Difference between revisions of "Description"

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m (fix some display problems)
(Added improved explanation (after looking this up in the LaTeX manual), example.)
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=== LaTeX ===
 
=== LaTeX ===
 +
 +
LaTeX provides a <tt>description</tt> environment, which works just like an itemized or enumerated list except that the item labels are specified by an (optional) argument to the <tt>\item</tt> command, rather than being automatically generated.  This is useful for making lists of definitions and other sorts of descriptions that are headed by a keyword.
 +
 
<texcode>
 
<texcode>
 
\documentclass{article}
 
\documentclass{article}
 
\begin{document}
 
\begin{document}
 
\begin{description}
 
\begin{description}
\item[Short label] bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla
+
\item[Short] This is a shorter item label, and some text that talks about it.
  bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla
+
The text is wrapped into a paragraph, with successive lines indented.
\item[Very long label] bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla
+
\item[Rather longer label] This is a longer item label.  As you can see, the
  bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla
+
text is not started a specified distance in -- unlike with other lists -- but
 +
is spaced a fixed distance from the end of the label.
 
\end{description}
 
\end{description}
 
\end{document}
 
\end{document}

Revision as of 19:14, 4 September 2005

< From LaTeX to ConTeXt >

A Basic Description Environment

LaTeX

LaTeX provides a description environment, which works just like an itemized or enumerated list except that the item labels are specified by an (optional) argument to the \item command, rather than being automatically generated. This is useful for making lists of definitions and other sorts of descriptions that are headed by a keyword.

\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
\begin{description}
\item[Short] This is a shorter item label, and some text that talks about it.
The text is wrapped into a paragraph, with successive lines indented.
\item[Rather longer label] This is a longer item label.  As you can see, the
text is not started a specified distance in -- unlike with other lists -- but
is spaced a fixed distance from the end of the label.
\end{description}
\end{document}

ConTeXt

\setupdescription with some special parameters (location=hanging, width=broad, margin=indentation)

\definedescription[notation][
  headstyle=bold,style=normal,align=left,location=hanging,
  width=broad,margin=1cm]

\starttext
\notation{A very very very very long item}
  bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla
  bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla
  bla bla bla bla

\notation{i}
  bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla
  bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla
  bla bla bla bla

\stoptext

The empty lines (or \par) after each description (here notation) are necessary.

The result looks like this:

Hint: This solution uses the distance=dimension distance for separation of label and text.


Description with minimal label width:

LaTeX

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{mdwlist}
\begin{document}
\begin{basedescript}{\desclabelstyle{\pushlabel}\desclabelwidth{6em}}
\item[Label] bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla
  bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla
\item[Very long label] bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla
  bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla
\end{basedescript}
\end{document}

ConTeXt

Using an explicit dimension as argument for the 'width' parameter sets the label to 6em: