Lists: Enumerate, itemize, description and how to change them

16. October 2008 by tom 162 Comments

Latex distinguishes between three different enumeration/itemization environments. Each of them provide four levels, which means you can have nested lists of up to four levels.

Enumerate:

\begin{enumerate}
\item ...
\end{enumerate}

The enumerate-environment is used to create numbered lists.
If you like to change the appearance of the enumerator, the simplest way to change is to use the enumerate-package, giving you the possibility to optionally choose an enumerator.

\usepackage{enumerate}
...
\begin{enumerate}[I]%for capital roman numbers.
\item
\end{enumerate}

\begin{enumerate}[(a)]%for small alpha-characters within brackets.
\item
\end{enumerate}

Itemize:

\begin{itemize}
\item ...
\end{itemize}

Itemization is probably the mostly used list in Latex. It also provides four levels. The bullets can be changed for each level using the following command:

\renewcommand{\labelitemi}{$\bullet$}
\renewcommand{\labelitemii}{$\cdot$}
\renewcommand{\labelitemiii}{$\diamond$}
\renewcommand{\labelitemiv}{$\ast$}

Amongst the more commonly used ones are $\bullet$ ( $\bullet$ ), $\cdot$ ( $\cdot$ ), $\diamond$ ( $\diamond$ ), $-$ ( $-$ ), $\ast$ ( $\ast$ ) and $\circ$ ( $\circ$ ).

Description:

\begin{description}
\item[] ...
\end{description}

The description list might be the least known. It comes in very handy if you need to explain notations or terms. Its neither numbered nor bulleted.

Example:

\begin{description}
\item[Biology] Study of life.
\item[Physics] Science of matter and its motion.
\item[Psychology] Scientific study of mental processes and behaviour.
\end{description}

And in a PDF it would look like this:

Nested lists:

Lists can be nested. In other words, it is possible to have a sub-list for an item of a list. Usage is straight forward, different environments can be mixed (see example) and the maximum depth (number of levels) is 4. Here is an example:

\begin{itemize}
\item First level, itemize, first item
\begin{itemize}
\item Second level, itemize, first item
\item Second level, itemize, second item
\begin{enumerate}
\item Third level, enumerate, first item
\item Third level, enumerate, second item
\end{enumerate}
\end{itemize}
\item First level, itemize, second item
\end{itemize}

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}

162 Comments

mbork

17. October 2008 at 21:25

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.

Reply
nguyenminhhaivn

25. October 2008 at 6:34

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 :(.

Reply
- Oskar
  
  9. September 2010 at 14:42
  
  You should try \usepackage{listings} and, depending on which computer language you use, to configure a “style” for it (including colorized output) with \lstset{}.
  
  An example is provided on:
  http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/LaTeX/Packages/Listings
  
  Reply
tom

25. October 2008 at 23:07

Hi there,

Thanks for your comment. Please check my post on how to include source code into your documents here.

Cheers,
Tom

Reply
Joe Python

28. October 2008 at 15:43

Is it possible to create fancy frames like the one you created in your html for the description list?

Reply
tom

28. October 2008 at 20:50

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.

Reply
Ana

15. April 2010 at 9:20

Hi Ana,

I moved your comment here.

Thanks,
Tom

Reply
joana

2. September 2010 at 9:27

Hi!

Is it possible to begin the enumeration with 0?

0. something
1. something
2. something

Thanks!

Reply
- tom
  
  20. December 2010 at 15:04
  Hi Joana,
  
  Use this piece of code before your first “item”:
```
\setcounter{enumi}{-1}
```
  Tom
  Reply
  - Asha Ram
    
    9. August 2018 at 5:47
    
    Hi Tom, Many thanks for the command.
DIYANA

29. December 2010 at 7:01

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.

Reply
- tom
  
  3. January 2011 at 18:17
  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.
  Reply
  - Wouter
    
    10. February 2011 at 20:10
    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 😛
  - tom
    
    1. March 2011 at 14:00
    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.
- Zeratul
  
  5. October 2014 at 12:21
  Simply:
```
\begin{itemize} [leftmargin=2cm]
\item ...
\item ...
\end{itemize}
```
  Reply
Tamer

23. January 2011 at 10:45

Is there any way to get enumeration as follows:

A1.

A2.

A3.

Thanks.

