Example Numbers with Labels

Question

I have, in my article, some examples that look like this:

\begin{center}
  Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consetetur
  \\ \emph{sadipscing elitr, sed diam nonumy eirmod tempor invidunt}
  \\ \emph{ut labore et dolore magna aliquyam erat, sed diam voluptua.}
\end{center}

It looks like I want/need it to, and it works. But now I want to numerate those examples (if possible automatically), with a little number to the left, like when using an \begin{equation}. Plus, I want a label.

I'm fairly new and superficial in LaTeX, so I'm open for your knowledgable input on this.

Answer 1

One way to do this is to define a custom environment so that the changes you need to make are minimal. Below I have defined a MyQuote environment which you use instead of the center environment and it requires a parameter which defines how you want to label this:

Notes:

• As per your comments you had indicated that the labels were non-consecutive, so the method here provides an environment which allows you to individually specify the labels. If you want them to be consecutive you can adapt this to use the resume feature available with the enumerate environment from the enumitem package as per Harish Kumar's answer.

Code:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{enumitem}

\newenvironment{MyQuote}[1]{%
    \begin{description}
    \item [#1]
    \begin{minipage}[t]{\linewidth}
    \begin{center}
}{%
    \end{center}
    \end{minipage}%
    \end{description}
}

\begin{document}
\begin{MyQuote}{3}
  Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consetetur
  \\ \emph{sadipscing elitr, sed diam nonumy eirmod tempor invidunt}
  \\ \emph{ut labore et dolore magna aliquyam erat, sed diam voluptua.}
\end{MyQuote}

\begin{MyQuote}{7}
  Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consetetur
  \\ \emph{sadipscing elitr, sed diam nonumy eirmod tempor invidunt}
  \\ \emph{ut labore et dolore magna aliquyam erat, sed diam voluptua.}
\end{MyQuote}
\end{document}

Answer 2

I think, I have not understood your requirements. But still, giving it a try.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{enumitem}
\usepackage{lipsum}

\begin{document}
\begin{enumerate}[leftmargin=2cm,rightmargin=2cm,labelsep=1.7cm]
 \item { Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consetetur
  \\ \emph{sadipscing elitr, sed diam nonumy eirmod tempor invidunt}
  \\ \emph{ut labore et dolore magna aliquyam erat, sed diam voluptua.}}\label{item:blur}

\end{enumerate}
\lipsum[1]
\begin{enumerate}[resume*]
 \item { Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consetetur
  \\ \emph{sadipscing elitr, sed diam nonumy eirmod tempor invidunt}
  \\ \emph{ut labore et dolore magna aliquyam erat, sed diam voluptua.}}
\end{enumerate}

From item~\ref{item:blur}, it can be seen that....

\end{document}

The code given in this answer is (may be) called a MWE.

Answer 3

The following provides an "enumeration" that is breakable across the page boundary. The number is set as a \marginpar and pushed back into the text block. This may cause some overlapping problems, but I'm not sure whether this is an issue for you (your code snippet didn't show any such usage):

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{lipsum}% http://ctan.org/pkg/lipsum

\makeatletter
\reversemarginpar% Switch side of \marginpar
\newenvironment{numquote}[1]{% \begin{numquote}{<num>}
  \par\sbox\z@{\bfseries#1}%
  \leavevmode%
  \marginpar{\rlap{\hspace*{\dimexpr\marginparwidth+\marginparsep}\usebox\z@}}%
  \centering%
}{% \end{numquote}
  \par}
\makeatother

\begin{document}
\lipsum[1]
\begin{numquote}{3}
  Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consetetur
  \\ \emph{sadipscing elitr, sed diam nonumy eirmod tempor invidunt}
  \\ \emph{ut labore et dolore magna aliquyam erat, sed diam voluptua.}
\end{numquote}
\lipsum[2-3]
\begin{numquote}{7}
  Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consetetur
  \\ \emph{sadipscing elitr, sed diam nonumy eirmod tempor invidunt}
  \\ \emph{ut labore et dolore magna aliquyam erat, sed diam voluptua.}
\end{numquote}
\lipsum[3]
\begin{numquote}{97}
  Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consetetur
  \\ \emph{sadipscing elitr, sed diam nonumy eirmod tempor invidunt}
  \\ \emph{ut labore et dolore magna aliquyam erat, sed diam voluptua.}
\end{numquote}
\lipsum[4]
\begin{numquote}{102}
  Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consetetur
  \\ \emph{sadipscing elitr, sed diam nonumy eirmod tempor invidunt}
  \\ \emph{ut labore et dolore magna aliquyam erat, sed diam voluptua.}
\end{numquote}
\lipsum[5]
\end{document}

lipsum provided some dummy text, Lorem ipsum style.