162 Comments

  1. Well, I used to use the enumerate package too – but only until I found out about another one, called enumitem. It’s way more flexible and (in some cases) easier to use. (For example, it’s a bit tricky to obtain enumerations with _bold_ letters: (a), (b) etc with the enumerate package – try it! With enumitem, it’s much easier.)

    Also, I hardly ever use itemize and description – and enumerate all the time.

  2. nguyenminhhaivn

    Thanks a lot, your blog is very helpful. Btw, do you know how to insert pieces of source code into documents? I have tried some packages already, but they are a little ugly. Perhaps I have not figured out how to configure them yet :(.

  3. Hi Joe,

    It is possible to crate fancyframes using \mbox or the fancybox package. Nevertheless, I think you will have problems creating a frame similar to the html above, as figure is a floating environment, which can’t be put into a box.

    Tom.

  4. DIYANA

    how to tab the item in the itemize.

    i want to move the item a bit right.

    1 cm to the right, then start the itemize.

    • One thing you can do is to use \hspace{1cm} between your \item and its content. However this will separate the dot (or whatever you are using) from the text which is probably not what you are looking for.
      If so, try this:

      \parbox[1cm]{\textwidth}{
      \begin{itemize}
      ...
      \end{itemize}
      }

      Cheers, Tom.

      • Wouter

        Hello Tom,

        Your solution does only works partially. When your description has a text length longer then \textwidth, the text wont be cut of at \textwidth but at \textwidth + 1cm

        Do you maybe have a solution which prevents that? I tried to use…

        \parbox[1cm]{\textwidth - 1cm}{ ... }

        but that doesn’t work since it can’t do the math 😛

      • You are right of course. Thanks for pointing this out. Try the following instead:

        \begin{list}{\labelitemi}{\leftmargin=1cm}
        \item ...
        \end{list}

        Sorry for that, Tom.

    • Hi!

      Probably the easiest way is to use the optional argument of \item[], which lets you customize your list and would look something like this:

      \begin{enumerate}
      \item[A1.] First item
      \item[A2.] Second item
      \item[A3.] Third item
      \end{enumerate}

      However, if you have many items and don’t want to adapt the number for each item, you can also redefine the counter of the list. This is done through the following line of code:

      \renewcommand{\theenumi}{A\arabic{enumi}}
  5. Brit

    Hi
    Hope you can help. When I use enumerate and change the counter the indent disapeares. When I don’t add a counter there is an indent.

    This:

    \begin{enumerate}[a.]
    	\item text 1
    	\item text 2
    	\item text 3
    \end{enumerate}

    Looks like this:
    Some text
    a. text 1
    b. text 2
    c. text 3
    Some more text.

    But I would like:

    Some text
    (space here)a. text 1
    b. text 2
    c. text 3
    Some more text.

    How do I get that?

    Brit

    • Hi Brit!

      This is how you indent items in your enumerate:

      \begin{enumerate}[a.]
      {\setlength\itemindent{1cm}
      \item text 1
      }
      \item text 2
      \item text 3
      \end{enumerate}

      Cheers, Tom.

  6. sharad

    Is there any way to get enumeration as follows:

    [1] Text should be followed like this as
    next line should start just below the first word of first line (for example, below the Text)

    • Is this what you are looking for:

      \begin{enumerate}
      \item This is my first item.\\
      On several lines.
      \item This is my second item.
      \end{enumerate}

      If not, please post a text example.

      Cheers, Tom.

  7. sharad

    Dear Tom,
    Thanks for reply,
    But I am looking for to get enumerate like this (as described below) ”

    [1] This is my first item.
    On several lines.
    [2] This is my second item.
    On several lines.
    [3] This is my third item.
    On several line

    • Hi!

      Add this line to your preamble. This will change the style of your enumeration accordingly.

      \renewcommand{\labelenumi}{[\arabic{enumi}]}

      Cheers, Tom.

  8. sharad

    Hi,

    I tried your suggestion but it looks like:

    1. This is my first item.
    On several lines.
    2. This is my second item.

    But I want like:

    [1] This is my first item.
    On several lines.
    [2] This is my second item.

  9. Snap

    Hi,
    I wonder if it is possible to do something like this:
    —————————————-
    1. First Section Big Heading
    Some normal text followed by a list numbered by section then item number:
    1.1 First list item
    1.2 Second list item (which will be referenced)

    2. Second Section Big Heading
    Some more normal text.
    2.1 Another other item
    2.2 A reference to a previous list item in this list (see item 2.1)
    2.3 A reference to a previous list item in a different list (see item 1.2)
    —————————————-
    I want to be able to label and refer to items in the list, much like they way that equations are numbered. Thanks in advance!

    • You can use \label{itm:item1} and \ref{itm:item1} just like for figures, equations, etc.

      Besides, to get the numbering as proposed in your example (section.item), use:

      \renewcommand{\theenumi}{\thesection.\arabic{enumi}}

      Cheers, Tom.

  10. Sameer

    I am using MikTex…and I want 4th level of numbers like shown below..How to get that…I am just 5 day old MikTex user..!

    1. Topic
    1.1 Subtopic
    1.1.1 Sub-Sub Topic
    1.1.1.1 Sub-Sub-Sub Topic

    -Sameer

    • Hi Sameer,

      The following code explains how to produce up to six levels in depth including numbering as well as adding the headings to the table of contents.

