How to change the nested itemize bullet characters?

Question

When creating a nested itemize environment in LaTeX as follows:

\begin{itemize} 
\item one \dots{}
     \begin{itemize} 
        \item Language Models
        \item Vector Space Models
     \end{itemize}
\item two \dots{}
\item three \dots{}
\end{itemize}

I have tried to change the inner item characters by adding the following line after line 3

\renewcommand{\labelitemi}{$\star$}

Nothing changes!

However, if it is only one "not nested", it works just fine as in the following:

\begin{itemize} 
\renewcommand{\labelitemi}{$\star$}
\item one \dots{}
\item two \dots{}
\item three \dots{}
\end{itemize}

Many thanks in advance.

score 73 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 29 '11 at 00:31

73

Without any package, the correct command to be redefined is \labelitemii (note the second i).

\documentclass{article}

\renewcommand{\labelitemii}{$\star$}

\begin{document}

\begin{itemize} 
\item one \dots{}
     \begin{itemize} 
        \item Language Models
        \item Vector Space Models
     \end{itemize}
\item two \dots{}
\item three \dots{}
\end{itemize}

\end{document}

enter image description here

answered Nov 29 '11 at 00:31

lockstep

250,273

2

Stating the obvious : the number of i denotes the item level. i = first level, ii = second level, etc. – Skippy le Grand Gourou Dec 12 '17 at 09:10
1

Not "etc." unfortunately - it seems to stop at iii. No iiii: ! LaTeX Error: \labelitemiiii undefined. :-/ – Sixtyfive Jan 04 '20 at 16:48
3

\labelitemiv is what you're looking for - ie, using roman numerals – Chris Swan Aug 22 '21 at 00:33

score 51 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 29 '11 at 00:09

51

If you use the enumitem package you can easily reset the label via [label=$\star$] option.

If this is the default behavior you want for nested lists you can use \setlist[itemize,2]{label={$\star$}} to automatically set the 2nd level itemize lists to use the \star.

enter image description here

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{enumitem}

\begin{document}
\begin{itemize} 
\item one \dots{}
     \begin{itemize}[label=$\star$]
        \item Language Models
        \item Vector Space Models
     \end{itemize}
\item two \dots{}
\item three \dots{}
\end{itemize}
\end{document}

answered Nov 29 '11 at 00:09

Peter Grill

223,288

2

+1 for mentioning enumitem. – mbork Mar 24 '12 at 18:30
3

And for those who don't want a star: https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/42805/what-are-original-itemize-bullet-definitions – Zach Smith Mar 27 '18 at 08:54
@ZachSmith: You can change the value given to label= if you want something other than a star. See for instance How to represent cross and tick in itemize bullets?. – Peter Grill Mar 27 '18 at 19:35

How to change the nested itemize bullet characters?

2 Answers2

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