Text Formatting ⇒ Spacing: in lists and chapter headings

[workerbee]

Hi All,

I was hoping to change some spacing defaults in the latex book class (size 11pt).

First, is minimizing the default spacing between items within a list (the \itemsep property). I was hoping there was a way to define a new length in the preamble for the entire document (since it compiles several chapters and files).

Second, is there also a way to adjust the spacing between the chapter number and heading?

For instance, if this was the coding for chapter 3:

Code: Select all

\chapter{EXAMPLES: REGRESSION AND PATH ANALYSIS}

How would I minimize the spacing between "Chapter 3" and the "Examples..." part?

I attached an image of the areas I'd like to adjust (between items in lists and between the chapter number & heading)

Any feedback would be most welcome, thank you!

spacing.jpg (78.88 KiB) Viewed 2654 times

[gmedina]

Hi,

you can use some of the features provided by the titlesec and enumitem packages.

[workerbee]

Thanks for the suggestions, gmedina.

I've figured out the chapter spacing issue, but am still having trouble with the item spacing. For some reason, I'm not able to install the enumitem.sty file. Is there another way to create a "global" change for itemsep=0pt?

[gmedina]

You could define new environments, as the following example suggests:

Code: Select all

\documentclass{article}

\newenvironment{myitemize}%
  {\begin{itemize}%
    \setlength\itemsep{0pt plus 1pt minus .5pt}%
    \setlength\parsep{0pt plus 1pt minus .5pt}}%
  {\end{itemize}}

\begin{document}

A list with the standard spacing:
\begin{itemize}
  \item first item.
  \item second item.
  \item third item.
\end{itemize}

A list with reduced spacing:
\begin{myitemize}
  \item first item.
  \item second item.
  \item third item.
\end{myitemize}

\end{document}