[Tex/LaTex] Make the lines of a description item line up

descriptionindentationline-breaking

I am trying to line up the lines of a single description item. When I introduce a line-break or when the line becomes to long, the new line isn't lined up with the first one. I'm aware of the fact that the first line has to deal with the space that is taken by the label, but I want other lines to start a the same position (horizontally) no matter what.
Here is an exemplary code which illustrates my problem:

\documentclass[12pt,a4paper]{article}
\begin{document}
\begin{description}
\item [Label]Here is a long item that requires a line break. The second line of this item 
won't line up with the first word. I can achieve this manually\\ \hspace*{2mm} by forcing a
line break and setting an apropriate value in \textbackslash hspace*, but I want this to be 
automised. Please help me.
\end{description}

\end{document}

It comes out looking like this:
My output

I appreciate any help on this. It is driving me nuts.

Best Answer

If i did understand you correctly, the labeling environment provided by the KOMA-script package does the job you want:

\documentclass[12pt,a4paper]{article}
\usepackage{scrextend}
\usepackage{blindtext}
\setkomafont{labelinglabel}{\bfseries}
\usepackage{showframe}
\begin{document}
\begin{labeling}{A long long label}%Giving the longest label for alignment
    \item [Label] 
        Here is a long item that requires a line break. The second
        line of this item won't line up with the first word. I can
        achieve this manually\\
        by forcing a line break and setting an apropriate value in
        \textbackslash hspace*, but I want this to be automised.
        Please help me.
    \item [A long long label] 
        a manual linebreak, though not
        recommended \\
        \blindtext
\end{labeling}
\end{document}

Here package scrextend provides all you need, switching to a koma class (scrartcl) could be an advantage. The labeling environment takes the longest label as the argument, needed for the right alignment. This argument can also be shorter, just play a bit.

enter image description here

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] linebreak in description title

If your description items may be longer than a line I would suggest to use a paragraph or subparagraph instead:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[english]{babel}
\usepackage{blindtext}

\newcommand*{\mtol}{This is some more text than fit at ony line but only some
  and not a lot}

\begin{document}
\subparagraph{\mtol} \blindtext
\subparagraph{Or with less text} \blindtext
\subparagraph{\mtol} \blindtext
\subparagraph{\mtol} \blindtext

\end{document}

This may result in

result of the example

This may or may not be what you want. If you don't like the par indent before the label, simply replace \subparagraph by \paragraph.

Or you may define your own multi line description environment, e.g. using addmargin environment of KOMA-Script package scrextend:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[english]{babel}
\usepackage{blindtext}
\usepackage{scrextend}

\newcommand*{\mtol}{This is some more text than fit at ony line but only some
  and not a lot}

\newenvironment{mldescription}{%
  \begin{addmargin}[2em]{1em}
    \setlength{\parindent}{-1em}%
    \newcommand*{\mlitem}[1]{\par\textbf{##1}\quad}\indent
}{%
  \end{addmargin}
  \medskip
}

\begin{document}
\blindtext
\begin{mldescription}
\mlitem{\mtol} \blindtext
\mlitem{Or with less text} \blindtext
\mlitem{\mtol} \blindtext
\mlitem{\mtol} \blindtext
\end{mldescription}
\blindtext

\end{document}

This would result in

result of mldescription list

That should almost be, what you want. If you want more or less indention or more or less hanging text, simply change the values of the addmargin environment or the \parindent.

And if you want additional vertical space between the items you may add this to the definition of the new environment too:

\newenvironment{mldescription}{%
  \begin{addmargin}[2em]{1em}
    \setlength{\parindent}{-1em}%
    \newcommand*{\mlitem}[1]{\par\medskip% vertical space
      \textbf{##1}\quad}\indent
}{%
  \end{addmargin}
  \bigskip% changed to have more vertical space than between items
}

same with vertical space

If you're already using a KOMA-Script class, you don't need to load package scrextend.

[Tex/LaTex] Line break after description label

The insertion of an empty item seems to give a better vertical spacing. One can define a myitemize environment that includes this empty item; that will prevent typing it for each description item:

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{enumitem}

\newenvironment{myitemize}%
{\begin{itemize}\item[]}
{\end{itemize}}

\begin{document}

\begin{description}[style = sameline, leftmargin = 1em]
\item[Animals:]
  \begin{itemize}
  \item[]
  \item Dog
  \item Cat
  \item Fish
  \end{itemize}

\item[Colors:]
  \begin{myitemize}
  \item Red
  \item Green
  \item Blue
  \end{myitemize}
\end{description}

\end{document}

enter image description here

Best Answer

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] linebreak in description title

[Tex/LaTex] Line break after description label

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