Text Formatting ⇒ Enumerated List not showing Numbers

[magicalstephie]

So I am having a problem where my enumerate is not showing any numbers. My itemize is also not showing bullets. I have not installed any updates since the last time I used latex where it worked fine.

I am using Kile on a Linux system, and I am compiling using PDFfLaTeX and then viewing the PDF. I get no warnings, errors, or bad boxes when I compile.

My code (super simple!!)

Code: Select all

\documentclass[12pt]{article}
\usepackage[utf8x]{inputenc}

%opening
\title{5.3 Multiplication of Polynomials}
\author{MA1161}
\date{Fall 2012}

\begin{document}

\maketitle

\begin{enumerate}
 \item[Arrow Method] Simplify $-5y^2(3y-4y^2)$ \vspace{2cm}
 \item[Table Method] Simplify $3a+2a(3-a)$ \vspace{3cm}
 \item[Vertical Method] Simplify $2a^2b(4a^2-3ab+2b^2)$ \vspace{4cm}
\end{enumerate}

\end{document}

[kaiserkarl13]

If you want it to show numbers, you cannot use an optional argument to \item; the optional argument overrides the number/bullet.

If you want the text after the bullet/number to be enclosed in brackets, use something like \item {} [My list item heading] My list item