#enumerateitemizelistsmargins
I'm no typography expert, but I heard that the bullets and numbers in itemize/enumerate environments are better placed outside of the main body of text, i.e. in the margin. How can I do that in LaTeX?
And a bonus question, how can I do that in ConTeXt? 🙂
EDIT:
One use is in this thesis: http://www.duo.uio.no/sok/work.html?WORKID=81971&lang=en
but I did not find any nested list there.
Another case is this eBook: http://designingfortheweb.co.uk/book/part3/part3_chapter13.php
You can do this in several ways: for example, by using an empty optional argument for \item (as Jake suggested), or by using the enumitem package to use an empty label, or by redefining \labelitemi; these approaches are illustrated in the following example:
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{enumitem}
\begin{document}
\begin{itemize}
\item[] First.
\item[] Second.
\end{itemize}
\begin{itemize}[label={}]
\item First.
\item Second.
\end{itemize}
{\renewcommand\labelitemi{}
\begin{itemize}
\item First.
\item Second.
\end{itemize}
}
\end{document}
You can raise the bullet to your liking. The following does that (to the extreme):
\documentclass{article}
\newlength{\mylen}
\setbox1=\hbox{$\bullet$}\setbox2=\hbox{\tiny$\bullet$}
\setlength{\mylen}{\dimexpr0.5\ht1-0.5\ht2}
\setlength{\parindent}{0pt}% Just for this example
\begin{document}
\begin{minipage}{0.3\linewidth}
\begin{itemize}
\item One
\item Two
\end{itemize}
\end{minipage}\begin{minipage}{0.3\linewidth}
\renewcommand\labelitemi{\tiny$\bullet$}
\begin{itemize}
\item One
\item Two
\end{itemize}
\end{minipage}\begin{minipage}{0.3\linewidth}
\renewcommand\labelitemi{\raisebox{\mylen}{\tiny$\bullet$}}
\begin{itemize}
\item One
\item Two
\end{itemize}
\end{minipage}
\end{document}
On the left is the default $\bullet$. The middle shows \tiny$bullet$ while the last shows a raised \tiny$\bullet$ to exactly the same vertical height as it should be for $\bullet$. However, as mentioned, this is a bit extreme. You could avoid all the length calculations and just use \raisebox{0.25ex}{\tiny$\bullet$} which yields a comparable positioning.
I would also suggest using enumitem which allows you to obtain a similar output using
\begin{itemize}[label=\raisebox{0.25ex}{\tiny$\bullet$}]
%...
\end{itemize}
Best Answer
I've never seen placement of the bullets of a list in the margin. The text within a list isn't just body text. So, why line it up with body text. It's a good idea to indent it like you would do with a quotation.
Let's think of choosing this style. What about a nested list? In consequence, its items would have to be aligned at the left margin of the parent list, so at the left margin of the document as well.
What about enumerated lists? Should the numbers be placed in the margin?
To sum up, bulleted list with bullets in margins and items in line with body text seems questionable. Though, it can easily be achieved.
With enumitem, better specify a style in the preamble than to each list by an optional argument. This is consistent and allows easy changes. If you later decide to change the list style, you just need to apply the modification once in the preamble for the whole document.
Martin's example modified under this point of view: