Refer to the IBM Redbook "Domino Designer 6: A Developer's Handbook," page 724 for an example of what it sounds like you're trying to do.
Without seeing code, I don't know for sure why your margins would be messed up, but I suspect you're setting only the LeftMargin property of the paragraph style -- you must also set the FirstLineLeftMargin to zero.
This was first published in May 2003