Enumerate environment with tabular layout

Question

I'm new to Latex. I'm familiar with the enumerate environment as well as the tabular environment, but I am trying to combine the two; that is to say, I want the items in the list to be broken up into several columns rather than one long column. Any tips?

Answer 1

A little example with the multienum package:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{multienum}

\begin{document}

\begin{multienumerate}
  \mitemxxxx{First}{Second}{Third}{Fourth}
  \mitemxxxx{Fifth}{Sixth}{Seventh}{Eigth}
\end{multienumerate}

\end{document}

Since multienum internally uses a \hsize length set to \textwidth, the results obtained inside other environments (lists like enumerate, for example) might not be as expected. This can be fixed by setting \hsize to \linewidth. The following example illustrates the problem and the solution:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{multienum}

\begin{document}

\begin{enumerate}
\item First item with a standard \verb!multienumerate!:
\begin{multienumerate}
  \mitemxxxx{First}{Second}{Third}{Fourth}
  \mitemxxxx{Fifth}{Sixth}{Seventh}{Eigth}
\end{multienumerate}
\end{enumerate}

\begin{enumerate}
\setlength\hsize{\linewidth}
\item First item with a modified \verb!multienumerate!:
\begin{multienumerate}
  \mitemxxxx{First}{Second}{Third}{Fourth}
  \mitemxxxx{Fifth}{Sixth}{Seventh}{Eigth}
\end{multienumerate}
\end{enumerate}

\end{document}

Answer 2

Are you possibly interested in typesetting enumerated material in a multicolumn setting? If so, the multicol package, which lets you switch from a single-column to, say, a 4-column layout (and back) on the fly, may be of interest.

The following MWE shows how it may be used (the "lipsum" package provides filler text). Note that the text in the enumerate environment will be "balanced" across columns, i.e., each item will not necessarily start in a new column.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{multicol,lipsum}
\usepackage[margin=0.75in]{geometry}
\begin{document}
\lipsum[1]
\begin{multicols}{4}
\begin{enumerate}
\item \lipsum[2]
\item \lipsum[3]
\item \lipsum[4]
\item \lipsum[5]
\end{enumerate}
\end{multicols}
\lipsum[6]
\end{document}

Answer 3

You can use the \newcolumntype from the array package to define a custom column (which numbers the columns). So if you want the column numbered just use the newly defined enumerated) E column type. Below, I defined the first column to be a normal right aligned column, but the others are the enumerated column types.

Also, I added \setcounter{MyCounter}{0} after row 2 to illustrate what you need to do if you want to start a new list on the following row.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{array}
\usepackage[inline]{enumitem}

\newcounter{MyCounter}%
\newcommand*{\rowNumber}{%
   \refstepcounter{MyCounter}%
   \theMyCounter.~%
}%

\newcolumntype{E}{>\rowNumber l}% enumerate column type

\begin{document}
\begin{tabular}{rEEEE}
first row& a & b & c\\
second row& d & e & f\\\setcounter{MyCounter}{0}
third row& g & h & i\\
\end{tabular}
\end{document}

If you prefer different label styles, you can customize the \theMyCounter.~% line.