\setlength{\leftskip} fails

Question

The Latex code is

\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
Beginning

\Large{Title1}

\medskip

\large{\textbf{subtitle1}}
\medskip

\setlength{\leftskip}{1cm}
2012\textendash 2015 \quad \quad wp1.1.\\
\quad pos1.1.\\
\quad tsk1.1.
\medskip

2012\textendash 2015 \quad \quad wp1.2.\\
\quad pos1.2.\\
\quad tsk1.2.
\medskip

2012\textendash 2015 \quad \quad wp1.3.\\
\quad pos1.3.\\
\quad tsk1.3.
\medskip

\setlength{\leftskip}{0cm}
\medskip

\large{\textbf{subtitle2}}
\medskip

\setlength{\leftskip}{1cm}
2010\textendash 2012 \quad wp2\\
\quad pos2\\
\quad tsk2
\setlength{\leftskip}{0cm}

End
\end{document}

The output is

Why does indenting fail after subtitle2? Also there is a problem of font size of "End" which should be equal to the font size of "Beginning".

Answer 1

Beginning a new paragraph should solve the problem:

\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
Beginning

\Large{Title1}

\medskip

\large{\textbf{subtitle1}}
\medskip

\setlength{\leftskip}{1cm}
2012\textendash 2015 \quad \quad wp1.1.\\
\quad pos1.1.\\
\quad tsk1.1.
\medskip

2012\textendash 2015 \quad \quad wp1.2.\\
\quad pos1.2.\\
\quad tsk1.2.
\medskip

2012\textendash 2015 \quad \quad wp1.3.\\
\quad pos1.3.\\
\quad tsk1.3.
\medskip

\setlength{\leftskip}{0cm}
\medskip

\large{\textbf{subtitle2}}
\medskip

\setlength{\leftskip}{1cm}
2010\textendash 2012 \quad wp2\\
\quad pos2\\
\quad tsk2

\setlength{\leftskip}{0cm} %here a new paragraph - PS

End
\end{document}

(And certainly your \Large acts globally).

Answer 2

A syntax such as \large{word} will make the entire document \large it should be {\large word} but explicit size changes and spacing should be avoided wherever possible, and markup should be used that is closer to the intended meaning, headings here. Also it is not supported to set the \leftskip primitive directly in LaTeX, many constructs notably any list environment needs to be able to set this internally and set latex parameters such as \lineskip to compatible values at the same time.

I would suggest a markup closer to

\documentclass{article}
\newcounter{wp}[subsection]
\renewcommand\thewp{\arabic{subsection}\ifnum\value{wp}>0.\arabic{wp}\fi}

\newcommand\WPsection[1]{%
\refstepcounter{subsection}%
\subsection*{#1}}

\newcommand\SWP[1]{%
\refstepcounter{wp}%
\subsubsection*{#1\qquad wp\thewp}%
}
\newcommand\WP[1]{%
\subsubsection*{#1\qquad wp\thewp}%
}

\newcommand\pos{\par \noindent\hspace{2em}\makebox[2em][l]{pos}\thewp\par}
\newcommand\tsk{\par \noindent\hspace{2em}\makebox[2em][l]{tsk}\thewp\par}
\begin{document}
Beginning

\section*{Title1}



\WPsection{subtitle1}

\SWP{2012--2015}
\pos
\tsk



\SWP{2012--2015}
\pos
\tsk


\SWP{2012--2015}
\pos
\tsk


\WPsection{subtitle2}

\WP{2010-2012}
\pos
\tsk


End
\end{document}