[Tex/LaTex] \itemize and \enumerate simply don’t work

#enumerateitemize

I am a total newbie – just starting with Latex. But it's a disappointing start!

I am trying \itemize and \enumerate with the extremely simple script

\documentclass{article} 
\begin{document} 
\begin{itemize}   
\item This should be the first item.   
\item This should be the second item.    
\end{itemize}
\end{document}

And I get, when using TexWorks+pdfLaTeX, the error message

! LaTeX Error: Something's wrong--perhaps a missing \item.
...
l.4 \item This should be the first item. 
?

When using Sublime Text 3 with Latexing, I get as many as seven error messages
– three for each of the two lines with \item and on for the the line \end{itemize}.

I have been reading the reference manuals and stackexchange, but the problem is so simply idiotic that nobody in history seems to have had it.
I would greatly appreciate any tip or piece of advice, thanks in advance!

EDIT: I am posting the full .log-file as requested. As suspected there seems to be something wrong with fonts.

This is pdfTeX, Version 3.14159265-2.6-1.40.17 (MiKTeX 2.9.6210 64-bit)         
(preloaded format=pdflatex 2017.3.30)  31 MAR 2017 11:07
entering extended mode
**"C:/Luca's Documents/LaTeX/Sublime project exercising with latexing and 
knitR
/Luca's Latexing page layout exercises.tex"

("C:/Luca's Documents/LaTeX/Sublime project exercising with latexing and 
knitR/
Luca's Latexing page layout exercises.tex"
LaTeX2e <2017/01/01> patch level 1
Babel <3.9r> and hyphenation patterns for 75 language(s) loaded.
("C:\Program Files\MiKTeX 2.9\tex\latex\base\article.cls"
Document Class: article 2014/09/29 v1.4h Standard LaTeX document class
("C:\Program Files\MiKTeX 2.9\tex\latex\base\size10.clo"
File: size10.clo 2014/09/29 v1.4h Standard LaTeX file (size option)
)
\c@part=\count79
\c@section=\count80
\c@subsection=\count81
\c@subsubsection=\count82
\c@paragraph=\count83
\c@subparagraph=\count84
\c@figure=\count85
\c@table=\count86
\abovecaptionskip=\skip41
\belowcaptionskip=\skip42
\bibindent=\dimen102
)
("C:\Luca's Documents\LaTeX\Sublime project exercising with latexing and     
knitR\
Luca's_Latexing_page_layout_exercises.aux")
\openout1 = `Luca's_Latexing_page_layout_exercises.aux'.

LaTeX Font Info:    Checking defaults for OML/cmm/m/it on input line 2.
LaTeX Font Info:    ... okay on input line 2.
LaTeX Font Info:    Checking defaults for T1/cmr/m/n on input line 2.
LaTeX Font Info:    ... okay on input line 2.
LaTeX Font Info:    Checking defaults for OT1/cmr/m/n on input line 2.
LaTeX Font Info:    ... okay on input line 2.
LaTeX Font Info:    Checking defaults for OMS/cmsy/m/n on input line 2.
LaTeX Font Info:    ... okay on input line 2.
LaTeX Font Info:    Checking defaults for OMX/cmex/m/n on input line 2.
LaTeX Font Info:    ... okay on input line 2.
LaTeX Font Info:    Checking defaults for U/cmr/m/n on input line 2.
LaTeX Font Info:    ... okay on input line 2.
Missing character: There is no Â in font cmr10!
Missing character: There is no   in font cmr10!
Missing character: There is no Â in font cmr10!
Missing character: There is no   in font cmr10!

! LaTeX Error: Something's wrong--perhaps a missing \item.

See the LaTeX manual or LaTeX Companion for explanation.
Type  H <return>  for immediate help.
 ...                                              

l.4 \item T
           his should be the first item.
Try typing  <return>  to proceed.
If that doesn't work, type  X <return>  to quit.


! LaTeX Error: Something's wrong--perhaps a missing \item.

See the LaTeX manual or LaTeX Companion for explanation.
Type  H <return>  for immediate help.
 ...                                              

l.4 \item T
           his should be the first item.
Try typing  <return>  to proceed.
If that doesn't work, type  X <return>  to quit.


! LaTeX Error: Something's wrong--perhaps a missing \item.

See the LaTeX manual or LaTeX Companion for explanation.
Type  H <return>  for immediate help.
 ...                                              

l.4 \item T
           his should be the first item.
Try typing  <return>  to proceed.
If that doesn't work, type  X <return>  to quit.

LaTeX Font Info:    Try loading font information for OMS+cmr on input line 
4.
("C:\Program Files\MiKTeX 2.9\tex\latex\base\omscmr.fd"
File: omscmr.fd 2014/09/29 v2.5h Standard LaTeX font definitions
)
LaTeX Font Info:    Font shape `OMS/cmr/m/n' in size <10> not available
(Font)              Font shape `OMS/cmsy/m/n' tried instead on input line 4.

! LaTeX Error: Something's wrong--perhaps a missing \item.

