Text Formatting ⇒ Hanging / Tabular / Tabbing

[BertJ]

Maybe a stupid question.

If I want a typesetting like this:

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Some general words blah blah blah.
Date/time/text1   Let's say some general blah blah blah blah
                  that is required to explain the current date
Date/time/text2   With some other blah blah blah blah blah blah
                  and more of it

In Word there is a hanging indent, in which you can set a [tab] between 'date/time/text' and the rest, id est the 'Let's say', to have appropriate alignment of the text.

In LateX there is the possibility to do it as tabular.

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Some general words.
\begin{tabular}{ p{2cm}  p{10cm} }
Date/time/text1:      & Let's say some general blah blah blah blah that is required to explain the current date \\
Date/time/text2:      & With some other blah blah blah blah blah blah and more of it \\
Date/time/text3:      & Etc \\
\end{tabular}

However, the 'Date' is now not aligned with 'Some general words'.
With tabbing, I have difficulties to have the sentence wrapped at the end of the line.
With \hanging I can't find a way to appropriate alignment of the 'Let's say' and the 'With some other'.

How is this normally done?
Should I consider 'list' ?

[Stefan Kottwitz]

Hi,

welcome to the forum!

tabbing is for simple tables, tabular for better alignment. There are some options for customizing, for example @{space} inserts space as column separation space, also at the beginning. An empty space puts the first column flushed left:

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\documentclass{article} 
\begin{document}
Some general words.

\begin{tabular}{ @{} p{3cm}  p{10cm} }
Date/time/text1:      & Let's say some general blah blah blah blah that is required to explain the current date \\
Date/time/text2:      & With some other blah blah blah blah blah blah and more of it \\
Date/time/text3:      & Etc \\
\end{tabular}
\end{document}

Stefan

[BertJ]

Looks like a nasty trick to me but it works perfectly. Thanks!
(and thanks for the welcome.... )

[Johannes_B]

Welcome, with package scrextend from the KOMA-script bundle, you could also use a labeling list. Depending on how long a description can be, this is a great alternative.

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\documentclass{article} 
\usepackage{scrextend}
    \begin{document}
    Some general words.
     
    \begin{tabular}{ @{} p{3cm}  p{10cm} }
    Date/time/text1:      & Let's say some general blah blah blah blah that is required to explain the current date \\
    Date/time/text2:      & With some other blah blah blah blah blah blah and more of it \\
    Date/time/text3:      & Etc \\
    \end{tabular}
\begin{labeling}{Date/time/text1:}% <- basically the longest label 
   \item[Date/time/text1:]  Let's say some general blah blah blah blah that is required to explain the current date 
   \item[Date/time/text2:]  With some other blah blah blah blah blah blah and more of it 
   \item[Date/time/text3:]  Etc 
\end{labeling}
    \end{document}