Align bullet points in two side-by-side itemized lists

Question

I'm trying to create two side-by-side bullet point lists in a document, where each point lines up with the corresponding point in the other list, even when one of the points has multiple lines.

So far I use a minipage environment and \\ the items to where they are side-by-side, but this seems like a major kludge.

As an example, I have something like this:

\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
\begin{minipage}[t]{0.5\textwidth}
\begin{itemize}
\item Mary had a little lamb,
\item Old MacDonald had a farm,
\end{itemize}
\end{minipage}
\begin{minipage}[t]{0.5\textwidth}
\begin{itemize}
\item Her fleece was white as snow. And everywhere that Mary went, the lamb was sure to go.
\item E-I-E-I-O! And on this farm he had a cow, E-I-E-I-O! With a moo moo here, and a moo moo there.
\end{itemize}
\end{minipage}
\end{document}

and then to align them I add \\s as appropriate

\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
\begin{minipage}[t]{0.5\textwidth}
\begin{itemize}
\item Mary had a little lamb, \\ \\
\item Old MacDonald had a farm,
\end{itemize}
\end{minipage}
\begin{minipage}[t]{0.5\textwidth}
\begin{itemize}
\item Her fleece was white as snow. And everywhere that Mary went, the lamb was sure to go.
\item E-I-E-I-O! And on this farm he had a cow, E-I-E-I-O! With a moo moo here, and a moo moo there.
\end{itemize}
\end{minipage}
\end{document}

But is there a more sane way to do this? Notably this stops working whenever I use \raggedright.

Answer 1

You can try with the multienum package, by defining a new multiitem environment

\newenvironment{multiitem}{%
  \multienumerate\renewcommand{\labelname}{\textbullet}%
}{%
  \endmultienumerate%
}

No need for minipages or tabulars with it.

MWE

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{multienum}

\newenvironment{multiitem}{%
  \multienumerate\renewcommand{\labelname}{\textbullet}%
}{%
  \endmultienumerate%
}

\begin{document}
\begin{multiitem}
\mitemxx{Mary had a little lamb,}{Her fleece was white as snow. And everywhere that Mary went, the lamb was sure to go.}
\mitemxx{Old MacDonald had a farm,}{E-I-E-I-O! And on this farm he had a cow, E-I-E-I-O! With a moo moo here, and a moo moo there.}
\end{multiitem}
\end{document} 

Output

Answer 2

If you're not concerned about page breaking, I'd just set this in a tabularx. It's all about the column specification:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tabularx}% Loads the array package
\begin{document}

\noindent
\begin{tabularx}{\textwidth}{
    @{\hspace{1.5em}}% Space for left bullet
    >{\leavevmode\llap{\textbullet~}\raggedright}% Left bullet + formatting of column
    X% Left column specification
    @{\quad\hspace{1.5em}}% Space between columns + right bullet space
    >{\leavevmode\llap{\textbullet~}\raggedright\arraybackslash}% Right bullet + formatting of column
    X% Right column specification
    @{}% No column space on right
  }
  Mary had a little lamb, & 
    Her fleece was white as snow. And everywhere that Mary went, the lamb was sure to go. \\
  Old MacDonald had a farm, & 
    E-I-E-I-O! And on this farm he had a cow, E-I-E-I-O! With a moo moo here, and a moo moo there.
\end{tabularx}

\end{document}

As mentioned, the column specification is the important thing here. Technically we only have 2 X-columns, each of which have a space of 1.5em on the left of it that is used to place a \textbullet inside. The look is similar to that of an itemize. The two columns have an additional \quad between them.

With the correct setup, the code for your construction should be fairly easy to read/interpret, and therefore be easily maintained.

---

Content can also be stretched vertically by adjusting \arraystretch accordingly. Headings and other tabular-related constructions are also easy to add, for example, the use of booktabs:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tabularx,booktabs}
\newcommand{\fakeleft}{\multicolumn{1}{X}{}}
\let\fakeright\fakeleft
\begin{document}

\renewcommand{\arraystretch}{1.5}% Vertically stretch tabular constructions
\noindent
\begin{tabularx}{\textwidth}{
    @{\hspace{1.5em}}% Space for left bullet
    >{\leavevmode\llap{\textbullet~}\raggedright}% Left bullet + formatting of column
    X% Left column specification
    @{\quad\hspace{1.5em}}% Space between columns + right bullet space
    >{\leavevmode\llap{\textbullet~}\raggedright\arraybackslash}% Right bullet + formatting of column
    X% Right column specification
    @{}% No column space on right
  }
  \toprule
  \multicolumn{1}{X}{\centering\bfseries Left heading} &
    \multicolumn{1}{X}{\centering\bfseries Right heading} \\
  \midrule
  Mary had a little lamb, & 
    Her fleece was white as snow. And everywhere that Mary went, the lamb was sure to go. \\
  \fakeleft & 
    This is a right bullet without a left counterpart. \\
  Old MacDonald had a farm, & 
    E-I-E-I-O! And on this farm he had a cow, E-I-E-I-O! With a moo moo here, and a moo moo there. \\
  \bottomrule
\end{tabularx}

\end{document}

\fakeleft/\fakeright can be used interchangeably to produce a bullet without its opposite counterpart.

Answer 3

You can also accomplish this using the parcolumns package, often used for side-by-side translations.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{parcolumns}
\begin{document}
\raggedright
\begin{parcolumns}{2}
\colchunk{\centering Left Header}
\colchunk{\centering Right Header}
\colplacechunks
\colchunk{\begin{itemize}\item Mary had a little lamb,\end{itemize}}
\colchunk{\begin{itemize}\item Her fleece was white as snow. And everywhere that Mary went, the lamb was sure to go. \item Another right bullet under the same left bullet.\end{itemize}}
\colplacechunks
\colchunk{\begin{itemize}\item Old MacDonald had a farm,\end{itemize}}
\colchunk{\begin{itemize}\item E-I-E-I-O! And on this farm he had a cow, E-I-E-I-O! With a moo moo here, and a moo moo there.\end{itemize}}
\end{parcolumns}
\end{document}