[Tex/LaTex] Not indent the first paragraph of a LaTeX document

indentationsectioning

In the standard LaTeX article class (and probably others as well), paragraph indentation follows standard American publishing norms of not indenting the first paragraph after a \section{} or \subsection{}.

I've redefined \maketitle in a LaTeX document and put the actual title left-aligned as the last line, fairly close to the actual text (kind of like this)

Author
Date

Title

    Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, 
sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore
magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud 
exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo
consequat.

    Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit 
esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint 
occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia 
deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

Section title

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, 
sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore
magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud 
exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo
consequat.

    Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit 
esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint 
occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia 
deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

Since the title is left-aligned and so close to the text, I'd like the first paragraph of the document to not be indented, just like with the headings

...
Title

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, 
sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore
magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud 
exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo
consequat.

    Duis aute irure dolor...
...

I've attempted to use \@afterindentfalse, which is what the \section commands use, inside my renewed commands, but it doesn't work.

\makeatletter

\def\noindentation{\let\@afterindentfalse}

\newcommand{\mytitle}[1]{%
    \vskip 2em
    {\bf\sffamily\LARGE #1}
    \noindentation}

\renewcommand{\@maketitle}{
    \begin{flushleft}{

        % Author
        \@author \par 

        % Date
        \@date \par 

        % Title
        \mytitle{\@title}

    } \end{flushleft}
} 
\makeatother

By default the first paragraph in the article class is indented, so this question is applicable whether or not I renew \maketitle.

So, what's the best way to automatically not indent the first paragraph of the document?

Best Answer

Have you tried using the \noindent command in your definition of \maketitle?

Normally when you put \noindent at the beginning of a paragraph, it prevents that paragraph from being indented. It may or may not work for your purposes. (For all I know it might just use \@afterindentfalse internally)

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