      \documentclass[a4paper]{report}
      \setcounter{secnumdepth}{5} % Section depth to be numbered
      \setcounter{tocdepth}{5} % Table of contents depth
      \begin{document}
      \tableofcontents
      \chapter{test}
      \section{test}
      \subsection{test}
      \subsubsection{test}
      \paragraph{test}
      \subparagraph{test}
      \end{document}

      Cheers, Tom.

  11. Adam

    I’m running into a bit of difficulty with all this. When I try to reference an embedded enumeration, rather than getting just “I” I get “Ia”. Here’s my big long preamble, but I think the only relevant package for this problem is the enumerate package.

    \documentclass[12pt, letterpaper]{article}
    	\usepackage{amsmath}
    	\usepackage{amsthm}
    	\usepackage{amssymb}
    	\usepackage[pdftex]{graphicx}
    	\DeclareGraphicsExtensions{.pdf,.png,.jpg,.gif}
    	\usepackage{natbib}
    		\bibpunct{(}{)}{;}{a}{}{,}
    	\usepackage[top=1in, bottom=1in, left=1in, right=1in]{geometry}
    	\usepackage{enumerate}
    	\usepackage[usenames,dvipsnames]{color}
    	\usepackage{setspace}
    	\usepackage{stmaryrd}
    	\usepackage{textcomp}
    	\usepackage{multirow}
    	\usepackage{ifsym}
    	\usepackage[table]{xcolor}
    	\usepackage{soul}
    	\usepackage{cancel}
    	\usepackage{ulem}
    	\usepackage{units}
    	\usepackage{pifont}
      \newcommand{\verteq}[0]{\rotatebox{90}{$=$}} \definecolor{newyellow}{RGB}{255,150,0} \definecolor{newgray}{RGB}{250,250,250}
    \begin{document}
    \long\def\symbolfootnote[#1]#2{\begingroup%
    \def\thefootnote{\fnsymbol{footnote}}\footnote[#1]{#2}\endgroup}

    Then when I go to enter something like

    \begin{enumerate}
    \renewcommand{\theenumi}{\arabic{enumi}}
    \renewcommand{\labelenumi}{\theenumi}
    		\begin{minipage}{14cm}
    \item\label{Numbers and Basic Operations} ...

    and then something like

    \begin{enumerate}
    \renewcommand{\theenumi}{\Roman{enumi}}
    \renewcommand{\labelenumi}{\theenumi}
    			\begin{minipage}{13.11cm}
    \item\label{NatNum}...

    and then I later try to reference this, the reference to “Numbers and Basic Operations” comes out perfect but the reference to “NatNum” comes out “Ia” when I want it to come out just “I”.

    Any ideas?

    • Hi Adam,

      I can’t really reproduce your issue, it works for me. Here is the code, maybe it helps:

      \documentclass[12pt, letterpaper]{article}
      \begin{document}
      \begin{enumerate}
      \renewcommand{\theenumi}{\arabic{enumi}}
      \item\label{itm:numop} Numbers and Basic Operations
      \end{enumerate}
      and then something like
      \begin{enumerate}
      \renewcommand{\theenumi}{\Roman{enumi}}
      \item\label{itm:natnum} Test
      \end{enumerate}
      This is a reference to \ref{itm:numop} and \ref{itm:natnum}.
      \end{document}

      Have you tried deleting all meta-files that are generated when typesetting?
      Another thing that I would recommend is using relative values for the minipage width:

      \begin{minipage}{0.5\textwidth}

      Best, Tom.

  12. Adam

    Hello Tom,

    Im using the enumerate command and noticed that the list has 1.5 line spacing between lines. How can I chance the justification to 1 line spacing?

    Thanks,
    Adam

  13. Amber

    I would really like to do something like the following, but when I try to embed a 5th level, I get errors. Is there any way to change settings to allow this:

    \begin{enumerate}[label=(\Roman{*})]
    \item Example I
    \item Example II
    	\begin{enumerate}[label=(\Alph{*})]
    	\item Example II, A
    	\item Example II, B
    	\item Example II, C
    		\begin{enumerate}[label=(\arabic{*})]
    		\item Example II, C, 1
    		\item Example II, C, 2
    			\begin{enumerate}[label=(\alph{*})]
    			\item Example II, C, 2, a
    			\item Example II, C, 2, b
    				\begin{enumerate}[label=(\roman{*})]
    				\item Example II, C, 2, b, i
    				\item Example II, C, 2, b, ii
    				\end{enumerate}
    			\end{enumerate}
    		\item Example II, C, 3
    		\end{enumerate}
    	\end{enumerate}
    \item Example III
    \end{enumerate}

    Thanks for your helpful post

    • Hi Amber,

      You can either use an itemize-environment within if you are comfortable with having bullets instead of numerated items for one level. If not, the enumitem package provides commands that let you define a list with a custom depth. Make sure you have the latest version (version 3.0 or higher), as some stuff was only added recently.

      \usepackage{enumitem}
      \newlist{longenum}{enumerate}{5}
      \setlist[longenum,1]{label=\Roman*}
      \setlist[longenum,2]{label=\Alph*}
      \setlist[longenum,3]{label=\arabic*}
      \setlist[longenum,4]{label=\alph*}
      \setlist[longenum,5]{label=\roman*}

      Use this code in your preamble, remove the label definitions from your code and replace all enumerate-environments with longenum.
      Hope it helps, Tom.

  14. Nicolai

    Hey Tom.
    I was wondering if you had an idea, how to use enumerate if I want to get the item to look like this:
    [1]
    [2]
    [3]
    etc.

    Thanks ahead.

