[Tex/LaTex] Moving a colorbox down and right not working with vspace and hspace

positioningspacing

I have trouble positioning a box and am not sure why this is happening. First, the expected behavior. I want the box to appear 1cm left and 1cm down from my text, like this:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{enumitem}
\usepackage[usenames,table]{xcolor}
\usepackage{tcolorbox}
\begin{document}

Here is some text, and a box should appear 1cm underneath, 1cm from the left:

  \vspace{1cm}
  \hspace{1cm}
  \colorbox{orange}{\LARGE 6-10}

\end{document}

Box down and left

However, I now want the same within a label of a description list, but very weird things happen.

Here is the code:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{enumitem}
\usepackage[usenames,table]{xcolor}
\usepackage{tcolorbox}
\begin{document}

\begin{description}[style=multiline,leftmargin=3cm]
  \item[Third item\\
  %\vspace{1cm} -- These I rotatively turn on and off
  %\hspace{1cm} -- These I rotatively turn on and off
  \colorbox{orange}{\LARGE 6-10}]
  Here is information. This is a multiline description. We will copy
  these lines a few times. Here is information. This is a multiline description.
  We will copy these lines a few times. Here is information. This is a multiline
  description. We will copy these lines a few times. Here is information. This is
  a multiline description. We will copy these lines a few times.Here is
  information. This is a multiline description. We will copy these lines a few
  time.

\end{description}

\end{document}

Here is what it looks WITHOUT any hspace and vspace:

No space

1cm vspace (???):

1cm vspace

1cm hspace (nothing happens):

1cm hspace

1cm hspace AND 1cm vspace:

both

I am a LaTeX beginner and I continue to struggle positioning boxes. I am therefore interested in the solution, but also very much would like to know a) why is this happening, b) and how could I find this out myself?

Best Answer

You need \hspace* rather than \hspace to avoid space being dropped at start of line, and you can add vertical space with \\[1cm]

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{enumitem}
\usepackage[usenames,table]{xcolor}
\usepackage{tcolorbox}
\begin{document}

\begin{description}[style=multiline,leftmargin=3cm]
  \item[{Third item\\[1cm]%
  \hspace*{1cm}%
  \colorbox{orange}{\LARGE 6-10}}]
  Here is information. This is a multiline description. We will copy
  these lines a few times. Here is information. This is a multiline description.
  We will copy these lines a few times. Here is information. This is a multiline
  description. We will copy these lines a few times. Here is information. This is
  a multiline description. We will copy these lines a few times.Here is
  information. This is a multiline description. We will copy these lines a few
  time.

\end{description}

\end{document}
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