Tree like items list

Question

I'm trying to build a list in a file based on the Tufte-Latex book template: https://code.google.com/p/tufte-latex/

In keeping with the clean design, I don't need any font changes, blod or italics, and would prefer to avoid bullet points. Any idea how I can recreate the neat line-marking of this example?

Answer 1

Quick hack with Tikz, I'm sure this can be improved/made more general with some work:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{shadows}

\newcommand{\mylist}{\tikz[overlay]\draw(-.2,-.2)--(-.2,.5) [path fading=east](-.2,.15)--(.1,.15);}
\newcommand{\myitem}{\item[\mylist]}
\begin{document}
\begin{enumerate}
   \item Google
   \begin{itemize}
      \myitem Picasa
      \myitem Feedburner
      \myitem Youtube
   \end{itemize}
   \item Microsoft
   \begin{itemize}
      \myitem Corel Corporation
      \myitem Zignlas
      \myitem MyBlogLog
   \end{itemize}
\end{enumerate}
\end{document}

Answer 2

My answer builds off of dcmst's answer. I've reused his tikz code.

If you want to redefine all second-level enumerate environments to use this symbol, you can add \renewcommand{\labelenumii}{\mylist} to the preamble of your document.

\documentclass{tufte-handout}

% From dcmst's answer at <http://tex.stackexchange.com/a/175204/80>.
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{shadows}
\newcommand{\mylist}{\tikz[overlay]\draw(-.2,-.2)--(-.2,.5) [path fading=east](-.2,.15)--(.1,.15);}

% All second-level enumerated lists should use the \mylist bullet.
\renewcommand{\labelenumii}{\mylist}

% This generates fake lists for us.
\usepackage{blindtext}

\begin{document}

It works okay if you only use a second-level list.

\blindlistlist[2]{enumerate}[3]

If you use a third-level list, you'll have to do something a bit fancier.

\blindlistlist[3]{enumerate}[3]

\end{document}

Answer 3

And I think I developed godbyk's answer when I had trouble with linespacing causes breaks in the line. I also added a second 'my object' for closing the list off at the bottom.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
%for fancy lists
\usetikzlibrary{shadows}
\newcommand{\mylist}{\tikz[overlay]\draw(-.2,-.2)--(-.2,.4) [path fading=east](-.2,.15)--(.1,.15);} %adds the |- shape to the start of each list item
\newcommand{\mylistend}{\tikz[overlay]\draw(-.2,.15)--(-.2,.4) [path fading=east](-.2,.15)--(.1,.15);} %adds the |- shape to the start of each list item
\newcommand{\myitem}{\item[\mylist]} %defines the scope of the mylist command to be 2nd level sublists
\newcommand{\myitemend}{\item[\mylistend]} %defines the scope of the mylist command to be 2nd level sublists

% with an example in use:

\begin{document}
\begin{enumerate}
    \item Google
        \begin{itemize}
        \myitem Youtube
        \myitem Google+
        \myitem Skybox
        \myitemend Googlemaps
        \end{itemize}
    \item Microsoft
        \begin{itemize}
        \myitem Corel Corporation
        \myitem Zignals
        \myitem ByteTaxi
        \myitemend Azure
        \end{itemize}
\end{enumerate}
\end{document}