[Tex/LaTex] Auto-indent the second line of a paragraph

indentationline-spacingparagraphsspacing

When working with numbered lists with long content, I get outputs like this:
enter image description here

However, I would like to produce an output like
enter image description here

where "z" and "planes" are aligned with the word "Giving". Using repeated \\, \hskip commands is hassle and time-consuming. Is there a way to auto-indent the "cut paragraph". Thanks.

Code:

\documentclass[12pt,letterpaper]{article}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage{amsfonts}
\usepackage{amssymb}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage[left=2cm,right=2cm,top=2cm,bottom=2cm]{geometry}
\begin{document}
\noindent (2) Giving the volume of the solid bounded by the surface \\ \hspace{13mm} $z = 10 - 4x - 2y$ below the xy-plane, and on the sides by the \\ \hspace{13mm} planes $y = 0$, $y=3x$ and $x=1$.\\ \vspace{1mm}
\end{document}

Best Answer

Ah, you are using LaTeX as though it were Word. LaTeX is not word. In Word you type out what you want to see on the page and perhaps decorate it as you go along by clicking buttons or using keyboard short cuts (Ctrl+i, Ctrl+b, etc.).

In LaTeX we use logical structures. You must unlearn the heathen ways of Gates and his Microsoft Office. Don't write your document like you would a Word document and then try to LaTeX-ify it, or find the LaTeX equivalent of x, y, z.

What you have here is an enumerated list. So we need the enumerate environment. This automatically takes care of the numbering for us, and all the indentation and formatting.

\documentclass[12pt]{article}
\pagestyle{plain}
\usepackage[margin=1.8cm]{geometry}
\geometry{a4paper}
\usepackage[parfill]{parskip}
\usepackage{amsmath}

\begin{document}

\begin{enumerate}
  \item Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing
  elit. Aenean commodo ligula eget dolor. Aenean massa. Cum sociis
  natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur
  ridiculus mus. Donec quam felis, ultricies nec, pellentesque eu,
  pretium quis, sem. Nulla consequat massa quis enim.
  \item Donec pede justo, fringilla vel, aliquet nec, vulputate eget,
  arcu. In enim justo, rhoncus ut, imperdiet a, venenatis vitae,
  justo. Nullam dictum felis eu pede mollis pretium. Integer
  tincidunt. Cras dapibus. Vivamus elementum semper nisi. Aenean
  vulputate eleifend tellus. Aenean leo ligula, porttitor eu,
  consequat vitae, eleifend ac, enim.
  \item Aliquam lorem ante, dapibus in, viverra quis, feugiat a,
  tellus. Phasellus viverra nulla ut metus varius laoreet. Quisque
  rutrum. Aenean imperdiet. Etiam ultricies nisi vel augue. Curabitur
  ullamcorper ultricies nisi. Nam eget dui.
\end{enumerate}

\end{document}

enter image description here

Them's the basics.

Now, to get your list to start at 2, you're gonna wanna do:

\setcounter{enumi}{1}

This sets the counter to 1. Then when LaTeX encounters the \item it increments the counter and prints the value. So you start at 1. Then you get \item and that moves the counter to 2, which is printed. Another \item moves you up to 3 and so on and so forth. To reproduce your specific style, use the enumitem package:

\documentclass[12pt]{article}
\pagestyle{plain}
\usepackage[margin=1.8cm]{geometry}
\geometry{a4paper}
\usepackage[parfill]{parskip}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage{enumitem}

\begin{document}

\begin{enumerate}[label=(\arabic*)]
  \setcounter{enumi}{1}
  \item Giving the volume of the solid bounded by the surface $z = 10
  - 4x - 2y$ below the $xy$-plane, and on the sides by the planes $y =
  0$, $y = 3x$ and $x = 1$.
\end{enumerate}

\end{document}

enter image description here

Beware the forced line breaks \\, these do not end paragraphs and will destroy justification. Beware the explicit indentation and white space. Both of these have specific niche uses and they are also quite able to be used for final tweaks to the exact output, to get exactly the right visual effect. This is especially true as a last resort. They should very rarely be commonplace in your text.

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