[Tex/LaTex] Paragraph numbers at left margin

numberingparagraphs

I would like to number some paragraphs of some sections inside a big document as described in https://stackoverflow.com/questions/543208/how-can-one-number-paragraphs-in-latex, see below:

\newcounter{parnum}
\newcommand{\N}{%
   \noindent\refstepcounter{parnum}%
    \makebox[\parindent][l]{\textbf{[\Alph{parnum}].}}}
% Use a generous paragraph indent so numbers can be fit inside the
% indentation space.
\setlength{\parindent}{2em}

This numbers the paragraphs I wanted, by putting \N before the desired paragraphs.

But I would like the paragraph numbers [A], [B], [C] to be in the left margin, while the paragraphs rest indented normally.

Do you have any suggestions?

Best Answer

One could use the following definition of \N to achieve what you want:

enter image description here

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage[nopar]{lipsum}% Just for this example

\newcounter{parnum}
\newlength{\parnumwidth}
\setlength{\parnumwidth}{3em}
\newcommand{\N}{%
  \noindent\refstepcounter{parnum}%
  \makebox[0pt][r]{\makebox[\parnumwidth][l]{\textbf{[\Alph{parnum}].}}}%
  \hspace*{\parindent}\ignorespaces}
\setlength{\parindent}{2em}

\begin{document}

\lipsum[1]

\N\lipsum[2]

\lipsum[3]

\end{document}

The paragraph number is placed in the margin using a "\llap" which is placed inside a box of width \parnumwidth (set to 3em).

You could also consider using a \marginpar, which allows you to place content in the margin in a more flexible way:

enter image description here

\documentclass{article}

\reversemarginpar% Keep \marginpar in left margin
\newcounter{parnum}
\newcommand{\N}{%
  \leavevmode\refstepcounter{parnum}%
  \marginpar{\textbf{[\Alph{parnum}].}}}%
\setlength{\parindent}{2em}

\begin{document}

\N Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Phasellus maximus tortor id suscipit sodales. 
Aenean dui orci, congue in quam id, venenatis dignissim felis. Proin leo massa, convallis eu purus ut, 
bibendum iaculis odio. Sed et lacinia nibh. Duis rhoncus rhoncus lorem, vel sodales est feugiat id. 
Maecenas consectetur dolor vitae sem elementum tincidunt. Nunc in posuere purus. Sed congue ullamcorper 
felis, eget efficitur eros maximus in. Nam placerat justo risus, mollis fermentum velit tempus vestibulum. 
Vivamus placerat neque eu dolor rhoncus blandit. Ut aliquet enim eget nisl luctus euismod. Vivamus 
laoreet, elit eu aliquet bibendum, \N magna lorem efficitur turpis, ac cursus tellus tellus non magna. 
Nullam justo erat, imperdiet vel diam eu, auctor luctus dui. Fusce eleifend sem a pulvinar suscipit. 
Praesent facilisis, velit eget placerat mollis, magna magna venenatis est, at fringilla nulla purus sed dolor.

\end{document}

You may adjust the placement, if needed.

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] How to number paragraphs (and sections) in the margin

After giving a look at the linked document, I could detect six sectional units: chapters, sections, numbered subsections with title, numbered subsections without title, numbered subsubsections with title, and numbered subsubsections without title. So the problem is how to define these six sectional units.

The code below shows a possible solution using the titlesec package; the underlaying idea is to use \llap and \parboxes to typeset the numbers hanging onto the margin. The length \titleindent allows you to easily control the hanging indent.

\paragraph has been changed so that it will allow numbered subsections without title and \subparagraph was also redefined to allow numbered subsubsections.

