Alignment of bullet point (\item) in table

Question

I am using a template to do my CV but I've run into a problem. I've tried to remove all but the essential code in the MWE below. It makes two tables. In the first table, the bullet point does not align with the first column text, yet in the second table, without the bullet point, the text is aligned correctly. Can anyone help fix this alignment issue?

MWE:

\documentclass[12pt,letterpaper,twoside]{article}

\usepackage{array}% required for defining newcolumntype with custom vrule
\usepackage{longtable}% normal \tabular environment does not allow page breaks
\setlength{\LTpre}{0pt}% glue before longtable
\addtolength{\LTpost}{0pt}% glue after longtable

\newcommand{\datewidth}{0.21}
\newcommand{\bodywidth}{0.75}

\newcolumntype{L}{>{\raggedright}p{\datewidth\textwidth}}
\newcolumntype{R}{p{\bodywidth\textwidth}}

\newenvironment{cvsection}{%
    \setlength{\extrarowheight}{0.40ex}
    \begin{longtable}[l]{@{} L R @{}}
        % Comment line above and uncomment line below to add gray vrule between date and body.
        % \begin{longtable}{@{} L !{\myvrule} R @{}}
    }{%
    \end{longtable}
}

\begin{document}

\begin{cvsection}
    abc1    & \parbox[t]{\bodywidth\textwidth}{%
   \begin {itemize} \item {\footnotesize TEST TEXT TEST TEXT TEST TEXT TEST TEXT TEST TEXTTEST TEXTTEST  TEXT.} 
    \end {itemize} }\\
\end{cvsection} 

\begin{cvsection}

    abc2 & \parbox[t]{\bodywidth\textwidth}{%
     {\footnotesize TEST TEXT TEST TEXT TEST TEXT TEST TEXT TEST TEXTTEST 
     TEXTTEST TEXT.} }\\

\end{cvsection} 

\end{document}

Answer 1

This is due to the lists environment adding a vertical spacing w.r.t. the text before and the text after the list. You can fool LaTeX making it believe you're at the beginning of a minipage: in this case, there's no space above, for obvious reasons. That's what the \compress macro does.

Furthermore, I aligned the bullet with the beginning of text in the other table, as there's no need to indent the bullet, in my opinion, with the help of the enumitem package.

\documentclass[12pt,letterpaper,twoside]{article}

\usepackage{array}% required for defining newcolumntype with custom vrule
\usepackage{longtable}% normal \tabular environment does not allow page breaks
\makeatletter
    \newcommand*{\compress}{\@minipagetrue}
\makeatother
\usepackage{enumitem}
\setlength{\LTpre}{0pt}% glue before longtable
\addtolength{\LTpost}{0pt}% glue after longtable

\newcommand{\datewidth}{0.21}
\newcommand{\bodywidth}{0.75}

\newcolumntype{L}{>{\raggedright}p{\datewidth\textwidth}}
\newcolumntype{R}{p{\bodywidth\textwidth}}

\newenvironment{cvsection}{%
    \setlength{\extrarowheight}{0.40ex}
    \begin{longtable}[l]{@{} L >{\compress}R @{}}
        % Comment line above and uncomment line below to add gray vrule between date and body.
        % \begin{longtable}{@{} L !{\myvrule} R @{}}
    }{%
    \end{longtable}
}

\begin{document}

\begin{cvsection}
    abc1 & \parbox[t]{\bodywidth\textwidth}{%
   \begin {itemize}[wide, leftmargin=*] \item {\footnotesize TEST TEXT TEST TEXT TEST TEXT TEST TEXT TEST TEXTTEST TEXTTEST TEXT.}
    \end {itemize} }\\
\end{cvsection}

\begin{cvsection}

    abc2 & \parbox[t]{\bodywidth\textwidth}{%
     {\footnotesize TEST TEXT TEST TEXT TEST TEXT TEST TEXT TEST TEXTTEST
     TEXTTEST TEXT.} }\\

\end{cvsection}

\end{document}