See the LaTeX manual or LaTeX Companion for explanation.
Type  H <return>  for immediate help.
 ...                                              

l.5 \item T
           his should be the second item.Â Â 
Try typing  <return>  to proceed.
If that doesn't work, type  X <return>  to quit.


! LaTeX Error: Something's wrong--perhaps a missing \item.

See the LaTeX manual or LaTeX Companion for explanation.
Type  H <return>  for immediate help.
 ...                                              

l.5 \item T
           his should be the second item.Â Â 
Try typing  <return>  to proceed.
If that doesn't work, type  X <return>  to quit.


! LaTeX Error: Something's wrong--perhaps a missing \item.

See the LaTeX manual or LaTeX Companion for explanation.
Type  H <return>  for immediate help.
 ...                                              

l.5 \item T
           his should be the second item.Â Â 
Try typing  <return>  to proceed.
If that doesn't work, type  X <return>  to quit.

Missing character: There is no Â in font cmr10!
Missing character: There is no   in font cmr10!
Missing character: There is no Â in font cmr10!
Missing character: There is no   in font cmr10!

! LaTeX Error: Something's wrong--perhaps a missing \item.

See the LaTeX manual or LaTeX Companion for explanation.
Type  H <return>  for immediate help.
 ...                                              

l.6 \end{itemize}

Try typing  <return>  to proceed.
If that doesn't work, type  X <return>  to quit.

[1

{C:/Users/lucav/AppData/Local/MiKTeX/2.9/pdftex/config/pdftex.map}]
("C:\Luca's Documents\LaTeX\Sublime project exercising with latexing and 
knitR\
Luca's_Latexing_page_layout_exercises.aux") ) 
Here is how much of TeX's memory you used:
 220 strings out of 493333
 3381 string characters out of 3139194
 53255 words of memory out of 3000000
 3832 multiletter control sequences out of 15000+200000
 3640 words of font info for 14 fonts, out of 3000000 for 9000
 1141 hyphenation exceptions out of 8191
 23i,4n,19p,240b,143s stack positions out of 
5000i,500n,10000p,200000b,50000s
<C:/Program Files/MiKTeX 2.9/fonts
/type1/public/amsfonts/cm/cmr10.pfb>
Output written on "C:/Luca's Documents/LaTeX/Sublime project exercising with 
la
texing and knitR/Luca's_Latexing_page_layout_exercises.pdf" (1 page, 14337 
byte
s).
PDF statistics:
 10 PDF objects out of 1000 (max. 8388607)
 0 named destinations out of 1000 (max. 500000)
 1 words of extra memory for PDF output out of 10000 (max. 10000000)

Best Answer

As the log file shows, there are characters being dropped here: the most likely culprit is always something like a non-breaking space. Based on comments, it seems that these were introduced by copy-pasting the text: often risky if the source is displayed in anything other than pure plain text.

The solution is to remove the offending characters, which with a short example is best done by re-keying.

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Full Customize of Itemize and Enumerate

enumitem provides a dedicated way of dealing with this. Read more about it under section 5 Global settings (p 9) in the enumitem documentation.

The main interface provides:

\setlist[enumerate,<levels>]{<format>}
\setlist[itemize,<levels>]{<format>}
\setlist[description,<levels>]{<format>}
\setlist[<levels>]{<format>}

which can be used to set the <format> for different <levels> of the lists enumerate, itemize and description, or globally for all. Without <levels>, it applies to all levels.

The following illustration shows a nested enumerate/itemize list using the default settings on the left, while \setlist[enumerate]{noitemsep,label*=\arabic*.} has been applied to the same nested structure on the right:

enter image description here

As may be seen, only enumerate has no separation between items and a nested \arabic*. label style as supplied through \setlist.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{enumitem}% http://ctan.org/pkg/enumitem
\begin{document}

\noindent
\begin{minipage}[t]{0.5\textwidth}
\begin{enumerate}
  \item First item
  \begin{itemize}
    \item Second item
    \item Third item
    \begin{enumerate}
      \item Fourth item
      \item Fifth item
    \end{enumerate}
    \item Sixth item
    \begin{itemize}
      \item Seventh item
      \item Eighth item
    \end{itemize}
    \item Ninth item
  \end{itemize}
  \item Tenth item
\end{enumerate}
\end{minipage}%
\begin{minipage}[t]{0.5\textwidth}
\setlist[enumerate]{noitemsep,label*=\arabic*.}
\begin{enumerate}
  \item First item
  \begin{itemize}
    \item Second item
    \item Third item
    \begin{enumerate}
      \item Fourth item
      \item Fifth item
    \end{enumerate}
    \item Sixth item
    \begin{itemize}
      \item Seventh item
      \item Eighth item
    \end{itemize}
    \item Ninth item
  \end{itemize}
  \item Tenth item
\end{enumerate}
\end{minipage}

\end{document}

[Tex/LaTex] Notes in Beamer document class: lonely \item

itemize is not a valid option for the \note{} command. See this question and answers on how to get itemize bullets inside \note{}. Alternatively, use [item] as an option to get an enumerated list.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Full Customize of Itemize and Enumerate

[Tex/LaTex] Notes in Beamer document class: lonely \item

Related Question