Irma was elected the captain of the girl's basket ball team, and Howard was made the captain of the Hughes football team. Both the "captains" graduated in the class of 1902 of old Hughes. Mr. Fenker entered the business world, and Irma went off to Baltimore to school. But the love of yesteryear did not fade, and a steady correspondence was maintained, and the wedding Wednesday was the result. Mr. Fenker and his bride have fitted up a dainty flat in Avondale.
This text was generated with the following Sentence:
The contents of the Memo show how the center and left indent codes were applied:
Some observations on this application:
Since the centering and indent codes set off the enclosed text into paragraphs automatically, there is no need to add a [:CR:] code at the end of each centered line.
I used the Enter key to separate the lines for easier reading in the Memo field; this single return has no effect on the output.
I added a [:CR:] code after the last centered line (in addition to the return created with the Enter key) to create a blank line between the headings and the body text. Had I wanted it to follow immediately, with no blank like, I would have omitted one of those returns.
I did not put a [:CR:] code at the end, after the final [:LIND] code because the indented material is automatically set off as a separate paragraph.
As noted above, these codes worked somewhat differently in TMG 7. Those still using TMG 7 should note the following differences from what is described above. Those using TMG 8 only need to refer to the following if they used these codes in a Project in TMG 7 that is since updated to TMG 8, if they are experiencing unexpected results in output.
Centering – in TMG 7 the closing [:CENTER] code automatically includes a carriage return to set it off from the following paragraph. But the opening [CENTER:] code does not. Therefore if you use this code where there is text preceding it, you should add a carriage return before the centered text, as follows:
[:CR:][CENTER:]This text will be centered.[:CENTER]Left Indent – in TMG 7 the indent codes do not automatically set the text off into a separate paragraph, so generally a [:CR:] code is required both before and after the indented text. If the indented text is the last text output by the Tag and a citation is included, the [:CR:] code must be at the beginning of the following Tag to avoid the note reference number appearing at the beginning of the next paragraph in reports.
If you used these codes in TMG 7 and update that Project to TMG 8, the extra return codes should be ignored. If you did not include them, TMG 8 will add returns.
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