Re: [help-texinfo] Default Indentation / Spacing

[Karl Berry]

    I wonder if there is a way to customize the texinfo.tex file so that
    it does it?

It's certainly possible, but like I said, this particular change is not
easy, so I wouldn't wait around for it.  Sorry.

    I'd like to do all kinds of customizations for my book 
    
Texinfo, unlike (La)TeX, was never intended to let people control every
aspect of the output.  So as you surmise, lots of customizations are not
possible.  Besides backgrounds, even something as seemingly simple as
changing the font isn't supported.

If you want precise control over the exact look and layout of your book,
you're better off with LaTeX.  There is also a texi2latex program
(http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/texi2latex) so in theory you could
write in Texinfo but get output from LaTeX (and customize in between),
but I've never actually used it and don't know how it would work out for
you in practice.

    so that it has nice images for page headers, footers, etc.. 

I'm not sure what you mean by "images", but here is the info about
making custom headers and footers:
http://www.gnu.org/software/texinfo/manual/texinfo/html_node/Headings.html

    How can I set the default spacing between paragraphs, 

To set it to, say, 6pt plus3pt minus3pt:

@tex
\globaldefs = 1
\parskip = 6pt plus3pt minus3pt
@end tex

    as well as turn off automatic indentation of the paragraph's first
    sentence?

http://www.gnu.org/software/texinfo/manual/texinfo/html_node/paragraphindent.html

Best,
Karl