# Flexible/automatic alternative to multienum?

I'd like to typeset the items in an enumerate environment side-by-side. Preferably, each item would take up only as much space as necessary, perhaps plus some extra padding, and the next item would be immediately after it (unless, of course, the items ran off the end of the page, in which case it should wrap to the next line, but in my situation this won't be happening).

I found the multienum package, but it only has a certain number of positioning options, rather than automatically laying out items like would normally be done with text. Its syntax may also be slightly horrifying.

Any suggestions for alternatives?

Edit: this is what I'm eventually going for (multiple sub-items on their own line):

(a) Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do
eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.
[ 1 2 ]          [ x 0 ]
(i)  [ 3 4 ]    (ii)  [ 0 3 ]    (iii) etc.
[ 5 6 ]          [-2 4 ]

(b) ...


with a reasonable amount of horizontal space between items.

-
Do you want this list to be typeset inside a paragraph? Or do you just want a list that takes up less real estate but would still be typeset on its own in a separate paragraph-like style? Better yet, how about creating a visual of what you're after, even if you have to typeset it manually. –  Werner Nov 2 '11 at 5:20
@Werner: Sure, I've added a quick ASCII-art example of what I'm looking for. –  jtbandes Nov 2 '11 at 5:32

## 2 Answers

I'd suggest inparaenum from the paralist package.

PS. The original poster asked for the way to increase spacing between items. Sorry, my answers in the middle of the night were wrong. Here is one possibility:

\documentclass{article}
\pagestyle{empty}
\usepackage{paralist}
\begin{document}
\begin{inparaenum}[\hspace{1em}1.]
\item One.
\item Two.
\end{inparaenum}
\end{document}


-
Do you know of any way to increase the space between items of inparaenum? –  jtbandes Nov 2 '11 at 5:02
Surely. Set \plitemsep to a larger value. –  Boris Nov 2 '11 at 5:07
I'm using \addtolength{\plitemsep}{1em} before my inparaenum but I can't see a difference in the output. Is there something special I need to do? –  jtbandes Nov 2 '11 at 5:23

The enumitem package offers the option to typeset inline lists using enumerate*

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage[inline]{enumitem}

\begin{document}
\begin{enumerate*}
\item one
\item two
\end{enumerate*}
\end{document}


You can customize the joining text using itemjoin.

Edit: Here's a mock-up of your MWE:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{lipsum}% http://ctan.org/pkg/lipsum
\usepackage[inline]{enumitem}% http://ctan.org/pkg/enumitem
\begin{document}
\begin{enumerate}[label=(\alph*)]
\item \lipsum[1]
\begin{enumerate*}[label=(\roman*),itemjoin=\hspace{2em}]
\item $\left[\begin{array}{cc}1&2\\3&4\\5&6\end{array}\right]$
\item $\left[\begin{array}{cc}x&0\\0&3\\-2&4\end{array}\right]$
\item \textit{etc.}
\end{enumerate*}
\item \lipsum[2]
\end{enumerate}
\end{document}

-
Huh. Is this generally preferred over inparaenum from paralist, as Boris suggested? –  jtbandes Nov 2 '11 at 4:57
Not sure about general preference, I'll let the community handle this question with their comments & upvotes :) –  cmhughes Nov 2 '11 at 5:00
@jtbandes: enumitem is very flexible and provides a much more general approach to lists. paralist, as the name states, is a more specific list environment, aimed at paragraph-style lists. –  Werner Nov 2 '11 at 5:24
@Werner Thanks for the edit! When I posted, the OP's example was not available. –  cmhughes Nov 2 '11 at 13:09
@cmhughes: I hope it didn't seem too forward. I was working on something with shortlst which wasn't as straight-forward as I'd hoped, so reverted back to enumitem, which you had already suggested. –  Werner Nov 2 '11 at 14:13