Reply
- tom
  
  24. January 2011 at 3:34
  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}}
```
  Reply
  - anas
    
    30. October 2016 at 1:04
    
    Hi Tom
    
    I was looking for this, thanks for the solution. Although answered in 2011, still useful in 2016.
  - tom
    
    2. November 2016 at 15:23
    
    Thanks for the feedback, appreciate it. Best, Tom
  - El Moro
    
    26. April 2019 at 13:20
    
    In 2019, and still was looking for it, thanks mate! 🙂
  - Karthajee
    
    22. October 2020 at 11:59
    
    Still relevant in 2020 – Thanks, Tom!
Brit

31. January 2011 at 13:35
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
Reply
- tom
  
  1. February 2011 at 6:55
  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.
  Reply
  - Simon Schläpfer
    
    17. August 2011 at 11:54
    use
    
    \usepackage[shortlabels]{enumitem}
    
    instead of enumerate
sharad

25. February 2011 at 14:53

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)

Reply
- tom
  
  25. February 2011 at 15:00
  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.
  Reply
sharad

26. February 2011 at 5:29

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

Reply
- tom
  
  26. February 2011 at 7:18
  Hi!
  
  Add this line to your preamble. This will change the style of your enumeration accordingly.
```
\renewcommand{\labelenumi}{[\arabic{enumi}]}
```
  Cheers, Tom.
  Reply
sharad

26. February 2011 at 6:35

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.

Reply
Snap

5. July 2011 at 7:10

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!

Reply
- tom
  
  6. July 2011 at 9:07
  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.
  Reply
  - Snap
    
    6. July 2011 at 11:15
    
    Thanks! Worked perfectly! You’re such a guru!
Sameer

16. August 2011 at 16:41

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

Reply
- tom
  
  18. August 2011 at 15:49
  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.
  Reply

Adam

11. September 2011 at 23:03

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?

tom

14. September 2011 at 3:59

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.

Helpfull bits of information on LaTeX usage @ Bogdan's Webspace

20. September 2011 at 21:19

[…] is a link that describes in some detail how to use the usepackage{enumerate} http://texblog.wordpress.com/2008/10/16/lists-enumerate-itemize-description-and-how-to-change-them/ […]

Reply
Adam

1. October 2011 at 20:30

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

Reply
- tom
  
  2. October 2011 at 7:28
  
  Hi Adam
  
  What a coincidence you are asking me this. I just posted an article on line spacing two days ago.
  
  Tom.
  
  Reply

Amber

7. October 2011 at 15:01

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

tom

10. October 2011 at 5:51
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.
Reply

Nicolai

10. October 2011 at 13:09

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.

Reply
- tom
  
  10. October 2011 at 14:36
  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.
  Reply
  - fbd
    
    22. October 2012 at 12:39
    
    Thanks a lot Tom…. you are very good
Mariam

25. October 2011 at 19:50

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

Reply
- tom
  
  26. October 2011 at 6:47
  Try this:
```
\documentclass[11pt]{article}
\usepackage{enumerate}
\begin{document}
\begin{enumerate}[a)]
\item a maximum
\item a minimum
\end{enumerate}
\end{document}
```
  Best, Tom.
  Reply
Alison

30. October 2011 at 6:25

Hi Tom,

How would I begin enumerating a later number than 1?

e.g.

3.
4.
5.

Cheers.

Reply
- tom
  
  31. October 2011 at 3:06
  Hi Alison,
  
  Set the counter to 2, so your first item will have index 3:
```
\begin{enumerate}
\setcounter{enumi}{2}
...
\end{enumerate}
```
  Cheers, Tom.
  Reply
Jesse

29. November 2011 at 4:00

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.

Reply
- tom
  
  29. November 2011 at 10:15
  
  Hi Jesse,
  
  I think what you are looking for is this. Hope it helps. Let me know if you have any questions. Tom.
  
  Reply
- Andreas
  
  7. May 2012 at 13:12
  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}
```
  Reply
  - tom
    
    9. May 2012 at 16:54
    
    Hi Andreas,
    
    Neat, thanks!
    Cheers, Tom.
ofer

29. November 2011 at 9:00

is there a possibility to reveres the order of enumerated list

Reply
- tom
  
  29. November 2011 at 10:12
  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.
  Reply
  - molom
    
    22. December 2012 at 19:24
    
    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!
  - tom
    
    7. January 2013 at 16:15
    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}
  - molom
    
    8. January 2013 at 7:38
    
    Thanks a lot Tom.
    I just tried it and it was perfect!
  - tom
    
    8. January 2013 at 10:34
    
    Great, glad it worked. Cheers, Tom.
Reverse enumerate or etaremune « LaTeX Matters

29. November 2011 at 11:45

[…] I stumbled across this package recently thanks to a comment by ofer. […]

Reply
txinitomandarin

9. December 2011 at 14:14

I love the snowflakes

Reply
milemist

21. December 2011 at 0:22

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!