    • Hi Nicolai,

      You can either do it the classic way:

      \renewcommand\theenumi{\arabic{enumi}}
      \renewcommand\labelenumi{[\theenumi]}

      Or using the enumitem-package:

      \usepackage{enumitem}
      ...
      \begin{enumerate}[label={[\arabic*]}]

      Best, Tom.

  15. Mariam

    Hi how can ı write this rows with latex?
    ı mean how to enumerate
    thank you.

    There are two option :
    a) a maximum b) a minimum

    • Try this:

      \documentclass[11pt]{article}
      \usepackage{enumerate}
      \begin{document}
      \begin{enumerate}[a)]
      \item a maximum
      \item a minimum
      \end{enumerate}
      \end{document}

      Best, Tom.

    • Hi Alison,

      Set the counter to 2, so your first item will have index 3:

      \begin{enumerate}
      \setcounter{enumi}{2}
      ...
      \end{enumerate}

      Cheers, Tom.

  16. Jesse

    I am trying to get a continuous list of examples throughout the document – i.e., all the examples are in sequence but with lots of text in between:


    (1) ___
    (2) ___
    ….

    ..
    .
    (3) ___
    (4) ___
    (5) ___

    Is this possible to do automatically? It seems so basic, but I can’t figure it out. Thanks.

    • Andreas

      I think you might be looking for the suspend/resume commands provided by the mdwlist package:

      \begin{enumerate}
      \item First item.
      \item Second item.
      \suspend{enumerate}
      Text in the middle of the list.
      \resume{enumerate}
      \item Third item.
      \end{enumerate}
    • I was a little surprised by your question, but there is indeed a package called etaremune (enumerate backwards). It’s usage is straight forward:

      \documentclass[11pt]{article}
      \usepackage{etaremune}
      \begin{document}
      \begin{etaremune}[start=5]
      \item Fifth item
      \item Fourth item
      \item Third item
      \end{etaremune}
      \end{document}

      You’ll have to typeset the document twice for the numbers to be correct. Also, there is another package that offers similar functionality, called revnum, but my distribution at least doesn’t come with it by default. So you would probably have to manually install it.

      You can find the package documentation here.

      Best, Tom.

      • molom

        Hi Tom,
        and thanks for all the updates.
        I recently learnt about etaremune environment. But want I am not succeeding with it is to have square brackets ([]) in the items:

        [3] item 3
        [2] item 2
        [1] item 1

        Thanks again!

      • Hi there!

        The following code should do the trick. Cheers, Tom.

        \documentclass[11pt]{article}
        \usepackage{etaremune}
        \begin{document}
        \renewcommand{\labelenumi}{[\theenumi]}
        \begin{etaremune}
        \item Item 3
        \item Item 2
        \item Item 1
        \end{etaremune}
        \end{document}
  17. Quick question: Is it possible to change the colour of the bullets in the itemize environment?

    I am using coloured headings, and it would look much better if I can add colour to bullet points and footnote lines, but for the time being, I’d be happy with bullets (or numbers).

    Thanks!

    • Hi there,

      Try this:

      \documentclass[11pt]{article}
      \usepackage{color}
      \begin{document}
      \renewcommand{\labelitemi}{${\color{red}\bullet}$}
      \begin{itemize}
      	\item first
      	\item second
      \end{itemize}
      \end{document}

      Cheers, Tom.

  18. asd

    >Each of them provide four levels, which means you can have nested lists of up to four levels.
    And how do you create such levels?

    • Hey Kala,

      Try the code below. I hope it’s roughly what you were looking for.

      \newcounter{eqncounter}
      \newcommand{\eqnlabel}{
      \addtocounter{eqncounter}{1}
      \roman{eqncounter})\;}
      \begin{equation}
      \eqnlabel x+y=z
      \end{equation}
      \begin{equation}
      \eqnlabel k-l=2
      \end{equation}
      

      Best, Tom.

      • kala

        Thank you very much, Tom. And do you know how put equations in the left side not in the center?

      • The amsmath package can left-align equations through the package option fleqn:

        \usepackage[fleqn]{amsmath}

        Best, Tom.

  19. Emilio.

    Hi Tom, I have used

    \renewcommand{\labelenumi}{(\roman{enumi})}
    \begin{enumerate}
    	\item First line
    	\item Second line
    \end{enumerate}

    but my problem is the format. I expect
    (i) First line
    (ii) Second line

    but instead I have

    (I) First line
    (II) Second line

    that is, capital romans, but they are smaller than the original ones.
    I am using Kile, in Ubuntu 11.04. Okular as my default pdf viewer.

    Do you know what is the possible problem?
    Greetings,
    Emilio

    • Hi Emilio,

      Thanks for the comment with the code example. From your description it seems as if you are using small capitals, e.g.:

      \renewcommand{\labelenumi}{(\sc\roman{enumi})}

      Would you mind providing a complete minimal example? It may be due to a package you are loading or some other code you use.

      Best, Tom.

      • asvhen

        That’s solution:

        \usepackage[spanish,es-lcroman]{babel}

        es-lcroman
        \roman (o “i”) pasa a minúsculas (recuérdese que en español esto es una falta de ortografía).

  20. Mark

    Hi,

    I would like to use my own item labels \item[…], but I want the labels to flush left, rather than flush right, ie

    Main text:
    short label: blahblah….
    loooooooooong label: blahblah….

    rather than what seems to be the default,

    Main text:
    short label: blahblah….
    loooooooooong label: blahblah….

