# Decrease horizontal space in moderncv's cvdoubleitem

When labels are too small, the \cvdoubleitem macro in moderncv creates way too much space between the first description and the second label:

\documentclass[11pt,a4paper]{moderncv}

\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\moderncvtheme[blue]{classic}

\firstname{}
\familyname{}

\begin{document}
\section{Cool Stuff}
\cvdoubleitem{$15\times$}{Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consetetur sadipscing elitr.}{$6\times$}{Stet clita kasd gubergren, no sea takimata sanctus est Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet.}
\end{document}

I like to decrease the yellow space by increasing the description columns.

Thank you for any hints how to achieve this!

That space is used for the hints column. In the following code I reduced the length used for that minipage to half its original value and distributed the remaining space in the two minipages used for the descriptions:

\documentclass[11pt,a4paper]{moderncv}

\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\moderncvtheme[blue]{classic}

\firstname{}
\familyname{}

\renewcommand*{\cvdoubleitem}[5][.25em]{%
\cvitem[#1]{#2}{%
\begin{minipage}[t]{\doubleitemmaincolumnwidth+0.25\hintscolumnwidth}#3\end{minipage}%
\hspace*{\separatorcolumnwidth}%
\begin{minipage}[t]{0.5\hintscolumnwidth}\raggedleft\hintstyle{#4}\end{minipage}%
\hspace*{\separatorcolumnwidth}%
\begin{minipage}[t]{\doubleitemmaincolumnwidth+0.25\hintscolumnwidth}#5\end{minipage}}}

\begin{document}

\section{Cool Stuff}
\cvdoubleitem{$15\times$}{Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consetetur sadipscing elitr.}{$6\times$}{Stet clita kasd gubergren, no sea takimata sanctus est Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet.}
\end{document}

For comparison, an image with the default widths:

the same document with the modification suggested:

Notice that now the space reserved for the third mandatory argument is half than it was before.

• Thanks for your solution, looks really good :-) However, ìt seems we need to wrap the macro's content in \begingroup and \endgroup, because \addtolength would keep adding up on each call of \cvdoubleitem. – Marcus Bitzl Feb 11 '14 at 17:45
• @MarcusBitzl yes, my bad. Sorry. I've fixed the code now without \addtolength. – Gonzalo Medina Feb 11 '14 at 18:03