[Tex/LaTex] How to begin enumerate with a lowercase b

Question

I want to create an enumerate, that starts with lowercase b, and each next item is the next lowercase letter. So, it goes like b, c, d, e, and so on. I have the following code segment, but it makes all the items b).

\documentclass[11pt]{article}
\usepackage{enumerate}

\begin{document}

\begin{enumerate}[b)]
\item This is a b)
\item This is also a b)
\end{enumerate}

\end{document}

Answer 1

With the usual enumerate environment or with enumerate from the package of the same name, one has to increase the enumi (the first level) counter first, to get another start value. Since the \item macro increases the counter again, \setcounter{enumi}{1} is the correct way. here.

The usual enumerate environment however does not provide for a) without redefinition of \theenumi.

The shorthand version of the label 'template' are just working for the starting values a), A) etc. only, b) means ... well b) ;-)

\documentclass[11pt]{article}
\usepackage{enumerate}

\begin{document}

\begin{enumerate}[a)]\setcounter{enumi}{1}
\item This is a b)
\item This is now a c)
\end{enumerate}

\end{document}

With enumitem, it's a little bit more logical;

Using shortlabels as the package option, the short hand version of enumerate can be used, the start=2 will set the correct starting value of the counter.

\documentclass[11pt]{article}
\usepackage[shortlabels]{enumitem}

\begin{document}

\begin{enumerate}[a),start=2]
\item This is a b)
\item This is now a c)
\end{enumerate}

Short interruption

\begin{enumerate}[a),resume]
\item This is a d)
\item This is now a e)
\end{enumerate}



\end{document}

Please note that the enumitem has a resume facility, that allows for interruption of a list and continuing later on.