[Tex/LaTex] How to left align items in itemize that contains columns environment on beamer

Question

I need to automatically left align all my items. The problem is that I must have a columns environment in the middle. But that environment shifts the items to the left. I tried setting \setlength{\itemindent}{0em} to fixed the shift problem.

In some cases it works. However, is really time consuming and it doesn't work in general, as I have to constantly check if the bullets are aligned. I would like to find an automatic way of aligning them.

\documentclass{beamer}

\begin{document}
\begin{frame}{test}
\begin{itemize}
\item This is a really long sentence that I used to demonstrate how strange it is to shift the items.
\item This is another sentence.
\begin{columns}
\begin{column}{0.5\linewidth}
\item Test of one sentence in the column.
\item Test of another sentence in the same column.
\end{column}
\begin{column}{0.5\linewidth}
\rule{\linewidth}{0.3\linewidth}
\end{column}
\end{columns}
\item Another sentence after the columns environment.
\end{itemize}
\end{frame}
\end{document}

Answer 1

Just add another blank column on the left end of the columns environment. In this case, using a column 1 width of \leftmargini works (that is the itemize indent), while columns 2 and 3 must add up to \linewidth. I also added 1ex of vspace after closing the columns environment.

\documentclass{beamer}
\usepackage{calc}
\begin{document}
\begin{frame}{test}
\begin{itemize}
\item This is a really long sentence that I used to demonstrate how strange it is to shift the items.
\item This is another sentence.
\begin{columns}
\begin{column}{\leftmargini}
\end{column}
\begin{column}{.5\linewidth}
\item Test of one sentence in the column.
\item Test of another sentence in the same column.
\end{column}
\begin{column}{0.5\linewidth}
\rule{\linewidth}{0.3\linewidth}
\end{column}
\end{columns}\vspace{1ex}
\item Another sentence after the columns environment.
\end{itemize}
\end{frame}
\end{document}