Text Formatting ⇒ multicol | Adjusting Column Separation

[ghostanime2001]

How can I manually set the distance between each column? As of now, the distance is too much and I want to reduce it. I have used \columnsep but that doesn't do anything except bring the second column closer for negative values and when it does that the third column starts overlapping with the second column. I want to be able to adjust column spacing between the first 2 columns and between the second and third columns. Also, how can I set the arrow at the top of the first 3 items instead of the bottom? I have already set the minipage optional parameter to "t" except it's not doing what it's supposed to.

Code: Select all

\documentclass[fleqn]{article}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage{multienum}
\usepackage{multicol}
\usepackage[shortlabels]{enumitem}
\usepackage{shortlst}
\usepackage[version=3]{mhchem}
\begin{document}
\ce{->}
\begin{minipage}[t]{4in}
\begin{multicols}{3}
\begin{enumerate}[a)]
\item \ce{^{56}_{27}\,Co} 
\item \ce{^{57}_{25}\,Mn}
\item \ce{^{55}_{26}\,Fe}
\item \ce{^{58}_{24}\,Cr}
\item \text{none of these}
\end{enumerate}
\end{multicols}
\end{minipage}
\end{document}

[localghost]

Every basic LaTeX documentation suggests to alter the length \columnsep.


Thorsten

[ghostanime2001]

I have managed to adjust that thanks! However if I vary \columnsep to smaller, more negative values it seems like the space between the 1st and 2nd column is shorter than the space between the 2nd and 3rd column. I would like the space to be equal between the 3 columns. I love the vertical alignment \multicols gives. I want to keep that formatting.

Also, how can I align the top margin of this list with the surrounding text? I have tried \begin{minipage}[t] except whatever is outside this environment is set to the bottom margin of that list.

Code: Select all

\documentclass[fleqn]{article}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage{multicol}
\usepackage{shortlst}
\usepackage[shortlabels,inline]{enumitem}
\usepackage[version=3]{mhchem}
\setlength{\columnsep}{-6cm}

\begin{document}
  \begin{multicols}{3} 
    \begin{enumerate}[a)]
      \item \ce{^{56}_{27}\,Co}
      \item \ce{^{57}_{25}\,Mn}
      \item \ce{^{55}_{26}\,Fe}
      \item \ce{^{58}_{24}\,Cr}
      \item \text{none of these}
    \end{enumerate}
  \end{multicols} 
\end{document}