Make notes next to a piece of text (not margin notes) I'm not sure what they're called (image included)

Question

EDIT -

I'm not sure what these are called but how would one go about doing something like this in LaTeX :

Cheers

EDIT #1

This partially works - not very well though

\documentclass{book}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\begin{document}
\[
\left.
\begin{minipage}{2cm}
\begin{itemize}
\item One
\item Two
\item Three
\end{itemize}
\end{minipage}
\right\} \text{Description}
\]
\[
\left.
\begin{minipage}{2cm}
\begin{itemize}
\item One
\item Two
\item Three
\end{itemize}
\end{minipage}
\right\} \text{Description}
\]
\end{document}

Answer 1

Here I introduce the itemized list through \braceditems[width]{items} and the commentary via \mycomment[width]{commentary}. The default widths can be re-specified via \leftwidth and \rightwidth. The brace is just a scaled \} glyph, limited in width to 1.5ex, as specified in the \scalerel* optional argument (see addendum for alternative brace style).

If I knew more about environments, I'm sure I could automate it, but an \addgap is required before the first \braceditems list.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{scalerel,lipsum}
\def\leftwidth{.6\textwidth}
\def\rightwidth{.35\textwidth}
\newsavebox\tmpbox
\newcommand\braceditems[2][\leftwidth]{%
  \noindent\savebox{\tmpbox}{%
  \begin{minipage}{#1}
    \begin{itemize}
      #2
    \end{itemize}
  \end{minipage}%
  }%
  \usebox{\tmpbox} \scalerel*[1.5ex]{\}}{\usebox{\tmpbox}}
}
\newcommand\mycomment[2][\rightwidth]{%
  \parbox{#1}{\raggedright #2}\addgap%
}
\newcommand\addgap{\par\bigskip}
\begin{document}
\lipsum[3]
\addgap
\braceditems[2in]{
\item This is 
\item just some text
\item that I'm
}
\mycomment[.15\textwidth]{talk a bit about those}
\braceditems[2in]{
\item using as an 
\item example so that
\item people know what
}
\mycomment[.15\textwidth]{talk a bit about these ones as well}
\braceditems[2in]{
\item I mean as it 
\item might be tricky
\item to describe
\item even when the region is larger than the OP specified.
}
\mycomment[.15\textwidth]{and talk about these}
\lipsum[4]
\end{document}

ADDENDUM:

If by chance you wanted extensible braces common to LaTeX, then this redefinition (requiring the graphicx package) will suffice:

\usepackage{graphicx}
\newcommand\braceditems[2][\leftwidth]{%
  \noindent\savebox{\tmpbox}{%
  \begin{minipage}{#1}
    \begin{itemize}
      #2
    \end{itemize}
  \end{minipage}%
  }%
  \usebox{\tmpbox} \scalerel*[1.5ex]{%
    \raisebox{2pt}{\rotatebox[origin=c]{90}{%
    \makebox[\dimexpr\ht\tmpbox+\dp\tmpbox\relax]{\upbracefill}}}%
    }{\usebox{\tmpbox}}
}

Answer 2

Here are two variants, that use the blkarray and listliketabpackages, and enumitem for the variant that uses an itemize environment. The other variant only mimicks itemize, and is designed for one-lined ‘items’: \documentclass[12pt, a4pape, leqno]{article} \usepackage[utf8]{inputenc} \usepackage[T1]{fontenc} \usepackage{lmodern}

\usepackage{blkarray}
\usepackage{enumitem}
\usepackage{listliketab}

\begin{document}


Some text some text some text some text some text some text some text some text some text some text some text some text some text some text some text some text some text.

\storestyleof{itemize}
\begin{listliketab}
\begin{blockarray}{@{\hskip\parindent} >{ \arraybackslash}p{6cm}}%
\begin{block}{@{}l<{\enspace}\Right{\}\enspace}{\parbox{2.5cm}{\raggedright talk a bit about these}}}%
\parbox{4cm}{\raggedright\begin{itemize}[leftmargin=1.8em, itemsep = 0ex, topsep = 0pt]
\item this is
\item just some
\item text that I’m
\end{itemize}}\\[4ex]
\end{block}
%
\begin{block}{@{}l<{\enspace}\Right{\}\enspace}{\parbox{2.5cm}{\raggedright talk a bit about these ones as well}}}%
\parbox{4cm}{\raggedright\begin{itemize}[leftmargin=1.8em, itemsep = 0ex, topsep = 0pt]
\item using as an
\item example so that text text text text
\item people know what
\end{itemize}}\\[4ex]
\end{block}
%
\begin{block}{@{} >{}l<{\enspace}\Right{\}\enspace}{\parbox{2.5cm}{\raggedright and talk about these}}}%
\parbox{4cm}{\raggedright\begin{itemize}[leftmargin=1.8em, itemsep = 0ex, topsep = 0pt]
\item I mean as it
\item might be tricky
\item to describe
\end{itemize}}\\
\end{block}
\end{blockarray}
\end{listliketab}

