big problem w/posting format in visual editor

All the posts I made before had no problems.

Now, when trying to post or edit an existing on – some lines of text I want to indent with 3 hits of the spacebar. If I copy the whole text from an external doc, the indents don’t come thru. If I indent within WordPress, it appears ok in the visual editor, but doesn’t indent on the preview page or published post.

I’d just like it simple & straightforward, working like it was before – paste from an external document & have it come up exactly the same, without all text starting at the beginning of a line, or able to space bar it & be published like it shows up in the Visual Editor.

any way to fix?

thanks!!!