    Ooops, the webpage doesn’t like my formatting. In the second example, the colons align, and loooooooong label sticks into the margin

    Thanks, Mark

    • Hi Mark,

      Have a look at the examples below using the tabular and description environments. I’m sure, from there you’ll be able to adapt the examples to your needs. You may also find the enumitem documentation useful.
      Best, Tom.

      \documentclass[11pt]{article}
      \usepackage{enumitem}
      \usepackage{array}
      \begin{document}
      \subsubsection*{Tabular:}
      \begin{tabular}{>{\bf}ll}
      short label: &blahblah\\
      loooooooooong label: &blahblah\\
      \end{tabular}
      \vspace{1cm}
      \subsubsection*{Description flushleft:}
      \begin{description}[leftmargin=5cm, style=sameline, align=left]
      \item[short label: ]blahblah\\
      \item[loooooooooong label: ]blahblah\\
      \end{description}
      \end{document}
  21. kokorins

    Hi, you might now how to add something like this:

    \begin{itemize}
    \item[step 1] Text
    \item[step 2] Text
    \end{itemize}

    But [step 1] [step 2] should be aligned to left, not to the center as it’s by default

    • Hello!

      There was a very similar question in the previous comment. Here is a minimal example:

      \documentclass[11pt]{article}
      \usepackage{showframe}
      \usepackage{enumitem}
      \begin{document}
      \begin{description}[style=multiline,leftmargin=3cm,font=\normalfont]
      \item[step 1] Text
      \item[step 2 blabla] Text is a very long text is a very long text is a very long text is a very long text
      \end{description}
      \end{document}

      If you don’t need your text to start from the same position, use the following line of code instead:

      \begin{description}[align=left, font=\normalfont]

      Best, Tom.

  22. I wanted to use the following:

    \begin{description}
      \item[First] The first item
      \item[Second] The second item
      \item[Third] The third etc \ldots
    \end{description}

    My document starts like as follows:

    \documentclass{ws-jktr}
    \usepackage{subfig}
    \usepackage{textcomp}
    \usepackage{wrapfig}
    \newtheorem{thm}{Theorem}[section]
    \newtheorem{conj}[thm]{Conjecture}
    \newtheorem{defn}[thm]{Definition}
    \newtheorem{exmp}[thm]{Example}
    \newtheorem{prop}[thm]{Proposition}
    \begin{document}

    I am using TeXworks Version 0.2.3 (r.466) on Ubuntu.

    I am getting the following error.

    ! LaTeX Error: Environment description undefined.

    Please help.

    • Hi Shehab,

      Try using itemize, it seems the description environment is not available in this particular documentclass.

      \begin{itemize}
      	\item[\bf First] The first item
      	\item[\bf Second] The second item
      	\item[\bf Third] The third etc \ldots
      \end{itemize}
      

      Cheers, Tom.

  23. Humberto

    Hi Tom,

    How I can enumerate chapters and sections (Ex. Chapter I, I.1) in Roman numbers, and figures, tables and equations in arabic numbers (Ex. Figure 2.1, Table 4.1, (5.1))?

    Thanks
    Humberto

    • Hi Humberto,

      Here is a minimal example. It works similarly for tables and equations.

      \documentclass[11pt]{report}
      \usepackage{blindtext}
      \renewcommand*{\thechapter}{\Roman{chapter}}
      \renewcommand*{\thesection}{\thechapter.\Roman{section}}
      \renewcommand*{\thefigure}{\arabic{chapter}.\arabic{figure}}
      \begin{document}
      \tableofcontents
      \listoffigures
      \blinddocument
      \begin{figure}[ht]
      \centering
      \rule{4cm}{3cm}
      \caption{Figure placeholder.}
      \end{figure}
      \end{document}

      Best, Tom

  24. Kshatresh

    Hi Tom,
    How can I list my content such that second line of item starts with some space i.e after one two word of Ist line of item.

    Thanks in advance
    Kshatresh

    • Hi!

      Use itemindent of the enumitem package to create hanging indent in lists.

      \documentclass[11pt]{article}
      \usepackage{lipsum, enumitem}
      \begin{document}
      \begin{itemize}[itemindent=-2em]
      \item \lipsum[66]
      \item \lipsum[66]
      \end{itemize}
      \end{document}

      Best, Tom.

  25. Colin

    I am having a problem where my enumerated list is running over my page width. I get the error: Overfull \hbox. Any ideas how to fix that?

    Thanks,
    Colin

    • Hi Colin,

      Unless you are using long words that are hard to hyphenate (e.g. hyperlinks), LaTeX will automatically line-breaks when the text reaches the margin. See my minimal working example below. Can you provide some code to illustrate the problem?

      Thanks, Tom.

      \documentclass[11pt]{article}
      \usepackage{blindtext}
      \begin{document}
      \begin{enumerate}
      \item \blindtext
      \item \blindtext
      \end{enumerate}
      \end{document}
      • Colin

        I think you were right and it just had to do with long words at the end of the sentence. I just added manual line breaks for the 2 words that caused the problems. Thanks for the reply.

  26. Radoslav

    Hi guys, I have one question.. How can I insert in Latex an enumerator like this (*) to indicate my equation? And is there any way to insert a matrix (for example) and write a title “My matrix” below it.

    Best,
    Rado

    • Referencing equations can be done as shown in the code below. Concerning matrices in LaTeX, please see my answer to your other question.

      Cheers, Tom.

      \documentclass[11pt]{article}
      \begin{document}
      \begin{equation}
      	\label{eqn:pythagoras}
      	a^2+b^2=c^2
      \end{equation}
      Reference to \ref{eqn:pythagoras}.
      \end{document}
      
    • Radoslav

      And the other thing that I forgot to ask .. how to insert a text into the matrix..I want to get something like this:
      (text textfafaf)
      (text text )
      That is a matrix with 2 rows.