The following table shows the "dictionary" between each secional unit of the document and the LaTeX command that will be used to typeset it:

Chapters -> \chapter
Sections -> \section
Numbered subsections with title -> \subsection
Numbered subsections without title -> \paragraph
Numbered subsubsections with title -> \subsubsection
Numbered subsubsections without title -> \subparagraph

And here's the code (feel free to make the necessary adjustments to satisfy your requirements):

\documentclass{book}
\usepackage{titlesec}
\usepackage{etoolbox}
\usepackage{lipsum}

\setcounter{secnumdepth}{5}
\renewcommand\thesection{\arabic{section}}

% this length controls tha hanging indent for titles
% change the value according to your needs
\newlength\titleindent
\setlength\titleindent{2cm}

\pretocmd{\paragraph}{\stepcounter{subsection}}{}{}
\pretocmd{\subparagraph}{\stepcounter{subsubsection}}{}{}

\titleformat{\chapter}[block]
  {\normalfont\huge\bfseries}{}{0pt}{\hspace*{-\titleindent}}

\titleformat{\section}
  {\normalfont\Large\bfseries}{\llap{\parbox{\titleindent}{\thesection\hfill}}}{0em}{}

\titleformat{\subsection}
  {\normalfont\large}{\llap{\parbox{\titleindent}{\thesubsection\hfill}}}{0em}{\bfseries}

\titleformat{\subsubsection}
  {\normalfont\normalsize}{\llap{\parbox{\titleindent}{\thesubsubsection}}}{0em}{\bfseries}

\titleformat{\paragraph}[runin]
  {\normalfont\large}{\llap{\parbox{\titleindent}{\thesubsection\hfill}}}{0em}{}

\titleformat{\subparagraph}[runin]
  {\normalfont\normalsize}{\llap{\parbox{\titleindent}{\thesubsubsection\hfill}}}{0em}{}

\titlespacing*{\chapter}{0pt}{0pt}{20pt}
\titlespacing*{\subsubsection}{0pt}{3.25ex plus 1ex minus .2ex}{1.5ex plus .2ex}
\titlespacing*{\paragraph}{0pt}{3.25ex plus 1ex minus .2ex}{0em}
\titlespacing*{\subparagraph}{0pt}{3.25ex plus 1ex minus .2ex}{0em}

\begin{document}

\chapter{Test chapter}
\section{Test Section}
\lipsum[2]
\subsection{Test Subsection}
\lipsum[2]
\paragraph{}% acts like a numbered subsection without title
\lipsum[2]
\subsubsection{Test Subsubsection}
\lipsum[2]
\subparagraph{}% acts like a numbered subsubsection without title
\lipsum[2]

\end{document}

enter image description here

The previous approach assumes that you won't use \paragraph and \subparagraph with their standard formatting; another (perhaps more sensible) option is to define two fresh new sectional units; this, of course, requires a little additional work, but now you will have the standard sectional units plus the two new ones.

The following code illustrates this approach defining \subsectionwt (for numbered subsections without titles) and \subsubsectionwt (for numbered subsubsections without titles); it also makes the necessary provisions for the ToC.

The new "dictionary" is now:

Chapters -> \chapter
Sections -> \section
Numbered subsections with title -> \subsection
Numbered subsections without title -> \subsectionwt
Numbered subsubsections with title -> \subsubsection
Numbered subsubsections without title -> \subsubsectionwt
Paragraphs -> \paragraph
Subparagraphs -> \subparagraph

The example code:

\documentclass{book}
\usepackage{titlesec,titletoc}
\usepackage{etoolbox}
\usepackage{lipsum}

\setcounter{secnumdepth}{5}
\renewcommand\thesection{\arabic{section}}

% this length controls tha hanging indent for titles
% change the value according to your needs
\newlength\titleindent
\setlength\titleindent{2cm}

% counters for the new sectional units
\newcounter{subsectionwt}
\newcounter{subsubsectionwt}

% definition of the new sectional units with the representation of the counters
\titleclass{\subsectionwt}{straight}[\subsubsection]
\renewcommand{\thesubsectionwt}{\thesection.\arabic{subsectionwt}}

\titleclass{\subsubsectionwt}{straight}[\subsectionwt]
\renewcommand{\thesubsubsectionwt}{\thesubsection.\arabic{subsubsectionwt}}

