Enumerated list indentation

Question

I noticed that when I use enumerated list environment it produces an extra indentation to the document. So that if I'm using \usepackage[margin=3cm]{geometry} and then the enumerated list, the left margin is further indented than the right one, and the text is not centerally symmetric. Is there a simple way to fix this, other than define a new list environment for non-indented numbers? (possible, but I rather use a something simple. geometry package options would be preferable)

Answer 1

To get enumerated and itemized lists that have the same amounts of left-hand and right-hand indentation, I'd recommend using the enumitem package -- which provides many extensions to and improvements over LaTeX's list environments -- and its leftmargin and rightmargin options. The following MWE illustrates this.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[margin=3cm]{geometry} % per the example in your code
\usepackage{lipsum} % for filler text
\usepackage{enumitem}

\begin{document}
\lipsum[1] % filler text
\begin{enumerate}[leftmargin=2cm,rightmargin=2cm]
\item \lipsum[2]
\end{enumerate}
\lipsum[3]
\begin{itemize}[leftmargin=1cm,rightmargin=1cm]
\item \lipsum[4]
\end{itemize}
\end{document}

---

Added material after receiving a comment from the OP. I'm afraid I'm not quite sure about the meaning of the question

But how do I make the indentations of the \item the same as the original text?

The new MWE below provides four separate option settings for shaping the itemized (or, equivalently, enumerated) list items. Hopefully, one of these settings meets your needs.

\documentclass{article}
% some short filler text, ca. 3 lines long
\newcommand{\shortfiller}{Nam dui ligula, fringilla a, euismod sodales, sollicitudin vel, wisi. Morbi auctor lorem non justo. Nam lacus libero, pretium at, obortis vitae, ultricies et, tellus. Donec aliquet, tortor sed accumsan bibendum, erat ligula aliquet magna.}
\usepackage{fancyvrb}
\usepackage[margin=3cm]{geometry}
\usepackage{enumitem}

\begin{document} 
\DefineShortVerb{\|}
\emph{``Normal'' text paragraph.} \shortfiller
%% Option 1
\begin{enumerate}[leftmargin=2cm, rightmargin=2cm]
\item \emph{Settings:} |[leftmargin=2cm, rightmargin=2cm]|. 
\shortfiller
\end{enumerate}

\emph{``Normal'' text paragraph.} \shortfiller
%% Option 2
\begin{enumerate}[resume, wide=2cm, leftmargin=2cm, rightmargin=2cm]
\item \emph{Settings:} |[wide=2cm, leftmargin=2cm,  rightmargin=2cm]|.
\shortfiller
\end{enumerate}

\emph{``Normal'' text paragraph.} \shortfiller
%% Option 3
\begin{enumerate}[resume, wide=\parindent, leftmargin=\parindent, rightmargin=\parindent]
\item \emph{Settings:} |[wide=\parindent, leftmargin=\parindent, rightmargin=\parindent]|.  
\shortfiller
\end{enumerate}

\emph{``Normal'' text paragraph.} \shortfiller
%% Option 4
\begin{enumerate}[resume, wide=\parindent]
\item \emph{Setting in this and the following item:} |[wide=\parindent]|. 
\shortfiller 
\item \shortfiller
\end{enumerate}

\emph{``Normal'' text paragraph.} \shortfiller
\end{document}

Suppose the final setting of the list items is what you're looking for. If you want this setting to apply uniformly to all enumerated and itemized lists, you should insert the command

\setlist{wide=\parindent}

in your document's preamble, immediately after the \usepackage{enumitem} instruction.

Answer 2

Both this question as well as its (closed) duplicate How to move enumerate to the right suggest to use the enumitem environment.

However, it is known to conflict with beamer (in particular with the options [<+->], which you can pass on the list environments). Thus, in these cases, one needs a different solution:

I have solved this issue by simply putting the itemize into a minipage and moving the minipage to the right:

 \begin{frame}{some title}
   
 \hspace*{.1\linewidth}%
 \begin{minipage}[t]{.9\linewidth}
   \begin{itemize}[<+->]
     \item first item
     \item second item
   \end{itemize}
 \end{minipage}

 \end{frame}

Please note that due to moving it to the right you might want to make the minipage smaller. Thus, when moving it 10% of the linewidth to the right (\hspace*{.1\linewidth}), make the minipage 90% of the linewidth (\begin{minipage}[t]{.9\linewidth}).

If you want "to see" how large your minipage is, surround it with \fbox{}