      • Hi Rado,

        You can use \textnormal{} in any math environment form normal text.

        Best, Tom.

        \documentclass[11pt]{article}
        \usepackage{amsmath}
        \begin{document}
        \[
         \begin{pmatrix}
          \textnormal{text} & \textnormal{text with space} \\
          \textnormal{text} & \textnormal{text} \\
          \end{pmatrix}
        \]
        \end{document}
  27. Saiman

    How can I get the look of \begin{description} … as shown in the article… but also as numbered list, i.e. something like below:

    1. Biology: Study of life.
    2. Physics: Science of matter and its motion.
    3. Psychology: Scientific study of mental processes and behaviour.

    Thanks in advance.

    • Hi Saiman,

      Thanks for your question. Here is an example I got from this google group:

      \documentclass{article}
      \newcounter{description}
      \renewcommand{\descriptionlabel}[1]{%
      \refstepcounter{description}%
      \hspace\labelsep
      \normalfont\bfseries \thedescription. #1:}
      \begin{document}
      \begin{description}
      \item[Animals] Emus.
      \item[Cars] Ferraris.
      \end{description}
      \end{document}

      Cheers, Tom.

  28. nash

    how do i write this in latex
    1) AAAAAAAAAA
    1.1 AAAA
    1.2 AAAAAAA
    1.3 AAAAAAA

    2) AAAAAA
    2.1AAAAAAA
    2.2Uaaaaaaaa
    2.3aaaaaaa

    3 bbbbbbbbbbbb
    some test here

    • Hi Nash,

      Here is one way to do it by redefining the counters:

      \renewcommand{\labelenumi}{\arabic{enumi})}
      \renewcommand{\labelenumii}{\arabic{enumi}.\arabic{enumii}}

      Hope that helps!

      Best, Tom.

  29. Quoted text “The space between different items can be controlled with the \itemsep command (can only be added just after “begin”):

    \begin{itemize}\itemsep2pt
    \item
    \end{itemize}

    Is there a similar option in enumerate, to control the space between adjacent items. Thanks.

      • Thanks. This worked. I would like to know, if we can change the space between the nested lists, as there is too much space left between the first level items and second level items. Thanks again.

      • Hi!

        The example below illustrates how to change the vertical space between nested list items. Cheers, Tom.

        \documentclass{article}
        \usepackage{enumitem}
        \begin{document}
        \begin{itemize}
          \item Top list
          \begin{enumerate}[label=\alph*),itemsep=-1ex,topsep=-2ex]
            \item First item
            \item Second item
            \item Third item
          \end{enumerate}
        \end{itemize}
        \end{document}
  30. I would like to develop a skip pattern for my questionnaire. If I have to write three questions
    1.
    2.
    .
    .
    .
    13. Employment (a)1st option (b)2nd option (c)3rd option
    14. If Q13 answered (a) or (b), your most recent occupation, ______________

    For this I used enumerate to create the items 1 – 14 and so on…
    But if I add or remove any items above the 13th, the ”if Q13 answered..” part of the 14th question needs editing. How can I automate this? Thanks.

    • Hey!

      You can use \label and \ref.

      \documentclass[11pt]{article}
      \begin{document}
      \begin{enumerate}
      \item\label{itm:test} Employment (a)1st option (b)2nd option (c)3rd option
      \item If Q\ref{itm:test} answered (a) or (b), your most recent occupation,
      \end{enumerate}
      \end{document}

      Best, Tom.

      • This syntax is not giving the reference as the proper Q number.

        Results display
        If Q?? answered (a) or (b), your most recent occupation

        Instead of
        If Q1 answered (a) or (b), your most recent occupation.
        I think there is some error in the syntax.
        Thanks.

      • Like for any reference in LaTeX (figures, tables, etc.) you’ll have to typeset the document twice. The first time, LaTeX collects the \ref commands and after that it updates the numbers…

    • Hi Okkes

      The code below is a minimal working example showing how I would do it. Is that more or less what you had in mind? Best, Tom.

      \documentclass[11pt]{article}
      \usepackage{enumerate}
      \begin{document}
      \paragraph{Question}
      \begin{enumerate}[1)]
      \item The question
      \begin{enumerate}[a)]
      \item The first sub-question
      \item The second sub-question
      \end{enumerate}
      \end{enumerate}
      \paragraph{Solution}
      \begin{enumerate}[1)]
      \item The solution
      \begin{enumerate}[a)]
      \item Solution to first sub-question
      \item Solution to second sub-question
      \end{enumerate}
      \end{enumerate}
      \end{document}
  31. Nikita

    Hi,
    how can I put the items in the same paragraph, and following the main text? I mean just like in this example itself: a) item-a, b) item-b, c) item-c.

    • Nikita

      Hi again,
      I was using paralist package and inparaenum environment, but in order to achieve more compatibility with translators (i.e. pandoc), the question is if it is possible to make it with enumerate package. Thanks a lot in advance.

      • Hi Nikita,

        Use the starred list provided by the enumitem package. Here is a minimal example:

        \documentclass[11pt]{article}
        \usepackage[inline]{enumitem}
        \begin{document}
        Some random text \begin{enumerate*}[label=\alph*)]\item item-a \item item-b \item item-c \end{enumerate*} some random text.
        \end{document}

        Please see the package documentation for more details.

        Best, Tom.

