Properly position labels in enumerate or itemize

Question

Despite a lot of trying, experimenting with and without enumitem I cannot figure out how to shift labels in itemize to the left of the table cell in order to exploit the full cell width. Further difficulty is that I need to use hyperref, and it seems to interfere with vertical spacing in the table.

I would appreciate not only the working solution, but also a bit of explanation on how itemindent, labelwidth work. It seems to me that leftmargin does not have an effect either.

• I am inspired by this beautiful answer.

• I am bound to use xelatex, memoir, Arial font, and the specified page geometry. That is why my minimal example is somewhat long.

---

\documentclass[11pt,a4paper,onecolumn,openright,final,oneside]{memoir}
%===============================================
\settrims{0.cm}{0.cm}
\setbinding{0cm} 
\setlrmarginsandblock{*}{2.5cm}{1} 
\setulmarginsandblock{2.5cm}{*}{1} 
\checkandfixthelayout
%===============================================
\usepackage[dvipsnames,table]{xcolor}
\usepackage[colorlinks,linkcolor=blue,citecolor=blue,urlcolor=blue]{hyperref}
\usepackage{fontspec}
\setmainfont[Ligatures=TeX]{Arial}
\newfontfamily{\headingfont}[Ligatures=TeX]{Helvetica Neue Condensed Bold}
\renewcommand{\tablename}{\headingfont Tab.}
\renewcommand{\thetable}{\arabic{table}}
%===============================================
\begin{document}
 \begin{table}[t]
  \rowcolors{1}{}{gray!10}
  \begin{tabularx}{\textwidth}[t]{llXX}
    \arrayrulecolor{NavyBlue}
    No.&Duration& Methodological developments& Systems and Applications\\\hline
    % ======================= ======================= =======================
    1.& X months &
    \begin{minipage}[t]{\linewidth}%
      \tightlists
      \begin{enumerate}
      \item  Very long and complicated name 
      \item  Even longer and more complicated name
      \end{enumerate}
    \end{minipage}
    & Short name\\
    % ======================= ======================= =======================
    3.& Y months& Generalization towards some new scenario&
    \begin{minipage}[t]{\linewidth}%
      \tightlists
     \begin{enumerate}
     \item  Very long and complicated name 
     \item  Even longer and more complicated name
     \end{enumerate}
    \end{minipage}
   \\
   % ======================= ======================= =======================
   4.& Z months & Short name & Short name
 \end{tabularx}  
 \caption[]{\small Development plan}
\end{table}  
\end{document}

Answer 1

With use of the enumitem and etoolbox packages and not using minipage for enumerate list, you can achieve the following result:

Edit. Now is considered comment Barbara Beeton's comment.

\documentclass[11pt,a4paper,onecolumn,openright,final,oneside]{memoir}
%===============================================
\settrims{0.cm}{0.cm}
\setbinding{0cm}
\setlrmarginsandblock{*}{2.5cm}{1}
\setulmarginsandblock{2.5cm}{*}{1}
\checkandfixthelayout
%===============================================
\usepackage{ragged2e}
\newcolumntype{L}{>{\RaggedRight}X}
\usepackage[dvipsnames,table]{xcolor}
%===============================================
\usepackage{fontspec}
\setmainfont[Ligatures=TeX]{Arial}
%\newfontfamily{\headingfont}%
%    [Ligatures=TeX]{Helvetica Neue Condensed Bold}% I haven't this font
\renewcommand{\tablename}{Tab.}
\renewcommand{\thetable}{\arabic{table}}
\usepackage{enumitem}
\usepackage{etoolbox}
\AtBeginEnvironment{table}{%
\setlist[enumerate]{nosep,
                    leftmargin=*,
                    label={\arabic*.},
                    before=\vspace*{-0.5\baselineskip}, % <---
                    after=\vspace*{-\baselineskip},}    % <---
                        }
\usepackage[colorlinks,
            linkcolor=blue,
            citecolor=blue,
            urlcolor=blue]{hyperref}

\begin{document}
    \begin{table}[ht]
\arrayrulecolor{NavyBlue}
\rowcolors{1}{white}{gray!10}
  \begin{tabularx}{\textwidth}[t]{llXX}
No. &   Duration
        &   Methodological developments
            &   Systems and Applications    \\
    \hline
1.  & X months 
        &  \begin{enumerate}
      \item  Very long and complicated name
      \item  Even longer and more complicated name
            \end{enumerate}
    & Short name                    \\
%
3.  &   Y months
        &   Generalization towards some new scenario
            &   \begin{enumerate}
            \item  Very long and complicated name
            \item  Even longer and more complicated name
                \end{enumerate}     \\
%
4.  &   Z months 
        &   Short name 
            &   Short name
\end{tabularx}
\caption[]{Development plan}
    \end{table}
\end{document}

Answer 2

Here how to do it, without an explicit minipage, thanks to a command borrowed from an answer on this site and the enumitem package. I defined a tabenumerate list, with the relevant parameters:

\documentclass[11pt,a4paper,onecolumn,openright,final,oneside]{memoir}
%===============================================
\settrims{0.cm}{0.cm}
\setbinding{0cm}
\setlrmarginsandblock{*}{2.5cm}{1}
\setulmarginsandblock{2.5cm}{*}{1}
\checkandfixthelayout
%===============================================
\usepackage[dvipsnames,table]{xcolor}
\usepackage[colorlinks,linkcolor=blue,citecolor=blue,urlcolor=blue]{hyperref}
\usepackage{fontspec}
\setmainfont[Ligatures=TeX]{Arial}
%\newfontfamily{\headingfont}[Ligatures=TeX]{Helvetica Neue Condensed Bold}
\newcommand{\headingfont}{\bfseries}
\renewcommand{\tablename}{\headingfont Tab.}
\renewcommand{\thetable}{\arabic{table}}
%===============================================
\usepackage{enumitem}
\makeatletter
\newcommand*{\compress}{\@minipagetrue}
\makeatother
\newlist{tabenumerate}{enumerate}{1}
\setlist[tabenumerate]{label=\arabic*., nosep, wide=0pt, leftmargin=*, before = \vspace*{-1.4ex}, after=\vspace*{-\baselineskip}}

\begin{document}

 \begin{table}[t]
  \rowcolors{1}{}{gray!10}
  \begin{tabularx}{\textwidth}[t]{ll >{\compress\arraybackslash}X>{\compress\arraybackslash}X}
    \arrayrulecolor{NavyBlue}
    No.&Duration& Methodological developments& Systems and Applications\\\hline
    % ======================= ======================= =======================
    1.& X months &
      \begin{tabenumerate}
      \item Very long and complicated name
      \item Even longer and more complicated name
      \end{tabenumerate}
    & Short name\\
    % ======================= ======================= =======================
    3.& Y months& Generalization towards some new scenario&
    %\begin{minipage}[t]{\linewidth}%
% \tightlists
     \begin{tabenumerate}
     \item Very long and complicated name
     \item Even longer and more complicated name
     \end{tabenumerate}
   \\
   % ======================= ======================= =======================
   4.& Z months & Short name & Short name
 \end{tabularx}
 \caption[]{\small Development plan}
\end{table}

\end{document}