Reply
- tom
  
  23. December 2011 at 9:04
  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.
  Reply
asd

26. December 2011 at 10:42

>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?

Reply
- tom
  
  2. January 2012 at 16:13
  Just nest the lists, e.g.:
```
\begin{enumerate}
	\item First item
	\begin{enumerate}
		\item First sub-item
		\item ...
	\end{enumerate}
	\item Second item
\end{enumerate}
```
  Best, Tom.
  Reply
  - reseroJAvier D'Alessandro
    
    16. June 2012 at 16:31
    
    I was looking for this, it should be in the main post, it’s not obvious for a newbie how to come out with the levels.
  - tom
    
    18. June 2012 at 4:03
    
    You are right, thanks! I added a short paragraph to the main post on nested lists. Tom.
kala

6. February 2012 at 22:14

Hi, is it possible to put label to math equation in every item? e.g.
i) x+y=z (1)
ii) k-l=2 (2)

Reply
- tom
  
  7. February 2012 at 2:37
  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.
  Reply
  - kala
    
    7. February 2012 at 16:08
    
    Thank you very much, Tom. And do you know how put equations in the left side not in the center?
  - tom
    
    8. February 2012 at 3:28
    The amsmath package can left-align equations through the package option fleqn:
    
    \usepackage[fleqn]{amsmath}
    
    Best, Tom.
Emilio.

14. February 2012 at 2:27
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
Reply
- tom
  
  14. February 2012 at 3:49
  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.
  Reply
  - asvhen
    
    30. April 2012 at 11:03
    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).
Mark

26. March 2012 at 10:10

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

Reply
- tom
  
  28. March 2012 at 4:09
  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}{&gt;{\bf}ll}
short label: &amp;blahblah\\
loooooooooong label: &amp;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}
```
  Reply

kokorins

1. April 2012 at 21:22

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

tom

2. April 2012 at 14:45

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.

Shehab

6. April 2012 at 21:29

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.

tom

8. April 2012 at 13:00
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.
Reply

Humberto

7. April 2012 at 15:47

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

tom

8. April 2012 at 12:17

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

Kshatresh

24. April 2012 at 12:46

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

Reply
- tom
  
  25. April 2012 at 3:05
  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.
  Reply
Colin

27. April 2012 at 20:23

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

Reply
- tom
  
  28. April 2012 at 14:40
  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}
```
  Reply
  - Colin
    
    29. April 2012 at 15:30
    
    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.
  - tom
    
    30. April 2012 at 4:08
    
    Glad you found a solution that worked for you. Cheers, Tom.
Radoslav

17. May 2012 at 4:45

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

Reply
- tom
  
  17. May 2012 at 4:46
  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}
```
  Reply
- Radoslav
  
  17. May 2012 at 5:41
  
  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.
  
  Reply
  - tom
    
    21. May 2012 at 15:17
    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}
Saiman

29. June 2012 at 7:59

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.

Reply
- tom
  
  4. July 2012 at 2:33
  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.
  Reply
nash

4. July 2012 at 11:18

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

Reply
- tom
  
  16. July 2012 at 15:35
  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.
  Reply
aravindbm

2. September 2012 at 16:45
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.
Reply
- tom
  
  3. September 2012 at 10:14
  Works exactly the same way.
```
\begin{enumerate}\itemsep2pt
\item
\item
\end{enumerate}
```
  Cheers, Tom.
  Reply
  - aravindbm
    
    4. September 2012 at 9:28
    
    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.
  - tom
    
    14. November 2012 at 1:47
    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}
aravindbm

2. September 2012 at 16:47

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.

Reply
- tom
  
  3. September 2012 at 10:10
  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.
  Reply
  - aravindbm
    
    4. September 2012 at 9:23
    
    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.
  - tom
    
    4. September 2012 at 9:26
    
    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…
aravindbm

4. September 2012 at 9:30

Typesetting twice… worked like magic. Thanks again.
Regards,
Dr Manoj Aravind.

Reply
- tom
  
  4. September 2012 at 9:33
  
  Great! Best, Tom.
  
  Reply

okkes

8. September 2012 at 5:02

Hi Tom,

Is there any way to do as follows

question
1)
a)
b)
solution
1)
a)
b)

Thanks in advance

tom

9. September 2012 at 3:07

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}

okkes

9. September 2012 at 18:20

yes Tom, thanks a lot..

Reply
lailame

12. October 2012 at 0:48

Thank you very helpful post

Reply
Ankhi Sena Mun

31. October 2012 at 11:00

Thanks.. the description of {description} was really helpful… 😀

Reply
- tom
  
  9. November 2012 at 3:38
  
  Cool, thanks for the feedback. Tom.
  
  Reply
Nikita

13. November 2012 at 13:15

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.

Reply
- Nikita
  
  13. November 2012 at 13:21
  
  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.
  
  Reply
  - tom
    
    14. November 2012 at 1:29
    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.
sonia

14. November 2012 at 16:16

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

Reply
- tom
  
  20. November 2012 at 2:44
  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}
```
  Reply
Bel

