I have a section in my document where writing space is limited and when there's a text entry that's too long, it does not look great because the points span two lines as shown in the first image below. Specifically, I would like to automatically enter a new line after the entries "Effective communication" or "International work experience" and have the points indented in the new line. For example, there should be a threshold for line length: in this case I want to set it to 20pt. I don't understand which \if to use and how to determine the length of the previous line to use it as a condition. If \if is not the way to go, is there any other way to do this?
I want to modify the following code snippet:
% \pointskill[<indent>]{<icon>}{<description>}{<points>}[<maxpoints>] creates
% | [indent] [icon] description \hfill ● ● ● ○ ○ |
% -- inspired by arravc.cls by LianTze Lim: https://github.com/liantze/AltaCV
\NewDocumentCommand{\pointskill}{ O{0em} m m m O{5} }{%
\hspace{#1} \cvicon{#2} ~ #3 \hfill%
\ifdim#3<20pt\newline\hspace{20pt} \fi % my attempt to enter a new line, but I can't figure it out; #3 is the text entry variable
\foreach \x in {1,...,#5}{%
\space%
{\ifnumgreater{\x}{#4}{\color{skillbg}}{\color{iconcolor}}% from etoolbox
% don't use totalheight; see https://tex.stackexchange.com/a/41014
\raisebox{0.5\height-0.4ex}{\scriptsize\faCircle}%
}
}\par%
}
EDIT: Here is the minimal working example. I trimmed it down as much as I could (.cls file was more than 600 lines). Essentially, I want to modify the command that starts with the line \NewDocumentCommand{\pointskill} in class.cls to automatically break lines if they are too long.
Current output:
Desired output*:
*I only want the entries from image1 that span multiple lines to be as in image2.
class.cls
\NeedsTeXFormat{LaTeX2e}
\ProvidesClass{class}[2020/02/09 CV class]
\RequirePackage[dvipsnames, svgnames, x11names]{xcolor}
% for positioning text within the side column | use showboxes for visible frame
\RequirePackage[absolute,overlay]{textpos}
% provides key-value class options via \DeclareOptionX
\RequirePackage{xkeyval}
% provides \ifnumgreater{<int expr.>}{<int expr.>}{<true>}{<false>},
% \apptocmd{<command>}{<code>}{<success>}{<failure>} and \newtoggle{<name>}
\RequirePackage{etoolbox}
% enable simple math like +/- etc. on lengths
\RequirePackage{calc}
% change page margins
\RequirePackage[
nohead,
nofoot,
nomarginpar,
]{geometry}
% pre-define some colors the user can choose from
\definecolor{lightgreen}{rgb}{0.35,0.70,0.30}% lightgreen
\definecolor{shadygreen}{rgb}{0.20,0.50,0.20}% shadygreen
\definecolor{cvsidecolor}{HTML}{E7E7E7}
\definecolor{cvsectioncolor}{HTML}{0395DE}
\definecolor{cvsubsectioncolor}{HTML}{4D4D4D}
% set default values
\colorlet{maincolor}{lightgreen}
\colorlet{sidecolor}{cvsidecolor}
\colorlet{sectioncolor}{cvsectioncolor}
\colorlet{subsectioncolor}{cvsubsectioncolor}
\colorlet{itemtextcolor}{black!90}
% colors for document body (right column)
% let user define main color
\DeclareOptionX{maincolor}{\colorlet{maincolor}{#1}}
\DeclareOptionX{sidecolor}{\colorlet{sidecolor}{#1}}
\DeclareOptionX{sectioncolor}{\colorlet{sectioncolor}{#1}}
\DeclareOptionX{subsectioncolor}{\colorlet{subsectioncolor}{#1}}
\DeclareOptionX{itemtextcolor}{\colorlet{itemtextcolor}{#1}}
% set page margins
\newlength\sidebarwidth%
\newlength\topbottommargin%
\newlength\leftrightmargin%
\newlength\sidebartextwidth
% default values
\setlength{\sidebarwidth}{0.34\paperwidth}
\setlength{\topbottommargin}{0.02\paperheight}
\setlength{\leftrightmargin}{0.02\paperwidth}
% user overwrites
\DeclareOptionX{sidebarwidth}{\setlength{\sidebarwidth}{#1}}
\DeclareOptionX{topbottommargin}{\setlength{\topbottommargin}{#1}}
\DeclareOptionX{leftrightmargin}{\setlength{\leftrightmargin}{#1}}
% show sidebar and page margins
\newtoggle{tshowframes}
\togglefalse{tshowframes}
\DeclareOptionX{showframes}{
\geometry{showframe}
\TPoptions{showboxes=true}
\toggletrue{tshowframes}
% adding \hline in \newenvironment directly doesn't work, so do it here...
