Is it possible to set the leftmargin length when using the enumerate package? I'd like to limit the effect of leftmargin to a single environment invokation only and not set it globally.
[Tex/LaTex] How to set leftmargin when using the enumerate package
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Related Solutions
If the value of the rightmargin key is another length, this length must be specified including an escape character, i.e. rightmargin=\leftmargin.
EDIT: For whatever reason, this doesnt work with leftmargin=* added. It works, however, by emulating the calculations of leftmargin=* -- I used the calc package to do so conveniently.
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[english]{babel}
\usepackage{blindtext}
\usepackage{calc}
\usepackage{enumitem}
% Variant A doesn't work
% \setlist{leftmargin=*,rightmargin=\leftmargin}
% Variant B works
\setlist{labelwidth=\widthof{0.},leftmargin={\labelwidth+\labelsep},rightmargin=\leftmargin}
\begin{document}
\blindtext
\begin{itemize}
\item\blindtext
\end{itemize}
\end{document}
EDIT: Corrected emulation of \leftmargin=*. Thanks to Gonzalo and Javier!
You can change \hsize to \linewidth inside multienumerate, so the environment is aware of the current value for the line width (the package uses \textwidth by default); the representation for the counter used can be changed ny redefining \labelenumi. Another option, if your inner items are naturally balanced would be to use three columns built, for example with the multicol package. The following example shows both alternatives:
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{enumitem}
\usepackage{multienum}
\usepackage{multicol}
\begin{document}
\noindent Using \texttt{multienum}:
\begin{enumerate}
\item
\setlength\hsize{\linewidth}
\begin{multienumerate}
\setcounter{enumi}{0}
\renewcommand{\labelenumi}
{\addtocounter{enumi}{1}\alph{enumi}.}
\mitemxxx{Not}{Linear}{Not}
\end{multienumerate}
\end{enumerate}
\noindent Using \texttt{multicol}:
\begin{enumerate}
\item \begin{multicols}{3}
\begin{enumerate}
\item Not
\item Linear
\item Not
\end{enumerate}
\end{multicols}
\end{enumerate}
\end{document}
Perhaps the best option is to use the enumerate* environment from the enumitem package with the inline package option and to control the spacing between items using \hfill:
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[inline]{enumitem}
\begin{document}
\noindent With \texttt{enumitem}:
\begin{enumerate}
\item
\begin{enumerate*}[itemjoin=\hfill]
\item Not
\item Linear
\item Not
\end{enumerate*}
\end{enumerate}
\end{document}
With the edit to the original question, a better option seems to be the use of a tabularx environment (from the tabularx package) of width equal to \linewidth and with automatic cell numbering:
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{array}
\usepackage{tabularx}
\newcounter{row}
\renewcommand\therow{\alph{row}}
\begin{document}
\begin{enumerate}
\item
\begin{tabularx}{\linewidth}[t]{*{3}{>{\stepcounter{row}\makebox[1.8em][l]{(\therow)\hfill}}X}}
part 1 & part 2 & part 3\\
part 4 & part 5 & part 6\\
\end{tabularx}
\item
\setcounter{row}{0}
\begin{tabularx}{\linewidth}[t]{*{3}{>{\stepcounter{row}\makebox[1.8em][l]{(\therow)\hfill}}X}}
part 1 & part 2 & part 3\\
part 4 & part 5 & part 6\\
\end{tabularx}
\end{enumerate}
\end{document}
And, of course, if this structure is to be used several times, you can define a new environment to simplify the writting:
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{array}
\usepackage{tabularx}
\newcounter{row}
\renewcommand\therow{\alph{row}}
\newenvironment{rowenum}
{\setcounter{row}{0}%
\par\noindent\tabularx{\linewidth}[t]
{*{3}{>{\stepcounter{row}\makebox[1.8em][l]{(\therow)\hfill}}X}}%
}
{\endtabularx}
\begin{document}
\begin{enumerate}
\item Question 1 preamble
\begin{rowenum}
part 1 & part 2 & part 3 \\
part 4 & part 5 & part 6 \\
\end{rowenum}
\item Question 2 preamble
\begin{rowenum}
part 1 & part 2 & part 3 \\
part 4 & part 5 & part 6 \\
\end{rowenum}
\end{enumerate}
\end{document}
Best Answer
I recommend the package
enumitem. Here you can setleftmarginlocal.