minipage breaking, or some other route to layout

Question

I'm trying to make a resume with a 2 column layout, where I'll have something like

[SECTION NAME] * space * [DETAILS]

For example:

Work experience[spaaaaaaaaaaaaaace]Some location, 2 years, etc
               [spaaaaaaaaaaaaaace]Another location, 1 year

Education[spaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaace]Some degree

Note that I want the right column to be left aligned to the same position.

I have been trying this with two minipages for each section. It seems to work well, but the problem is that Latex doesn't split the minipages, and forces them to their own page. I'd like the sections to generally follow each other immediately, and break where necessary. Something tells me that minipage is not up to the task: what's an alternative?

Answer 1

You could use the labeling environment which is part of the KOMA-Script classes and the scrextend package. (And yes, the labeling environment allows page breaks.)

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{scrextend}
\addtokomafont{labelinglabel}{\bfseries\sffamily}

\begin{document}

\begin{labeling}{(longest item name)\quad}
\item[Work experience] Some location, 2 years, etc\\
    Another location, 1 year
\item[Education] Some degree
\end{labeling}

\end{document}

If you need line breaks in the first column, use a longtable.

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{array}
\usepackage{longtable}
\renewcommand*{\arraystretch}{1.5}

\begin{document}

\begin{longtable}{>{\bfseries\sffamily}p{3cm}p{10cm}}
Work experience & Some location, 2 years, etc \newline Another location, 1 year \\
Education & Some degree \\
A long item name with a line break & Works! \\
\end{longtable}

\end{document}