4.3 The List Environment
The list environment in LaTex is a high level place holder for structured text. Tightly structured text entries avoid verbosity and aid in assimilation of the information being presented.
The list environment, therefore, includes
- Unoredered (bulleted) items
- Ordered (numbered) items
- ‘Description’ items
A bulleted list environment is clled with \begin{itemize};numbered lists are called by \begin{enumerate} and \begin{description} for description lists. Each of the list blocks has to be closed with an appropriate \end{} command. LaTex provides flexibility in options for bullet shapes, numbering styles etc, apart from the options for fonts (families, weights and size).
The code snippet below produces the output in Figure 4.3 as a shopfloor instruction sheet.
| 1. \documentclass[12pt]{article} 2. \usepackage[margin=1in]{geometry} 3. \pagestyle{empty} 4. \usepackage{multicol} %sets up a multi-coumn environment 5. \setlength{\columnseprule}{0.4pt} %sets thickness of the column separator rule 6. \begin{document} 7. \begin{multicols}{3} %calls a three column canvas 8. \section*{\centering{Itemize}} 9. \begin{itemize} %bulleted list 10. \item This is the first entry 11. \item This is the second entry 12. \item Here is the third entry 13. \item Last and final entry\\ 14. 15. \end{itemize} 16. \section*{\centering{Enumerate}} 17. \begin{enumerate} %numbered lists 18. \item This is the first entry 19. \item This is the second entry 20. \item Here is the third entry 21. \item Last and final entry 22. \end{enumerate} 23. 24. \section*{\centering{Description}} 25. \begin{description} %a descriotion list 26. \item[Blackhole] is a region in space-time where gravity is so strong that even light cannot escape 27. \item[Brown dwarfs] Sub-stellar objects, heavier than a planet but not heavy enough to qualify as a self-sustaining star 28. \end{description} 29. \end{multicols} 30. \end{document} |
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Figure 4.3 Three types of lists