Length between nested lists in beamer

Question

How do I adjust the length between nested lists? For example, in the following, I would like to adjust the distance where it states "distance here"

\begin{itemize}
    \item one
    %% distance here
    \begin{itemize}
         \item
    \end{itemize}
    %% distance here
    \item two
\end{itemize}

UPDATE: I forgot to mention I am using beamer, and it appears traditional methods can go wrong in beamer, as frame defines its own definition of itemize.

Answer 1

You shouldn't use enumitem with beamer. This will probably break all the beamer settings for lists (e.g. overlays, alerts etc). Use either simply vspace (for a local solution) or the responsible beamer template. And next time show a complete example instead of a code snippet. The class is a crucial information.

\documentclass{beamer}
\begin{document}
\begin{frame}

\begin{itemize}
        \item one
        %% distance here
        \begin{itemize}
             \item
        \end{itemize}
        %% distance here
        \item two
    \end{itemize}

\end{frame}

\begin{frame}

\begin{itemize}
        \item one
        \vspace{1cm}
        \begin{itemize}
             \item
        \end{itemize}
        \vspace{1cm}
        \item two
    \end{itemize}

\end{frame}


\begin{frame}
\setbeamertemplate{itemize/enumerate subbody begin}{\vspace{1cm}}
\setbeamertemplate{itemize/enumerate subbody end}{\vspace{1cm}}
\begin{itemize}
        \item one
        %% distance here
        \begin{itemize}
             \item
        \end{itemize}
        %% distance here
        \item two
    \end{itemize}

\end{frame}

\end{document}

Answer 2

The vertical space that you want to modify is given by the sum of the lengths \topsep, and \parskip; the enumitem package offers you a simple mechanism to control these (and some other attributes) of the list-like environments:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{enumitem}

\begin{document}

\begin{itemize}
        \item one
        \begin{itemize}[topsep=20pt]
             \item
        \end{itemize}
        \item two
    \end{itemize}

\end{document}

If you want to suppress all the vertical spacing in a list you can say something like

\usepackage{enumitem}
...
\begin{itemize}[nolistsep]
  \item
\end{itemize}

EDIT: an example with beamer:

\documentclass{beamer}
\usepackage{enumitem}

\begin{document}

\begin{frame}
Normal spacing
\begin{itemize}
        \item one
        \begin{itemize}
             \item First subitem
             \item Second subitem
        \end{itemize}
        \item two
    \end{itemize}
Increased spacing
\begin{itemize}
        \item one
        \begin{itemize}[topsep=20pt]
             \item First subitem
             \item Second subitem
        \end{itemize}
        \item two
    \end{itemize}
\end{frame}

\end{document}

The result:

However, using enumitem with beamer is not the best choice. See Ulrike's answer for a proper solution with beamer.

Answer 3

Ulrike's solution for a global change isn't working for me. Putting these lines

\setbeamertemplate{itemize/enumerate subbody begin}{\vspace{1cm}}
\setbeamertemplate{itemize/enumerate subbody end}{\vspace{1cm}}

either within a frame or in the preamble is doing nothing. (I can provide details about my configuration, file, etc., but not sure what's relevant.) In any event, I have found other (almost complete) solutions, although not as ... beamerly.

Solution 1: Put this in the preamble:

% space between items:
\newlength{\wideitemsep}
\setlength{\wideitemsep}{\itemsep}\addtolength{\wideitemsep}{3pt}
% reconfigure itemize lists:
\let\olditem\item
\renewcommand{\item}{%
\setlength{\itemsep}{\wideitemsep}%
\olditem}

Drawback (or advantage): Although the items are farther apart, lines of text before an after the list are still very close. (I found this idea at http://blog.nguyenvq.com/2011/05/01/spacing-between-items-in-itemize-or-enumerate-environments-lists/.)

Solution 2: Almost the same thing, but this also adds space before the list:

\let\olditem\item
\renewcommand{\item}{%
\olditem\vspace{4pt}}

However, it does not add space after the list. I'd like to find a global way to do that. I've experimented with some of the other list parameters without success using this sort of method, which makes sense: The only effect you can have by redefining \item will be local to a particular item, in general.