% \subsection must increase the subsectionwt counter
% and \subsectionwt must increase the subsection counter
% Analogous treatment for \subsubsection and \subsubsectionwt
\pretocmd{\subsectionwt}{\stepcounter{subsection}}{}{}
\pretocmd{\subsection}{\stepcounter{subsectionwt}}{}{}
\pretocmd{\subsubsectionwt}{\stepcounter{subsubsection}}{}{}
\pretocmd{\subsubsection}{\stepcounter{subsubsectionwt}}{}{}

% format for the sectional units
\titleformat{\chapter}[block]
  {\normalfont\huge\bfseries}{}{0pt}{\hspace*{-\titleindent}}

\titleformat{\section}
  {\normalfont\Large\bfseries}{\llap{\parbox{\titleindent}{\thesection\hfill}}}{0em}{}

\titleformat{\subsection}
  {\normalfont\large}{\llap{\parbox{\titleindent}{\thesubsection\hfill}}}{0em}{\bfseries}

\titleformat{\subsectionwt}[runin]
  {\normalfont\large}{\llap{\parbox{\titleindent}{\thesubsectionwt\hfill}}}{0em}{\bfseries}

\titleformat{\subsubsection}
  {\normalfont\normalsize}{\llap{\parbox{\titleindent}{\thesubsubsection}}}{0em}{\bfseries}

\titleformat{\subsubsectionwt}[runin]
  {\normalfont\normalsize}{\llap{\parbox{\titleindent}{\thesubsubsectionwt}}}{0em}{\bfseries}

\titlespacing*{\chapter}{0pt}{0pt}{20pt}
\titlespacing*{\subsection}{0pt}{3.25ex plus 1ex minus .2ex}{1.5ex plus .2ex}
\titlespacing*{\subsectionwt}{0pt}{3.25ex plus 1ex minus .2ex}{0em}
\titlespacing*{\subsubsection}{0pt}{3.25ex plus 1ex minus .2ex}{1.5ex plus .2ex}
\titlespacing*{\subsubsectionwt}{0pt}{3.25ex plus 1ex minus .2ex}{0em}

% numbered entries without title shouldn't go to the ToC
\titlecontents{subsectionwt}[]{}{}{}{}
\titlecontents{subsubsectionwt}[]{}{}{}{}

\begin{document}

\tableofcontents

\chapter{Test chapter}
\section{Test Section}
\lipsum[2]
\subsection{Test Subsection}
\lipsum[2]
\subsectionwt{}% for numbered subsections without title
\lipsum[2]
\subsubsection{Test Subsubsection}
\lipsum[2]
\subsubsectionwt{}% for numbered subsubsections without title
\lipsum[2]

\end{document}

[Tex/LaTex] Indenting text after numbered paragraphs

Update: KOMA-script version 3.17 (or newer)

With KOMA-Script version the command \othersectionlevelsformat is depreciated. You have to use instead \sectionformat, \subsectionformat etc. So the code changes to

% -*- program: xelatex -*-
\documentclass[english, parskip=full, fontsize=11, DIV12, toc=left, numbers=noenddot]{scrartcl}
\usepackage{babel}
\usepackage{amsmath}
% just so we can see what is going on for now
\usepackage{showframe}
\usepackage{blindtext}
% tighten up spacing of lists
\usepackage{enumitem}
\setlist{noitemsep}

\setcounter{secnumdepth}{4}
\newcommand\p{\paragraph{}}

\newcommand\secnumindent{1.5cm}
\RedeclareSectionCommands[indent=-\secnumindent]{section,subsection,paragraph}
\RedeclareSectionCommand[afterskip=0pt,counterwithin=subsection]{paragraph}
\renewcommand\sectionformat{\parbox{\secnumindent}{\thesection\autodot}}
\renewcommand\subsectionformat{\parbox{\secnumindent}{\thesubsection\autodot}}
\renewcommand\subsubsectionformat{\parbox{\secnumindent}{\thesubsubsection\autodot}}
\renewcommand\paragraphformat{\parbox{\secnumindent}{\theparagraph\autodot}}

