Robert Klein <roklein@roklein.de> writes:

> On Mon, 08 Oct 2018 16:54:39 +0100
> Eric S Fraga <esflists@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> On Monday,  8 Oct 2018 at 10:56, Sharon Kimble wrote:
>> > My finished output in the pdf will have every line indented/tabbed
>> > to 4 spaces and have a carriage-return at the end of each
>> > paragraph, with no spacings in between paragraphs.
>> >
>> > I can get it how I want in org-mode, but when its exported to latex
>> > and converted into a pdf file, the whole section comes out in one
>> > block of text!  
>> 
>> Both LaTeX and org define new paragraphs by a blank line.   Spaces at
>> the start of a line only have meaning, in org, if the lines are part
>> of a list (and never mean anything in LaTeX).
>> 
>> I am not sure exactly what you want to achieve so it is difficult to
>> suggest anything.  Try separating your paragraphs with empty lines to
>> see how much closer this gets you to what you want.
>> 
>
> What Eric says.
>
> Then try to add to the org-file a line
>
> #+LaTeX_Header: \parskip=0pt
>
> so the spacing between paragraphs is 0.  Then add
>
> #+LaTeX_Header: \parindent=0pt
>
> so the first line of a paragraph isn't indented.
>
> If you want to get /all/ the text indented by “4 spaces”, put a line
>
> #+LaTeX: \setlength{\leftskip}{2em}
>
> at the top of your document.
>
>
> If you want only parts indented, put the line before the beginning of
> the part to be indented and put this line after it:
>
> #+LaTeX: \setlength{\leftskip}{0em}
>
> Does this help?

Brilliant, thanks very much Robert, you've saved the project as I didn't
fancy having to work with the document in LibreOffice. These are the
settings that I've finally gone with -

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
#+LaTeX_Header: \parskip=0pt
#+LaTeX_Header: \parindent=2em
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

and I've found that having that parindent of 2em gives a very close
approximation of each paragraph beginning with four spaces, except for
the first paragraph in a new chapter. Weird, but true! Just part of what
my finished document has to look like, open any fiction book and you see
what its supposed to look like. When it works right, its beautiful, but
when its wrong, its a right mare!

Thank you very much, and now I've learnt how to do it, it'll make the
whole thing much easier.

Sharon.
-- 
A taste of linux = http://www.sharons.org.uk
TGmeds = http://www.tgmeds.org.uk
DrugFacts = https://www.drugfacts.org.uk
Debian 9.4, fluxbox 1.3.7, emacs 25.3.4, org 9.1.14