Is there any way to create spaces at the beginning of the first line of a paragraph?

you mean to indent it? You can either add the   * 8 at the beginning, or if you are using <p> tags, use some css.

I guess I don't understand. If I put *8 at the beginning of a paragraph, the paragraph shows up with *8 followed by the opening words.

lol, I'm sorry, I typed &nbsp; but it got converted.
I meant type &nbsp; as many times as to get the desired indentation

That did it. Many thanks.