% from the answer of @Steven:
\addtolength\hoffset{\secnumindent}
\addtolength\textwidth{-\secnumindent}
%
% make sure paragraphs reset counting also at sections    
%
\makeatletter
\@addtoreset{paragraph}{section}
\makeatother
% to reset headwidth and footwidth
\usepackage[
  headwidth=\the\textwidth+\secnumindent:-\secnumindent,
  footwidth=head:-\secnumindent,
  headsepline,% to show the headwidth
  footsepline% to show the footwidth
]{scrlayer-scrpage}
%
% AND NOW WE BEGIN
%
\begin{document}
\section{Section}
\subsection {Subsection}\label{sec:first}
\p \blindtext
% a reference
\p See \ref{sec:first}
% an example numbered paragraph with an embedded list
\p \blindtext
\begin{itemize}
\item Item 1
\item Item 2
\item Item 3
\end{itemize}
and some words at the end of this para

% an example numbered paragraph with a simple equation
\p The period is defined by a pair of days ($D_l$, $D_u$) where 
\begin{align*}
D_{l} & =  \text{the lower date}  \\
D_{u} & =  \text{the upper date}
\end{align*}
and things happen for all days $d$ where $D_l <= d< D_u$. 
\section{Next section}
\subsection{Next subsection}
\p \blindtext
\end{document}

The result is the same as in the picture below.

If this should be compilable with versions 3.15 and 3.16 too insert

\renewcommand\othersectionlevelsformat[3]{\parbox{\secnumindent}{#3\autodot}}
\providecommand\sectionformat{}\providecommand\subsectionformat{}
\providecommand\subsubsectionformat{}\providecommand\paragraphformat{}

just before redefining \sectionformat etc.

KOMA-script version 3.15 and 3.16

You can use the new commands \RedeclareSectionCommand or \RedeclareSectionCommands and redefine \othersectionlevelsformat. So it is still possible to refer to a section number by \ref:

\setcounter{secnumdepth}{4}
\newcommand\p{\paragraph{}}

\newcommand\secnumindent{1.5cm}
\RedeclareSectionCommands[indent=-\secnumindent]{section,subsection,paragraph}
\RedeclareSectionCommand[afterskip=0pt,counterwithin=subsection]{paragraph}
\renewcommand\othersectionlevelsformat[3]{\parbox{\secnumindent}{#3\autodot}}

% from the answer of @Steven:
\addtolength\hoffset{\secnumindent}
\addtolength\textwidth{-\secnumindent}
%
% make sure paragraphs reset counting also at sections    
%
\makeatletter
\@addtoreset{paragraph}{section}
\makeatother

To reset the original headwidth and footwidth you can use

\usepackage[
  headwidth=\the\textwidth+\secnumindent:-\secnumindent,
  footwidth=head:-\secnumindent,
  headsepline,% to show the headwidth
  footsepline% to show the footwidth
]{scrlayer-scrpage}

enter image description here

Code:

% -*- program: xelatex -*-
\documentclass[english, parskip=full, fontsize=11, DIV12, toc=left, numbers=noenddot]{scrartcl}
\usepackage{babel}
\usepackage{amsmath}
% just so we can see what is going on for now
\usepackage{showframe}
\usepackage{blindtext}
% tighten up spacing of lists
\usepackage{enumitem}
\setlist{noitemsep}

\setcounter{secnumdepth}{4}
\newcommand\p{\paragraph{}}

\newcommand\secnumindent{1.5cm}
\RedeclareSectionCommands[indent=-\secnumindent]{section,subsection,paragraph}
\RedeclareSectionCommand[afterskip=0pt,counterwithin=subsection]{paragraph}
\renewcommand\othersectionlevelsformat[3]{\parbox{\secnumindent}{#3\autodot}}

