[Tex/LaTex] A step by step environment

enumitemformattinglists

I would like to obtain the following output :

Bla, bla, here are the actions to do.

    Action 1
        Bla, bla, bla...

    Action 2
        Bla, bla, bla...

    Action 3
        Bla, bla, bla...

When the preceding actions have been done, you must do the following things.

    Thing 1
        Bla, bla, bla...

    Thing 2
        Bla, bla, bla...

    Thing 3
        Bla, bla, bla...

The LaTeX code could look like :

Bla, bla, here are the actions to do.

\begin[Action]{step}
    \step
    Bla, bla, bla...

    \step
    Bla, bla, bla...

    \step
    Bla, bla, bla...
\end{step}

When the preceding actions have been done, you must do the following things.

\begin[Thing]{step}
    \step
    Bla, bla, bla...

    \step
    Bla, bla, bla...

    \step
    Bla, bla, bla...
\end{step}

Best Answer

You can use \newenvironment to make a step by step environment, steps:

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{enumitem}

\newenvironment{steps}[1]{\begin{enumerate}[label=#1 \arabic*]}{\end{enumerate}}

\makeatletter% http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/29517/forcing-new-line-after-item-number-in-enumerate-environment/29518#29518
\def\step{%
   \@ifnextchar[ \@step{\@noitemargtrue\@step[\@itemlabel]}}
\def\@step[#1]{\item[#1]\mbox{}\\\hspace*{\dimexpr-\labelwidth-\labelsep}}
\makeatother

\begin{document}

\begin{steps}{Action}
\step Bla, bla, bla...
\step Bla, bla, bla...
\step Bla, bla, bla...
\end{steps}

\begin{steps}{Thing}
\step Bla, bla, bla...
\step Bla, bla, bla...
\step Bla, bla, bla...
\end{steps}

\end{document}

Output

To further refine this approach you can declare the environment using the LaTeX3 function \DeclareDocumentEnvironment. It lets you specify optional arguments and set defaults for them. The following declares a new environment, steps, which if it's not given any argument defaults to the label "Steps":

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{enumitem}
\usepackage{xparse}

\DeclareDocumentEnvironment{steps}%
{O{Step}}% If no argument is given the label defaults to 'Step'
{\begin{enumerate}[label=#1 \arabic*]}%
{\end{enumerate}}

\makeatletter% http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/29517/forcing-new-line-after-item-number-in-enumerate-environment/29518#29518
\def\step{%
   \@ifnextchar[ \@step{\@noitemargtrue\@step[\@itemlabel]}}
\def\@step[#1]{\item[#1]\mbox{}\\\hspace*{\dimexpr-\labelwidth-\labelsep}}
\makeatother

\begin{document}

\begin{steps}
\step Bla, bla, bla...
\step Bla, bla, bla...
\step Bla, bla, bla...
\end{steps}

\begin{steps}[Action]
\step Bla, bla, bla...
\step Bla, bla, bla...
\step Bla, bla, bla...
\end{steps}

\begin{steps}[Thing]
\step Bla, bla, bla...
\step Bla, bla, bla...
\step Bla, bla, bla...
\end{steps}

\end{document}

Output

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Here's an example of the required new style definition using amsthm:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{amsthm}

\newtheoremstyle{mystyle}% name
  {3pt}%Space above
  {3pt}%Space below
  {\normalfont}%Body font
  {0pt}%Indent amount
  {\itshape}% Theorem head font
  {.}%Punctuation after theorem head
  {\newline}%Space after theorem head 2
  {}%Theorem head spec (can be left empty, meaning ‘normal’)

\theoremstyle{mystyle}
\newtheorem{exam}{Example}

\begin{document}

\begin{exam}
Test exam
\end{exam}

\end{document}

Here's an example using now the predefined break style from the ntheorem package:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{ntheorem}

\theoremstyle{break}
\theoremheaderfont{\normalfont\itshape}
\theorembodyfont{\normalfont}
\theoremseparator{.}
\newtheorem{exam}{Example}

\begin{document}

\begin{exam}
Test exam
\end{exam}

\end{document}

Finally, here's an example using thmtools and amsthm as its backend:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{amsthm}
\usepackage{thmtools}

\declaretheoremstyle[
spaceabove=3pt, spacebelow=3pt,
headfont=\normalfont\itshape,
notefont=\normalfont, notebraces={(}{)},
bodyfont=\normalfont,
postheadspace=\newline,
qed=\qedsymbol
]{mystyle}
\declaretheorem[style=mystyle]{example}

\begin{document}

\begin{example}
Test exam
\end{example}

\end{document}

[Tex/LaTex] Controlling properties of sections and subsections

What you're asking is not quite clear. What is a space? A half quad? You didn't specify the vertical spacing above section heading and nothing about subsubsections. The following code is a possibility, with the titlesec package and its companion titleps (so don't load fancyhdr), that lets me redefine very simply the plain style.

\documentclass[12pt, a4paper]{article}
\usepackage[
top=3.5cm,
bottom=2cm,
left=3.5cm,
right=2cm,
headsep=1.5cm,
]{geometry}

\usepackage{mathptmx}

\parskip=1\baselineskip
\parindent = 0pt

\usepackage{titlesec, titleps}

\titleformat{\section}[hang]{\bfseries\large}{\thesection.}{1em}{\MakeUppercase}
\titlespacing*{\section}{0pt}{1\baselineskip}{1\baselineskip}

\titleformat{\subsection}[hang]{\bfseries}{\thesubsection}{1em}{}
\titlespacing*{\subsection}{0pt}{1\baselineskip}{1\baselineskip}

\renewpagestyle{plain}{%
\sethead{}{\itshape\sectiontitle}{\thepage}
\setfoot{}{}{}
}

\pagestyle{plain}

\begin{document}

Text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text.

Text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text.

\section{Introduction}

\subsection{Background}
LOREM IPSUM is a graphical bla bla bla and is a bla bla bla that starts with nothing but that.

\subsubsection{Background}
LOREM IPSUM is a graphical bla bla bla and is a bla bla bla that starts with nothing but that.

\end{document}

In the titleformat command, [hang]is the shape of the section title; hang is the default. The next argument is for general formatting of label + title. Then (4th argument) commands for the label.The fifth argument is the distance between label and title. Sixth argument is made upof commands for the title; the very last command can take an argument, which is the title; with option explicit, you can use #1 as an explicit argument for complex formattings.

The \titlespacing command has 3 arguments: the first is to increase (or decrease) the left margin. Secong argument is for the vertical separation between preceding text and section title. Third argument is vertical distance between section title and following text. The star version kills indentation at the beginning of the next paragraph.

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Best Answer

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Theorem formatting

[Tex/LaTex] Controlling properties of sections and subsections

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