  32. sonia

    Hi.
    can we have this itemize in latex (portable):
    – test test test test
    – ttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt….
    ttttttttttttttttttttt.
    – BBBB.
    – CCC.
    I want to margin bullet. if the item is long, starts after bullet (has a space) like up example

    • Hi Sonia,

      If I understand your question correctly, you would like to indent multi-line items. I wrote the example below and it seems this is the standard behavior. Could you provide a minimal working example similar to the one below to illustrate your problem.

      Thanks, Tom.

      \documentclass[11pt]{article}
      \usepackage{blindtext}
      \begin{document}
      \begin{itemize}
      \item test
      \item \blindtext
      \item test
      \end{itemize}
      \end{document}
  33. Bel

    Hi,

    usually in my articles for the \documentclass[journal]{IEEEtran}, I use the “description” environment without any error,i.e. \begin{description} … \end{description}.
    However, when I used the \documentclass{bioinf} for the Oxford Bioinformatics journal I got an error stating that the description environment is undefined.

    Thanks in advance.

    • Hi Bel,

      Interestingly, the description environment is defined by the document class and the journal either had a reason not to define it or simply forgot.

      However, if you look at the class file, they defined the environment unlist which you could use. Something like this should work:

      \documentclass{bioinfo}
      \newcommand{\ditem}[2]{%
      	\item {\bf #1}\hspace{\itemsep}#2
      }
      \begin{document}
      \begin{unlist}
      \ditem{First}{bla}
      \ditem{Second}{bla}
      \end{unlist}
      \end{document}
  34. Francisco Burgos

    Hi:

    I have a question.
    How you can change item separation but in the whole document?
    Not only in the present list, put \itemsep 1pt after \begin{itemize}.
    I know that is a little complicate but i dont know how many complicate.

    Thanks at advances

    • Hi Francisco,

      The enumitem package provides a way to change the default setting for certain parameters. The code below illustrates how to change itemsep. See page 5 of the documentation for more details.

      HTH, Tom.

      \documentclass[11pt]{article}
      \usepackage{blindtext, enumitem}
      \setlist{itemsep=1cm}
      \begin{document}
      \begin{itemize}
      \item First item
      \item Second item
      \end{itemize}
      \blindtext
      \begin{itemize}
      \item First item
      \item Second item
      \end{itemize}
      \end{document}
  35. Susannah

    I am using the mdwlist package with the report format. I have two list levels, the first list has arabic numerals, the second (nested) list is alphabetical. My second lists has increased to more than 26 items. Is there a way to convince LaTeX to number items 27-40 with aa, bb, cc, etc.?

    Unfortunately, I cannot change the shorter list to alphabetical and the longer one to numerical.

    • Hi Susannah,

      How about using the alphalph package?

      \documentclass[11pt]{article}
      
      \usepackage{alphalph}
      \usepackage{alphalph}
           \renewcommand*{\theenumi}{%
             \alphalph{\value{enumi}}%
           }
      \usepackage{alphalph}
      
      \begin{document}
      \begin{enumerate}
      \item a\item a\item a\item a\item a
      \item a\item a\item a\item a\item a
      \item a\item a\item a\item a\item a
      \item a\item a\item a\item a\item a
      \item a\item a\item a\item a\item a
      \item a\item a\item a\item a\item a
      \end{enumerate}
      \end{document}
  36. Nirvana

    HI,

    I realised that when using Description, the items are indented to the left.

    \textbf{Vocabularies:}
    \begin{description}
    	\item [charisma] (n.) an immense charm
    	\item [elusive] (adj.) difficult to find, define, or achieve
    \end{description}

    i.e. the words [charism] and [elusive] are not aligned with Vocabularies.

    How can I align them up?

    Thx in advance.

    Cheers,
    Tim

    • Hi Tim,

      Either remove the indentation on “Vocabulary”:

      \noindent\textbf{Vocabularies:}

      or add these two lines to your preamble for automatic indention of description items:

      \usepackage{enumitem}
      \setdescription{leftmargin=\parindent,labelindent=\parindent}

      Cheers, Tom

  37. Hi,

    I’m a beginner and I’ll be glad if you help me with this problem.

    I’m creating lists using the itemize function as follows :

    \begin{itemize}
    \item[Operating frequency x Mhz]  Some text
    \item[Operating frequency y Mhz] Some text ...
    \end{itemize}

    My problem is that since the name in my description i.e. “Operating frequency x Mhz” is quite large , most of it is not visible in the document generated.

    Can you help me with this problem ?

    Thanks in advance

    • Hi!

      First of all, you probably want to use description instead of itemize. It will automatically highlight text within “[]”. The enumitem package has lots of options for customization of lists. For example, it has a description style, newline, which automatically adds a linebreak after the text in “[]” in case it’s too long. I used that style in your code example below.

      \documentclass[11pt]{article}
      \usepackage{enumitem}
      \begin{document}
      
      \begin{description}[style=nextline]
      \item[Operating frequency x Mhz]  Some text
      \item[Operating frequency y Mhz] Some text ...
      \end{description}
      
      \end{document}
  38. Jeroen Schillewaert

    Hi Tom,

    is it possible to get the items printed in reverse order, this since I have
    ordered my talks etc, in chronological order, but now I think it is more useful to list my newest ones first. However, changing the items manually around will be quite a task.

    So what I have for now is

    \begin{itemize}
    \item Oldest
    \item Not so old
    \item New
    \end{itemize}

    and I would like the output

    New
    Not so old
    Oldest

    Thanks a lot for your help,
    Jeroen

    • Hi Jeroen,

      That’s an interesting but rather unusual problem. I don’t know of any package which does that. The etaremune package (see my post here) reverses the numbering in enumerate, but not the actual order of items.