28. December 2012 at 6:40

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.

Reply
- tom
  
  8. January 2013 at 12:03
  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}
```
  Reply
Francisco Burgos

10. February 2013 at 23:42

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

Reply
- tom
  
  12. February 2013 at 6:43
  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}
```
  Reply
Susannah

24. May 2013 at 19:53

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.

Reply
- tom
  
  26. May 2013 at 13:16
  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}
```
  Reply
Javid

11. June 2013 at 20:43

very helpful! Thanks Muck.

Reply
Nirvana

13. June 2013 at 18:26
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
Reply
- tom
  
  14. June 2013 at 2:59
  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
  Reply
np0187

20. July 2013 at 6:57
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
Reply
- tom
  
  21. July 2013 at 13:03
  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}
```
  Reply
Jeroen Schillewaert

4. August 2013 at 10:33
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
Reply
- tom
  
  5. August 2013 at 15:48
  
  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
  
  Reply
Michiel

23. September 2013 at 12:22
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
Reply
- tom
  
  23. September 2013 at 15:18
  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}
```
  Reply
muiz

28. November 2013 at 1:48

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

Reply
- tom
  
  28. November 2013 at 10:51
  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}
```
  Reply
John

12. December 2013 at 12:32

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

Reply
- tom
  
  12. December 2013 at 15:14
  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}
```
  Reply
Jong

8. April 2014 at 8:56

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’?

Reply
- tom
  
  8. April 2014 at 11:16
  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
  Reply
  - Jong
    
    9. April 2014 at 3:34
    
    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
    
    9. April 2014 at 8:09
    
    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.
Chris

13. September 2014 at 20:33

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!

Reply
- tom
  
  14. September 2014 at 7:21
  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}
```
  Reply
  - Chris
    
    15. September 2014 at 2:46
    
    Thank you! The first way worked. I’m not sure if it is my code specifically but the second method did not work just FYI
  - tom
    
    15. September 2014 at 9:29
    
    Glad to hear, thanks for the feedback! Tom
Severus

26. October 2014 at 10:18

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?

Reply
- tom
  
  12. November 2014 at 5:22
  
  Hi Severus,
  
  You might find the moreenum package useful.
  
  Cheers,
  Tom
  
  Reply
sufipeace

18. September 2015 at 2:06
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]?
Reply
- tom
  
  18. September 2015 at 8:37
  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}
```
  Reply
Himanshu Kumar

23. October 2015 at 19:07

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

Reply
- tom
  
  24. October 2015 at 16:13
  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}
```
  Reply
JanFeb

8. January 2016 at 9:00

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.

Reply
- tom
  
  21. January 2016 at 13:09
  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}
```
  Reply
Neeraj Bhanot

21. June 2016 at 20:52
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
Reply
- tom
  
  22. June 2016 at 14:52
  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}
```
  Reply
  - Neeraj Bhanot
    
    23. June 2016 at 16:55
    
    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
    
    27. June 2016 at 7:08
    
    Dear Neeraj,
    
    Thanks for your comment with the solution that worked for you.
    
    Best, Tom

irshad alam

27. August 2016 at 12:28

How can you add DESCRIPTION and ENUMERATE together? Ie the output would show:
1. Group1: XXXXX
2. Grouip 2: XXXXXXX

tom

27. August 2016 at 15:49

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}

irwan

13. September 2016 at 5:47

thanks alot..

Reply
Uros Veljkovic

16. February 2018 at 19:16

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)

Reply
- tom
  
  16. February 2018 at 22:20
  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}
```
  Reply
Jaime

28. November 2018 at 3:50

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?

Reply
- tom
  
  5. December 2018 at 14:15
  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}
```
  Reply

texblog

because LaTeX matters

Lists: Enumerate, itemize, description and how to change them

Related

162 Comments

Leave a ReplyCancel reply

Share this:

Related

162 Comments

Leave a ReplyCancel reply