% from the answer of @Steven:
\addtolength\hoffset{\secnumindent}
\addtolength\textwidth{-\secnumindent}
%
% make sure paragraphs reset counting also at sections    
%
\makeatletter
\@addtoreset{paragraph}{section}
\makeatother
% to reset headwidth and footwidth
\usepackage[
  headwidth=\the\textwidth+\secnumindent:-\secnumindent,
  footwidth=head:-\secnumindent,
  headsepline,% to show the headwidth
  footsepline% to show the footwidth
]{scrlayer-scrpage}
%
% AND NOW WE BEGIN
%
\begin{document}
\section{Section}
\subsection {Subsection}\label{sec:first}
\p \blindtext
% a reference
\p See \ref{sec:first}
% an example numbered paragraph with an embedded list
\p \blindtext
\begin{itemize}
\item Item 1
\item Item 2
\item Item 3
\end{itemize}
and some words at the end of this para

% an example numbered paragraph with a simple equation
\p The period is defined by a pair of days ($D_l$, $D_u$) where 
\begin{align*}
D_{l} & =  \text{the lower date}  \\
D_{u} & =  \text{the upper date}
\end{align*}
and things happen for all days $d$ where $D_l <= d< D_u$. 
\section{Next section}
\subsection{Next subsection}
\p \blindtext
\end{document}

KOMA-Script version 3.14 (or older)

Here is another suggestion using the answer by @Steven but redefining \othersectionlevelsformat instead of \thesection. So it is still possible to refer to a section number by \ref:

\newcommand\p{\paragraph{}\hspace*{-1em}}

\newcommand\secnumindent{1.5cm}
\renewcommand\othersectionlevelsformat[3]{\makebox[0pt][r]{\parbox{\secnumindent}{#3\autodot}}}
% from the answer of @Steven:
\addtolength\hoffset{\secnumindent}
\addtolength\textwidth{-\secnumindent}

Code:

% -*- program: xelatex -*-
\documentclass[english, parskip=full, fontsize=11, DIV12, toc=left, numbers=noenddot]{scrartcl}
\usepackage{babel}
\usepackage{amsmath}
% just so we can see what is going on for now
\usepackage{showframe}
\usepackage{blindtext}
% tighten up spacing of lists
\usepackage{enumitem}
\setlist{noitemsep}

\setcounter{secnumdepth}{4}
\renewcommand\theparagraph{\thesubsection.\arabic{paragraph}}
\newcommand\p{\paragraph{}\hspace*{-1em}}

\newcommand\secnumindent{1.5cm}
\renewcommand\othersectionlevelsformat[3]{\makebox[0pt][r]{\parbox{\secnumindent}{#3\autodot}}}
% from the answer of @Steven:
\addtolength\hoffset{\secnumindent}
\addtolength\textwidth{-\secnumindent}
% to reset headwidth and footwidth
\usepackage[
  headwidth=\the\textwidth+\secnumindent:-\secnumindent,
  footwidth=head:-\secnumindent,
  headsepline,% to show the headwidth
  footsepline% to show the footwidth
]{scrlayer-scrpage}
%
% make sure paragraphs reset counting at section and subsections
%
\makeatletter
\@addtoreset{paragraph}{subsection}
\@addtoreset{paragraph}{section}
\makeatother
%
% AND NOW WE BEGIN
%
\begin{document}
\section{Section}
\subsection {Subsection}\label{sec:first}
\p \blindtext
% a reference
\p See \ref{sec:first}
% an example numbered paragraph with an embedded list
\p \blindtext
\begin{itemize}
\item Item 1
\item Item 2
\item Item 3
\end{itemize}
and some words at the end of this para

% an example numbered paragraph with a simple equation
\p The period is defined by a pair of days ($D_l$, $D_u$) where 
\begin{align*}
D_{l} & =  \text{the lower date}  \\
D_{u} & =  \text{the upper date}
\end{align*}
and things happen for all days $d$ where $D_l <= d< D_u$. 
\section{Next section}
\subsection{Next subsection}
\p \blindtext
\end{document}

Best Answer

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] How to number paragraphs (and sections) in the margin

[Tex/LaTex] Indenting text after numbered paragraphs

Related Question