# Consistent alignment in eqlist throughout chapter

I am currently using eqlist to create a summary of the mathematical notation in my thesis. For example,

\section*{Statistical theory}

\begin{eqlist}[\labelsep2em]
\item[$D\{\cdot\}$] mathematical dispersion operator
\item[$E\{\cdot\}$] mathematical expectation operator
\end{eqlist}

\section*{Estimation theory}

\begin{eqlist}[\labelsep2em]
\item[$\underline{y}$] random vector of $m$ observations.
\item[$Q_y$] an $m \times m$ a priori variance-covariance matrix of the observations.
\end{eqlist}


In each section the point at which the description starts is aligned to the longest label in the list in that local section. Consequently, it is not consistent throughout my chapter.

Is there a way of simply specifying the minimum label width in each case? Each time I try various options, such as specifying \labelwidth4em in the options part in square brackets, it appears to be overridden.

Any help appreciated!

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This is what the Eqlist environment is designed to do. To use this you need to specify a tag on the lists that should get the same alignment. Using a tag notation, your example can be written

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{eqlist}

\begin{document}
\section*{Statistical theory}

\begin{Eqlist}[\eqlistinit\labelsep2em]{notation}
\item[$D\{\cdot\}$] mathematical dispersion operator
\item[$E\{\cdot\}$] mathematical expectation operator
\end{Eqlist}

\section*{Estimation theory}

\begin{Eqlist}[\eqlistinit\labelsep2em]{notation}
\item[$\underline{y}$] random vector of $m$ observations.
\item[$Q_y$] an $m \times m$ a priori variance-covariance matrix of the observations.
\end{Eqlist}
\end{document}


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You have saved the day, Andrew! Thank you ever so much :-) –  medgoode Oct 2 '12 at 10:27