\storestyleof{itemize}
\begin{listliketab}
\renewcommand\arraystretch{1.333}
\begin{blockarray}{@{}>{\arraybackslash}l}%
\begin{block}{@{\hskip0.3\parindent}>{\textbullet\hskip\labelsep}l<{\enspace}\Right{\}\enspace}{\parbox{2.5cm}{\raggedright talk a bit\\ about these}}}%
  this is \\
 just some \\
 text that I’m \\
\end{block}
%
\begin{block}{@{}>{\hskip0.3\parindent\textbullet\hskip\labelsep}l<{\enspace}\Right{\}\enspace}{\parbox{2.5cm}{\raggedright talk a bit about these ones as well}}}%
 using as an \\
example so that text text text text\\
 people know what \\
\end{block}
%
\begin{block}{@{} >{\hskip0.3\parindent\textbullet\hskip\labelsep}l<{\enspace}\Right{\}\enspace}{\parbox{2.5cm}{\raggedright and talk about these}}}%
 I mean as it \\
 might be tricky \\
  to describe\\
\end{block}
\end{blockarray}
\end{listliketab}
\end{document}

Answer 3

If you don't mind the overhead involved in loading TiKZ (or if you are using it for something else anyway), you could use the tikzmark library. The following code defines a new environment, braced which takes a single argument which should be the description you want typeset to the right of the list of items. You then use \item to define the items, as you would in a regular itemize environment. You place \bracefirst after the first item you want included in the braces, \bracelast after the last one, and \bracewidest after the widest one. This means that you can, if you wish, brace a subset of the items in a list:

\documentclass{book}
\usepackage{tikz,enumitem}
\usetikzlibrary{tikzmark,decorations.pathreplacing,calc}
\newlist{braceditems}{itemize}{1}
\setlist[braceditems,1]{%
  label=\textbullet,
  before={\stepcounter{braced}},
}
\newcounter{braced}
\setcounter{braced}{0}
\newcommand\bracefirst{\tikzmark{first braced \thebraced}}
\newcommand\bracelast{\tikzmark{last braced \thebraced}}
\newcommand\bracewidest{\tikzmark{widest braced \thebraced}}
\newenvironment{braced}[1]{%
  \providecommand{\braceddescriptor}{#1}%
  \begin{braceditems}%
  }{%
  \end{braceditems}%
  \begin{tikzpicture}[overlay,remember picture]
    \draw [decorate, decoration=brace, xshift=10pt] ($({pic cs:first braced \thebraced} -| {pic cs:widest braced \thebraced}) + (0,1em)$) -- ($({pic cs:last braced \thebraced} -| {pic cs:widest braced \thebraced}) - (0,.5em)$) node [right, midway, xshift=5pt] {\braceddescriptor} ;
  \end{tikzpicture}
}
\begin{document}
  \begin{braced}{Description 1}
    \item One\bracefirst
    \item Two
    \item Three\bracelast\bracewidest
  \end{braced}
  \begin{braced}{Description 2}
    \item One\bracefirst
    \item Two and a bit\bracewidest
    \item Three\bracelast
  \end{braced}
  \begin{braced}{Description 3}
    \item Nought (an unbraced item)
    \item One\bracefirst
    \item Two and a bit\bracewidest
    \item Three\bracelast
    \item Final (outside the braces)
  \end{braced}
\end{document}

Answer 4

A quick solution that comes to my mind is to abuse the cases environment:

\documentclass{minimal}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\begin{document}
$
\mbox{\begin{minipage}{3cm}some long description braking to next line\end{minipage}}
\begin{cases}
\mbox{item 1} \\
\mbox{item 2} \\
\mbox{item 3} 
\end{cases}
$
\end{document}

Yielding this (with a brace on the left side, however):

(Of course, this is not what the cases environment is intended to do... but it does work.)