# in Beamer, how to remove left margin/indent of a description list

I have a two column frame with a plot one the left, and a description list on the right

  \begin{columns}
\begin{column}{.4\textwidth}
\begin{center}
\includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{../Figs/fig1}
\end{center}
\end{column}

\begin{column}{.6\textwidth}
\begin{description}
\item[$E_{t,i}$] The $i$th transmitted signal vector
\item[$E_{r,i}$] The $i$th received signal vector
\item[$E_{err,i}$] The $i$th error vector
\end{description}
\end{column}
\end{columns}


However there is a big spacing between the figure and the list, and it is due to the left margin of the description list. I tried to remove it by following this post and set the leftmargin and labelindent parameter to zero or even negative numbers, but it didn't work. How can I remove the spacing?

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You need to adjust the space beamer reserves for the description label, using the optional argument to the environment:

\RequirePackage[demo]{graphicx}
\documentclass{beamer}
\begin{document}

\begin{frame}
\begin{columns}
\begin{column}{.4\textwidth}
\begin{center}
\includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{../Figs/fig1}
\end{center}
\end{column}
\begin{column}{.6\textwidth}
\begin{description}[$E_{err,i}$]
\item[$E_{t,i}$] The $i$th transmitted signal vector
\item[$E_{r,i}$] The $i$th received signal vector
\item[$E_{err,i}$] The $i$th error vector
\end{description}
\end{column}
\end{columns}
\end{frame}

\end{document}


(See beamer manual, p. 113 for v. 3.27.)

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It works, but it does not work with the enumitem package. –  LWZ Sep 8 '13 at 19:16

A workaround would be to shift the left column by hand (of course you would have to to do this on every slide on which you encounter this problem)

\RequirePackage[demo]{graphicx}
\documentclass{beamer}
\begin{document}

\begin{frame}
\begin{columns}
\begin{column}{.4\textwidth}
\begin{center}
\includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{../Figs/fig1}
\end{center}
\end{column}
\hspace*{-2cm}
\begin{column}{.6\textwidth}
\begin{description}
\item[$E_{t,i}$] The $i$th transmitted signal vector
\item[$E_{r,i}$] The $i$th received signal vector
\item[$E_{err,i}$] The $i$th error vector
\end{description}
\end{column}
\end{columns}
\end{frame}

\end{document}

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