      If you are keen enough, you might want to write your own macro to do that.

      Best, Tom

  39. Michiel

    Hi!
    I’m strugling with creating a list of symbols by using the description environment:

    \begin{description}
      \item[A]\hspace{0.8in}  first letter
      \item[B]\hspace{0.8in}  second letter
      \item[C]\hspace{0.8in}  third
    \end{description}

    I want something like:

    A first letter
    B second letter
    C third

    However, the spacing between symbol and description is unequal (because the line spacing is constant but the length of symbols is not):

    A First
    B Second
    C Third

    Is there a simple solution for this problem?

    Best and thanks in advance,
    Michiel

    • Hi Michiel,

      Thanks for your question. The enumitem package provides options to keep the space between description item and paragraph constant. Below is an example. Increase or reduce the space by changing leftmargin.

      \documentclass{article}
      \usepackage{enumitem}
      \begin{document}
      \begin{description}[leftmargin=5em,style=nextline]
        \item[First] First paragraph
        \item[Second] Second paragraph
        \item[Third] Third paragraph
      \end{description}
  40. How to created itemize for multiple chooice test option, like
    a). Item 1 d) Item 4
    b). Item 2 e) Item 5
    e). Item 3
    Thanks a lot for your help,
    Muiz

    • Hi Muiz,

      If you question is just about numbering the items, use enumerate instead of itemize. If you are asking how to place items next to each other, try the multicol package.

      Here is an example:

      \documentclass{article}
      \usepackage{enumerate, multicol}
      \begin{document}
      \begin{multicols}{2}
      	\begin{enumerate}[a)]
      		\item Item 1
      		\item Item 2
      		\item Item 3
      		\item Item 4
      		\item Item 5
      		\item Item 6
      	\end{enumerate}
      \end{multicols}
      \end{document}
  41. John

    Hi Tom,

    How do I created a nested enumerate where the second enumerate does not drop to a line line? i.e. I’d like it to resemble this:
    a) i) Hello

    ii) Hello

    b) i) Hello

    Could you help please?
    Many thanks,
    John

    • Hi John,

      You could use the compactenum environment of the paralist package. See code below for an example.

      \documentclass[11pt]{article}
      \usepackage{paralist}
      \begin{document}
      \begin{compactenum}[a)]
      \item
      \begin{compactenum}[i)]
      	\item Some item
      	\item Some other item
      \end{compactenum}
      \item
      \begin{compactenum}[i)]
      	\item Some item
      	\item Some other item
      \end{compactenum}
      \end{compactenum}
      \end{document}
  42. Jong

    Hi Tom, I would like to know how to
    1. Adjusting the size of the $\bullet$ (make it smaller than usual bullet size
    2. Set the position of bullets so that bullets are aligned.
    It looks something like this.(suppose * is bullet)

    * Item1 * Item2
    * This is Item 3 * This is Item4 with long name
    * Item 5 is here * I want this bullet start in the same position as above

    Please note that I would like to have two items on a the same line and I would like to specifically define the position of bullet so it aligns nicely bullet to start at the same position even if I move to the next line.

    Could I do that using ‘list’ or ‘itemize’?

    • tom

      Hi Jong,

      Thanks for this interesting question. Some people propose to go with the multicol package. However, this way the list gets filled in vertically instead of horizontally. Probably not what you’d like. I quite like the solution proposed here which uses the tabular environment. Here is a minimal example (including an option to change the bullet size):

      \documentclass{article}
      
      \newcommand{\rsqr}{{\raisebox{0.4ex}{\small $\bullet$}}\hspace{0.5em}}
      \newenvironment{listable}
      {\begin{tabular}{ll}}
      {\end{tabular}}
      \newcommand{\dblitem}[2]{ \rsqr #1 & \rsqr #2\\}
      
      \begin{document}
      \begin{listable}
          \dblitem{Item1}{Item2}
          \dblitem{This is Item 3}{This is Item4 with long name}
          \dblitem{Item 5 is here}{I want this bullet start in the same position as above}
      \end{listable}
      \end{document}

      I hope you find this useful. I’m curious which solution you’ll go with!

      Tom

      • Jong

        Hello Tom, That was really helpful to me. Thank you so much for your help.
        I am very new to the LaTex as well. I understood most of the codes but just wondering…. is the reason you used \newenvironment{listable} because we didn’t want to write out \begin{tabular}{ll} each time?

      • tom

        Yes, that’s right. Also, it is a good practise, as it assures consistency. Finally, using a different name makes the environment searchable in a large document.

        Tom.

  43. Chris

    How can I remove the space that comes after the \end{enumerate}?

    i.e. I want my text to look like this:

    1. Biology is fun
    2. Physics is fun
    Science is fun because scientific subjects are fun!

    But currently, after \end{enumerate}, it looks like this:

    1. Biology is fun
    2. Physics is fun

    Science is fun because scientific subjects are fun!

    • tom

      I can think of two possible ways to do that:

      1. Manually remove the space at the end of the last item:

      \vspace*{-\baselineskip}

      2. Using the enumitem package and the nolistsep option:

      \documentclass[11pt]{article}
      \usepackage{enumitem}
      \begin{document}
      \begin{enumerate}[nolistsep]
      \item Biology is fun
      \item Physics is fun
      \end{enumerate}
      Science is fun because scientific subjects are fun!
      \end{document}
  44. Severus

    Hallo, Tom! When using enumrate, the options [i], [a] etc. are clear. How does one generate ones own symbol-set? I am looking for a macro-def-command sort of like \newenumlistcounter{g}{$\alpha$,$\beta$,$\gamma$,$\delta$,$\epsilon$}, so that when one enters \begin{enumerate}[(g)], this symbolset is used. Any ideas?

