[Tex/LaTex] How to force all text to continue to the next line when using style=nextline in description lists with enumitem

enumitemlistsmargins

This question is related to this answer: https://tex.stackexchange.com/a/69525/13552.

The documentation for enumitem (on page 7 in Version 3.5.2 2011-09-28) says that

nextline: if the label does not fit in the margin, the text continues in the next line,
otherwise it is placed in a box of width \leftmargin − \labelsep, i.e., the item body
never sticks into the left margin. Sets labelwidth=!.

My goal would be to get all text to continue onto the next line regardless of the label's width.

Example

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{enumitem}
%\setlist[description]{style=nextline} % Optional Global Setup

\begin{document}
\begin{description}[style=nextline] % Local Setup
  \item [Green] The color green.
  \item [Red] The color red.
  \item [Yellow] The color yellow.
\end{description}
\end{document}

Best Answer

Set leftmargin to 0pt so nothing can fit there and the new line is forced:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{enumitem}
%\setlist[description]{style=nextline,leftmargin=0pt} % Optional Global Setup

\begin{document}
\begin{description}[style=nextline,leftmargin=0pt] % Local Setup
  \item [Green] The color green.
  \item [Red] The color red.
  \item [Yellow] The color yellow.
\end{description}
\end{document}

Another option, allowing you to have indentation for the description texts is to set labelwidth to 0pt (with style=nextline this always forces a new line), and then control other lengths such as leftmargin and itemindent:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{enumitem}
\setlist[description]{style=nextline,labelwidth=0pt,leftmargin=30pt,itemindent=\dimexpr-20pt-\labelsep\relax} % Optional Global Setup

\begin{document}
\noindent
Some test text
\begin{description}[style=nextline,labelwidth=0pt,leftmargin=30pt,itemindent=\dimexpr-20pt-\labelsep\relax] % Local Setup
  \item[Green]The color green.
  \item[Red] The color red.
  \item[Yellow] The color yellow.
\end{description}
\end{document}

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Description list using package enumitem: how to force lowercase small caps and align body text

To change to lowercase case, you can use the before=... key of enumitem to redefine \makelabel in order to apply \MakeLowercase to the whole label text:

\newcommand{\descriptionmakelabel}[1]{\scshape\MakeLowercase{#1}}
\begin{description}[before=\renewcommand{\makelabel}{\descriptionmakelabel}]

To set the leftmargin automatically to the largest description label, you can use the package eqparbox which allows to make all boxes sharing a same label the same width (requires two compilations). You need of course to make the eqparbox label unique to a particular description, which may be done with a counter. Here's the full code with its result:

result of the code

\documentclass[11pt]{memoir}

\usepackage{enumitem}
\usepackage{eqparbox}

\newcounter{desc}
\newcommand{\descriptionmakelabel}[1]{\eqparbox{descnb\romannumeral\value{desc}}{\scshape\MakeLowercase{#1}\hfill}}

\begin{document}

\begin{description}[before=\refstepcounter{desc}\renewcommand{\makelabel}{\descriptionmakelabel},leftmargin=\eqboxwidth{descnb\romannumeral\numexpr\value{desc}+1\relax}]
   \item[FIRST] My definition here
   \item[NEXT] and another one   
   \item[AFTER] This is the third which is very very very very very very very very very very very very very long
\end{description}

\begin{description}[before=\refstepcounter{desc}\renewcommand{\makelabel}{\descriptionmakelabel},leftmargin=\eqboxwidth{descnb\romannumeral\numexpr\value{desc}+1\relax}]
   \item[A] a short text
   \item[B] a very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very long text
\end{description}

\end{document}

[Tex/LaTex] enumitem nextline style: nested item shouldn’t start on description label’s line

I think you are misusing the nextline style. I would suggest that you do it like this:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{enumitem}

\newcommand{\DLitem}[2][]{%
 \item[#1]\hfill \emph{#2}\par}

\newenvironment{DLdescription}[1][*]
 {\begin{description}[leftmargin=#1]}
 {\end{description}}

\begin{document}

  \begin{DLdescription}
  \DLitem[dleft1]{dright1}
    blah blah
    \begin{itemize}
    \item nested item correctly starts on its own line
    \end{itemize}
      \DLitem[dleft2]{dright2}
    % nothing before itemize
    \begin{itemize}
    \item nested item shouldn't start on description label's line!
    \end{itemize}
  \end{DLdescription}

\end{document}

You can adjust locally \parskip is you want less space after the first line.

Example

Best Answer

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Description list using package enumitem: how to force lowercase small caps and align body text

[Tex/LaTex] enumitem nextline style: nested item shouldn’t start on description label’s line

Related Question