How to make a keyword list with enumitem with labels aligned right in the margin?

Question

I kinda succeeded in doing with without using the enumitem package, by doing this: (disregard the lines, it's made with showframe)

\newenvironment*{keywordlist}{%
    \list{}{%
        \setlength{\labelwidth}{\marginparwidth}%
        \setlength{\labelsep}{\marglistsep}%
        \setlength{\leftmargin}{0pt}%
        \renewcommand*{\makelabel}[1]{\hss\marglistfont##1}%
    }%
}{%
    \endlist%
}

This works like a description environment, but the labels are moved to the margin. The labels also align to the right, i.e. the text body, separated by \marglistsep. the long label in the middle shows what should happen if the label is too long to fit entirely in the margin.

Now, I tried doing this with the function set provided by enumitem, but I got only this far:

\newlist{keywordlist}{description}{1}
\setlist[keywordlist]{style=multiline, labelsep=5pt, leftmargin=0pt, labelindent=-\marginparwidth}

This will put the labels into the margin, but I pretty much lost the separator value, and all labels are aligned to the left border, which puts a huge gap between the label and the text body. Which doesn't look too good. I like that I can make this label span multiple lines, which is why I'd like to use that over my first approach.

In essence, I'd kinda like to have best of both worlds, so the labels are aligned to the text body, could span multiple lines, but if one of those lines gets too long, it'll push the body contents inward.

Answer 1

You can try with align key of enumitem and define your own align key:

 \SetLabelAlign{myright}{strut\smash{\parbox[t]{\labelwidth}{\raggedleft#1}}}

and use it as align=myright.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{enumitem,showframe}
\SetLabelAlign{myright}{strut\smash{\parbox[t]{\labelwidth}{\raggedleft#1}}}
\newlist{keywordlist}{description}{1}
\setlist[keywordlist]{style=multiline, labelsep=5pt, leftmargin=0pt,align=myright,
           labelindent=-\marginparwidth}
\begin{document}
 \begin{keywordlist}
 \item[yow] So this is some thing
 \item[This is very long item] This is one kind. This is one kind. This is one kind. This is one kind. This is one kind. This is one kind. This is one kind.
 \item[abcde] This is another kind.
 \end{keywordlist}
\end{document}

But note that if the item label is longer and the description is shorter, you will have the overlapping of the items.