adding space before each item in itemize

Question

I would like to add some space before each \item in begin{itemize}

When i try doing something like this

\begin{itemize}
\item \hspace {5cm} Sweden
\item \hspace {5cm} Germany
\end{itemize}

The output i get is something like this

•                Sweden
•                Germany

As it can be seen the space are added after the bullets.

Any recommendation?? Help would be very much appreciated.

Answer 1

There is a dimension defined for doing just that: \itemindent.

\begin{itemize}
\addtolength{\itemindent}{5cm}
\item The first item
\item The second item
\end{itemize}

Note that \itemindent is reset at the start of the itemize environment, so you need to adjust it after \begin{itemize}. If you'd like the same indentation on all your lists, you could define a new environment which defines this:

\newenvironment{indentitemize}{%
\begin{itemize}%
\addtolength{\itemindent}{5cm}%
}
{%
\end{itemize}%
}

and use it just like a normal itemize environment. (This I havent tested, but I assume it works...)

A complete example:

\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
This is some text before the list.
\begin{itemize}
\addtolength{\itemindent}{5cm}
\item The first item
\item The second item
\end{itemize}
\end{document}

Output:

Answer 2

enumitem allows for local redefinitions of lists via a key-value approach:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{enumitem}% http://ctan.org/pkg/enumitem
\begin{document}
\begin{itemize}
\item \hspace {5cm} Sweden
\item \hspace {5cm} Germany
\end{itemize}

\begin{itemize}[itemindent=5cm]
\item Sweden
\item Germany
\end{itemize}
\end{document}​

These localized alterations can also be made global using \setlist. See the enumitem documentation (section 5 Global settings, p 9).