Use letters as item labels by default in enumerate and with Beamer

Question

I know how to use letters for individual lists:

\documentclass{beamer}
\begin{document}
\begin{frame}{Self-test 2.4:}
What are the following limits?

\begin{enumerate}[(a)]
\item First item
\item Second item
\item Third item
\end{enumerate}
\end{frame}
\end{document}

But how can I tell Beamer that I want to use letters by default? Note that solutions for ordinary enumerations likely won't work since Beamer has its own implementation of lists.

https://tex.stackexchange.com/a/2292 and associated links in the question and answers can probably help — jchd, Nov 25 '19 at 12:07
@jchd thanks, but Beamer has its own implementation of lists, so neither of these solutions work. — tmalsburg, Nov 25 '19 at 12:21
@tmalsburg. You have to specify the same (letter type) in the enumerate environment. I hope there is no other way, as per my knowledge. — M S, Nov 25 '19 at 14:30

score 3 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 26 '19 at 09:56

An alternative solution to jchd's, but perhaps slightly more idiomatic, is to include the following in the header:

\setbeamertemplate{enumerate item}{(\alph{enumi})}

The complete example is then:

\documentclass{beamer}
\setbeamertemplate{enumerate item}{(\alph{enumi})}
\begin{document}
\begin{frame}{Self-test 2.4:}
What are the following limits?

\begin{enumerate}[(a)]
\item First item
\item Second item
\item Third item
\end{enumerate}
\end{frame}
\end{document}

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 25 '19 at 16:57

2

To make my comment a bit more precise, the following works for me:

\documentclass{beamer}
\begin{document}
\renewcommand{\theenumi}{\alph{enumi}}
\begin{frame}{Self-test 2.4:}
What are the following limits?
\begin{enumerate}
\item First item
\item Second item
\item Third item
\end{enumerate}
\end{frame}
\end{document}

Notice that the \renewcommand is placed after \begin{document}. I guess that beginning the document has the effect of overwriting \theenumi, but I don't exactly understand how/why. (related? Difference between renewing commands before and after \begin{document})

answered Nov 25 '19 at 16:57

jchd

533

Oh, that does in fact work. And yes, I had tried it with the renewcommand in the header. Wasn't aware that this makes a difference. Thank you! – tmalsburg Nov 26 '19 at 09:11
I found the beamer way of doing this: https://tex.stackexchange.com/a/518066/34277 – tmalsburg Nov 26 '19 at 09:57

Use letters as item labels by default in enumerate and with Beamer

2 Answers2