  45. Enumeration with [ as the 1st character does not work. How to resolve it?

    [ as the 1st character of a \item has special meaning. How to override it? For example, if I have:

    \begin{enumerate}
    \item [alpha]
    \end{enumerate}

    How to get the output: [alpha]?

    • tom

      Hi Sufipeace,

      Interesting questions, thanks! \item takes an optional argument, see description environment. You can escape it with backslash-space.

      \documentclass[11pt]{article}
      \begin{document}
      
      \begin{enumerate}
        \item\ [alpha]
      \end{enumerate}
      
      \end{document}
  46. Himanshu Kumar

    If i wish to start a line just below just below something, how will i do it?
    Suppose i have to write
    a=x+y+x
    =2x+y

    • tom

      You can use the align environment, which is provided by the amsmath package. See example below. Cheers, Tom.

      \documentclass[11pt]{article}
      \usepackage{amsmath}
      \begin{document}
      \begin{align}
      a&=x+y+x\\
      &=2x+y
      \end{align}
      \end{document}
  47. JanFeb

    Hey
    I wanted to create a question answer list like this:

    1. Question 1 here
    Ans: Answer here

    2. Question 2 here
    Ans: Answer here

    .
    .
    . (long list)

    How to do this? I want “Ans:” to be written directly below the item number.

    • tom

      Hi there,

      My suggestion would be to write a macro. See example code below. Hope this helps, Tom.

      \documentclass[12pt]{article}
      \usepackage{blindtext}
      
      \newcounter{qacounter}
      \newcommand{\qanda}[2]{%
      	\vspace{5pt}
      	\stepcounter{qacounter}
          
      	\noindent\theqacounter. #1\\
      	Ans: #2\\
      }
      \begin{document}
      \qanda{Some fancy question?}{Some fancy answer.}
      \qanda{Another fancy question?}{Another fancy answer.}
      \qanda{Another fancy question?}{Another fancy answer.}
      \end{document}
  48. Neeraj Bhanot

    Hi,

    I am facing an issue in itemise environment. I need to maintain double spacing in between text. It is possible to maintain double spacing in between two consecutive bullets but I am not able to get double spacing in between long text of one bullet itself and it remains to single space only. the example is shown as follows:

    \begin{itemize}
    \item loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong text.
    \item abc
    \item xyz
    \end{itemize}

    So I am able to get double space in between two bullets using item sep but when this long text goes in to next line, the space between two lines of one bullet remains to single space only.

    Can anyone please guide for it ?

    Thanking in anticipation.

    Regards
    Neeraj

    • tom

      Hi Neeraj,

      Thanks for your question.

      You can set a different line spacing locally through setstrech{2} (setspace package, see below). If you need this for multiple lists, it may be worthwhile to define your own list environment through \newenvironment{}.

      HTH,
      Tom.

      \documentclass[11pt]{article}
      \usepackage{blindtext, setspace}
      \begin{document}
      {\setstretch{2}%
      	\begin{itemize}
      		\item \blindtext
      		\item abc
      		\item xyz
      	\end{itemize}
      }
      \end{document}
      • Neeraj Bhanot

        Hello Sir,

        I just wish to add to my previous comment that when I mentioned

        \openup 1em, instead of \setstretch{2}; it did my required task.

        Kind Regards

        Neeraj

      • tom

        Dear Neeraj,

        Thanks for your comment with the solution that worked for you.

        Best, Tom

    • tom

      Hi there,

      Use the enumitem package to add a counter in front of each description item.

      \documentclass{article}
      
      \usepackage{enumitem}
      \newcounter{descriptcount}
      
      \begin{document}
      
      \begin{description}[%
        before={\setcounter{descriptcount}{0}},%
        ,font=\bfseries\stepcounter{descriptcount}\thedescriptcount.~]
         \item[Group 1:] Text
         \item[Group 2:] Text
      \end{description}
      
      \end{document}
  49. Uros Veljkovic

    Hi, i have problems putting items (from itemize) next to each other…something like this:
    +Red +Blue +Green

    (just the bullets are there instead of pluses)

    • Hi Uros,

      Thanks for the comment. I wrote about inline lists some time ago. Below is a minimal working example.

      Hope this helps,
      Tom

      \documentclass[11pt]{article}
      \usepackage{paralist}
      \begin{document}
      \begin{inparaitem}[+]
      \item Red
      \item Blue
      \item Green
      \end{inparaitem}
      \end{document}
  50. Jaime

    I came across an issue with an article using MikTEX and the begin{itemize} bullets. When the line is longer than the line provides, it drops to the second line below, but is aligned with the bullet, not the text. How can I fix this so that the text aligns with the text on the previous line?

    • Hi Jaime,

      You can adjust the \leftmargin and \itemindent using the enumitem package. See the package documentation for more details. If you need more specific help, please provide a minimal working example to illustrate the problem. See the example below.

      Best, Tom

      \documentclass[11pt]{article}
      \usepackage{blindtext}
      \usepackage{enumitem}
      \begin{document}
      \begin{itemize}[itemindent=0pt,leftmargin=2em]
      \item \blindtext
      \item \blindtext
      \end{itemize}
      \end{document}

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