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In LaTeX Beamer, I'm trying to set \itemsep globally.

I've already tried the following, but it doesn't work:

\documentclass[14pt]{beamer}

\setbeamertemplate{itemize/enumerate body begin}{\setlength{\itemsep}{5ex}}

\begin{document}

\begin{frame}
    \begin{itemize}
%       \setlength{\itemsep}{5ex}  % this would work locally..
        \item Test1
        \item Test2
        \item Test3
    \end{itemize}

\end{frame} 

\end{document}

What am I doing wrong?

Edit:

I would prefer a solution that allows to define different spacing for body, subbody, subsubbody, etc., if possible.

Mario
  • 393

2 Answers2

32

Yout code won't work because the itemize/enumerate \beameritemnestingprefix body begin template is used before the \list internally used by itemize.

You can patch \itemize (original definition in beamerbaselocalstructure.sty):

\documentclass[14pt]{beamer}
\usepackage{xpatch}

\xpatchcmd{\itemize}
  {\def\makelabel}
  {\setlength{\itemsep}{5ex}\def\makelabel}
  {}
  {}


\begin{document}


\begin{frame}
    \begin{itemize}
        \item Test1
        \item Test2
        \item Test3
    \end{itemize}
\end{frame}


\end{document}

enter image description here

Since \itemize as defined by beamer has an optional argument, using etoolbox's \patchcmd might produce undesired results. The \xpatchcmd from the xpatch package was designed to deal with these cases.

Update

In comments, it has been requested to be able to independently control the separation for the three allowed nesting levels; this can also be easily done using a conditional on \@itemdepth:

\documentclass{beamer}
\usepackage{xpatch}

\xpatchcmd{\itemize}
  {\def\makelabel}
  {\ifnum@itemdepth=1\relax
     \setlength\itemsep{3ex}% separation for first level
   \else
     \ifnum@itemdepth=2\relax
       \setlength\itemsep{2ex}% separation for second level
     \else
       \ifnum@itemdepth=3\relax
         \setlength\itemsep{0.5ex}% separation for third level
   \fi\fi\fi\def\makelabel
  }
 {}
 {}


\begin{document}


\begin{frame}
\begin{itemize}
\item First item.
  \begin{itemize}
  \item First subitem.
  \item Second subitem.
    \begin{itemize}
    \item First subsubitem.
    \item Second subsubitem.
    \item Third subsubitem.
    \end{itemize}
  \item Third subitem.
  \end{itemize}
\item Second item.
\item Third item.
\end{itemize}
\end{frame}


\end{document}

enter image description here

Community
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Gonzalo Medina
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  • Your one appeared while I was trying mine. Care to tell why \AtBeginEnvironment{itemize}{\setlength\itemsep{2.0em}} does not work? – Masroor Jan 30 '15 at 17:20
  • @Masroor Your try with \AtBeginEnvironment (from etoolbox) executes the code immediately before \itemize so it won't have effect. – Gonzalo Medina Jan 30 '15 at 17:24
  • So, etoolbox can not be used in this case? – Masroor Jan 30 '15 at 17:29
  • 3
    @Masroor since \itemize is defined in beamer with an optional argument, using etoolbox's \patchcmd might produce undesired results. \xpatchcmd was written to deal with those cases correctly. – Gonzalo Medina Jan 30 '15 at 17:33
  • Thanks. Was curious. I seem to have got my answer. Already upvoted your answer. – Masroor Jan 30 '15 at 17:34
  • Thanks for your answer. It works, but it looks a little bit like a "hack" to me. If it would be possible to make \setbeamertemplate work, one could use different spacing for body, subbody, subsubbody, etc. which would be a great advantage. – Mario Feb 24 '15 at 16:15
  • @Mario That can be easily done also. Please see my updated answer. – Gonzalo Medina Feb 24 '15 at 17:44
  • Is there a way to use this with elastic spaces rather than fixed heights? I tried using stretch(factor) but no spacing appeared in the output. – BeingQuisitive Jan 15 '16 at 15:48
  • Could you please also give an example to set spacing for enumerate within beamer as well? Thank you! – Leshui Oct 07 '16 at 15:41
  • @GonzaloMedina Thanks for this. Do you also know how I can change the separation between "First Item" and "First Subitem"? This patch doesn't seem to control it. – Luke Davis Feb 20 '18 at 22:57
  • @GonzaloMedina The answer likely will involve the topsep setting. – Luke Davis Feb 20 '18 at 23:04
  • 2
    @GonzaloMedina I would like to reproduce this for enumerate environments, can you help ? – BambOo Jul 05 '19 at 13:37
  • @GonzaloMedina @BambOo The trivial idea to replace \itemize in the xpatchcommand with \enumerate didn't work for me. How to do this for enumerate? – GertVdE Mar 04 '20 at 13:59
  • @GertVdE, still no idea how to do that – BambOo Mar 04 '20 at 15:09
  • @BambOo for enumerate you have to patch \beamer@enum@, see my answer... – Rmano Nov 06 '20 at 11:38
3

