5

I have to typeset a document which contains several dozen lists which are already numbered. For various reasons, I cannot use LaTex's enumerate automatic numbering feature for these lists--the numbers have to be entered manually. Nevertheless, the list format has to be maintained. I have used the mdwlist package to cut down on the extra spacing that LaTex adds to lists.

The lists then have both a bullet (added automatically) and a number (entered manually). What I would like to do is simply remove the bullet while keeping the other spacing aspects of the list.

Here is a MWE:

\documentclass[11pt,A4]{article}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage{mdwlist}
\title{Brief Article}
\author{The Author}
\begin{document}
\maketitle

\begin{itemize*}

\item 1.\ \ Regular vacations and holidays according to the Law.
\item 2.\ \ Absence for performing examinations in accordance with what is stated in this Law.
\item 3.\ \ Leave without pay, which is not more than casual 20 days during the work year.
\end{itemize*}
\end{document}

enter image description here

Thank you. All of these answers were very helpful.

I agree that it's kind of an odd requirement--the problem is that I am typesetting legislative statutes and sometimes they are incomplete, contain errors in numbering and these errors have to be preserved. Also, for maintenance purposes it's useful to turn off automatic numbering. There is a German package--jura--designed for German legal typesetting and I have a feeling it has a way around these issues, but unfortunately the lengthy documentation is in German only.

3
  • 1
    In spite that you discard this option and there answers for what you want, my suggestion anyway is search & replace all the \item 1., etc by only \item, and {itemize*} by {enumerate}. It worth only ten search & replace operations for dozen list. In return you will have the right format, the simplest source code without numbering errors and nicely adaptable to any change in numbers or order of the items.
    – Fran
    Jan 26, 2014 at 12:10
  • If the errors in numbering in the original text did not have to be preserved this would be a solution.
    – user26732
    Jan 26, 2014 at 19:03
  • Then I suggest to make a custom item in the preamble like \newcommand\orgitem[1]{\item[\bfseries#1.\quad]} or some like that, and instead of \item[5.] use \orgitem 5 or \orgitem{5} (only in this way form for more than 9). The advantage: you can easily distinguish these items from true automatic lists, and later make it indistinguishable (\newcommand\orgitem[1]{\item[1.]}), or even convert it a true list (\newcommand\orgitem[1]{\item}) without touch the source text each time.
    – Fran
    Jan 26, 2014 at 20:14

4 Answers 4

0

Why don't you use this , I'v tried it and it is working correctly

\documentclass[11pt,A4]{article}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage{mdwlist}
\title{Brief Article}
\author{The Author}
\begin{document}
\maketitle

\begin{itemize*}

\item [] 1.\ \ Regular vacations and holidays according to the Law.
\item [] 2.\ \ Absence for performing examinations in accordance with what is stated in this Law.
\item [] 3.\ \ Leave without pay, which is not more than casual 20 days during the work year.
\end{itemize*}
\end{document}
6

You can use enumerate* instead of itemize* for numbered lists. Also the numbers can be added manually:

\documentclass[11pt,a4paper]{article}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage{mdwlist}
\title{Brief Article}
\author{The Author}
\begin{document}
\maketitle

\begin{enumerate*}
\item[2.] Regular vacations and holidays according to the Law.
\item[3.] Absence for performing examinations in accordance with what is
      stated in this Law.
\item[5.] Leave without pay, which is not more than casual 20 days during
the work year.
\end{enumerate*}
\end{document}

Result

4
  • Hmm, mdwlist hasn't been updated since 1996. I'd be wary of recommending it, preferring enumitem.
    – egreg
    Jan 26, 2014 at 14:16
  • @egreg: It could also mean, that the package is stable. Also it is based on LaTeX2e that is also "frozen" since a long time. Jan 26, 2014 at 14:55
  • Yes, it's stable because it's dead. I'm not saying that it's the case with mdwlist, but other package in the mdw suite have problems with more recent packages.
    – egreg
    Jan 26, 2014 at 14:58
  • Even though I did not identify one of the major issues/reasons for the question in my MWE, Heiko did in his answer! That is, maintain the identification of the third sentence as number "5" instead of the number "3" since it is the third sentence in the list. This is precisely the issue I am dealing with.
    – user26732
    Jan 26, 2014 at 19:06
4

I don't know why have such a strange requirement, but you can simply redefine the itemize label (\labelitemi) to be empty.

\renewcommand{\labelitemi}{}

MWE

\documentclass[11pt,a4paper]{article}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage{mdwlist}
\title{Brief Article}
\author{The Author}

\renewcommand{\labelitemi}{}

\begin{document}
\maketitle

\begin{itemize*}

\item 1.\ \ Regular vacations and holidays according to the Law.
\item 2.\ \ Absence for performing examinations in accordance with what is stated in this Law.
\item 3.\ \ Leave without pay, which is not more than casual 20 days during the work year.
\end{itemize*}
\end{document} 

enter image description here

1
  • This seems to treat the symptoms, not the causes ;)
    – yo'
    Jan 26, 2014 at 10:58
3

How about having the freedom of adjusting the spacing by yourself? Use enumitem:

\documentclass[11pt,a4paper]{article}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage{enumitem}
\title{Brief Article}
\author{The Author}
\begin{document}
\maketitle

\begin{enumerate}[itemsep=-1ex]     %% change as you like
\item[2.] Regular vacations and holidays according to the Law.
\item[3.] Absence for performing examinations in accordance with what is
      stated in this Law.
\item[5.] Leave without pay, which is not more than casual 20 days during
the work year.
\end{enumerate}
\end{document}

enter image description here

If you are tied to using itemize

\documentclass[11pt,a4paper]{article}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage{enumitem}
\title{Brief Article}
\author{The Author}
\begin{document}
\maketitle

\begin{itemize}[itemsep=-1ex]
\item[2.] Regular vacations and holidays according to the Law.
\item[3.] Absence for performing examinations in accordance with what is
      stated in this Law.
\item[5.] Leave without pay, which is not more than casual 20 days during
the work year.
\end{itemize}
\end{document}

enter image description here

Advantage of enumitem is you can adjust many other spaces neatly by yourself.

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