As an addition to Gonzalo Medina's answer, I use this:

\documentclass{beamer}
\usepackage{xpatch}

\makeatletter
\newcommand{\my@beamer@setsep}{%
\ifnum@itemdepth=1\relax
     \setlength\itemsep{\my@beamer@itemsepi}% separation for first level
   \else
     \ifnum@itemdepth=2\relax
       \setlength\itemsep{\my@beamer@itemsepii}% separation for second level
     \else
       \ifnum@itemdepth=3\relax
         \setlength\itemsep{\my@beamer@itemsepiii}% separation for third level
   \fi\fi\fi}
\newlength{\my@beamer@itemsepi}\setlength{\my@beamer@itemsepi}{3ex}
\newlength{\my@beamer@itemsepii}\setlength{\my@beamer@itemsepii}{1.5ex}
\newlength{\my@beamer@itemsepiii}\setlength{\my@beamer@itemsepiii}{1.5ex}
\newcommand\setlistsep[3]{%
    \setlength{\my@beamer@itemsepi}{#1}%
    \setlength{\my@beamer@itemsepii}{#2}%
    \setlength{\my@beamer@itemsepiii}{#3}%
}
\xpatchcmd{\itemize}
  {\def\makelabel}
  {\my@beamer@setsep\def\makelabel}
 {}
 {}


\xpatchcmd{\beamer@enum@}
  {\def\makelabel}
  {\my@beamer@setsep\def\makelabel}
 {}
 {}
\makeatother


\begin{document}


\begin{frame}
    \begin{columns}[onlytextwidth, T]
        \begin{column}{.48\linewidth}
            % First column
            \begin{itemize}
                \item First item.
                    \begin{itemize}
                        \item First subitem.
                        \item Second subitem.
                            \begin{itemize}
                                \item First subsubitem.
                                \item Second subsubitem.
                                \item Third subsubitem.
                            \end{itemize}
                        \item Third subitem.
                    \end{itemize}
                \item Second item.
                \item Third item.
            \end{itemize}
        \end{column}%
        \hfill%
        \begin{column}{.48\linewidth}
            % second column
            \begin{enumerate}
                \item First item.
                    \begin{enumerate}
                        \item First subitem.
                        \item Second subitem.
                            \begin{enumerate}
                                \item First subsubitem.
                                \item Second subsubitem.
                                \item Third subsubitem.
                            \end{enumerate}
                        \item Third subitem.
                    \end{enumerate}
                \item Second item.
                \item Third item.
            \end{enumerate}
        \end{column}
    \end{columns}
\end{frame}


\end{document}

so that I can then do \setlistsep{2ex}{1ex}{1ex} in the slide where I need to change the values.

enter image description here

If you want also to add to the separation of the first item in a sublist, you can change the \my@beamer@setsep to:

\newcommand{\my@beamer@setsep}{%
\ifnum\@itemdepth=1\relax
     \setlength\itemsep{\my@beamer@itemsepi}% separation for first level
   \else
     \ifnum\@itemdepth=2\relax
       \setlength\itemsep{\my@beamer@itemsepii}% separation for second level
       \setlength\topsep{\my@beamer@itemsepii}% separation for second level
     \else
       \ifnum\@itemdepth=3\relax
         \setlength\itemsep{\my@beamer@itemsepiii}% separation for third level
         \setlength\topsep{\my@beamer@itemsepiii}% separation for second level
   \fi\fi\fi}

to obtain

enter image description here

...or maybe it's better to use the previous itemsep as topsep:

\newcommand{\my@beamer@setsep}{%
\ifnum\@itemdepth=1\relax
     \setlength\itemsep{\my@beamer@itemsepi}% separation for first level
   \else
     \ifnum\@itemdepth=2\relax
       \setlength\itemsep{\my@beamer@itemsepii}% separation for second level
       \setlength\topsep{\my@beamer@itemsepi}% separation for second level
     \else
       \ifnum\@itemdepth=3\relax
         \setlength\itemsep{\my@beamer@itemsepiii}% separation for third level
         \setlength\topsep{\my@beamer@itemsepii}% separation for second level
   \fi\fi\fi}

enter image description here

(just a matter of taste)

Rmano
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