\AtBeginDocument{\apptocmd{\personaldata}{\hline}{}{}}
}
% draw vertical guideline
\newcommand{\plotvline}{}
\DeclareOptionX{vline}{%
% must be defined here as macro, b/c tikz won't expand absolute length in
% \backgroundsetup -- BUG?
\renewcommand{\plotvline}{%
\draw [thick, red, opacity=0.7]
(\leftrightmargin + #1, 0) -- (\leftrightmargin + #1, -\paperheight);
}
}
% pass further options to base class and load it
\DeclareOptionX*{\PassOptionsToClass{\CurrentOption}{article}}
\ProcessOptionsX\relax
\LoadClass{article}
% compute "inner" margin of sidebar automatically;
% must come after \sidebarwidth and \leftrightmargin possibly changed by user
\setlength{\sidebartextwidth}{\sidebarwidth - 2\leftrightmargin}
% let geometry package perform the changes;
% must come after loading the base class to prevent overwriting
\geometry{
top=\topbottommargin,
bottom=\topbottommargin,
left=\sidebarwidth + \leftrightmargin,
right=\leftrightmargin,
}
%-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
% REQUIRED PACKAGES
%-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
% font configuration
\RequirePackage[sfdefault]{ClearSans}
% use as workaround for spacing problem when TikZ picture is not in paragraph;
% details: https://tex.stackexchange.com/a/435790
\RequirePackage[texcoord]{eso-pic}
% for easy section style definitions
\RequirePackage{titlesec}
% loads graphicx, provides align=c option for vertical alignment w.r.t. text
\RequirePackage{graphbox}
% provides X column type for automatic length calculations
\RequirePackage{tabularx}
% take care of compiler-specific packages
\RequirePackage{ifluatex}
\RequirePackage{ifxetex}
\newif\ifxetexorluatex
\ifxetex
\xetexorluatextrue
\else
\ifluatex
\xetexorluatextrue
\else
\xetexorluatexfalse
\fi
\fi
% pictures, icons and drawings
\ifxetexorluatex
\RequirePackage{fontawesome5}
\RequirePackage{academicons}
\else
\RequirePackage{fontawesome}
\fi
\RequirePackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{arrows, backgrounds}
% provides \xrfill for horizontal rules
\RequirePackage{xhfill}
% provides basic conditional expressions
\RequirePackage{ifthen}
% enable multiple optional arguments in macros
\RequirePackage{xparse}
%-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
% DERIVED COLOR DEFINITIONS
%-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
% profile section color (sidebar/left column)
\colorlet{pseccolor}{maincolor!90}
% color used for all icon arguments
\colorlet{iconcolor}{maincolor!90}
\colorlet{skillbg}{black!25}
%-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
% GLOBAL LAYOUT AND HEADINGS STYLE
%-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
% remove headers and footers
\pagestyle{empty}
% globally disable paragraph indentation
\setlength{\parindent}{0pt}
% creates a rule after some text using remaining line width
% usage: \xrfill[<raise>]{<width>}
\newcommand*{\sectionline}[1]{#1~\xrfill[.5ex]{1pt}[pseccolor]}
% uniform icon style for all skill icons, e.g. flags or fontawesome icons
\newcommand{\cvicon}[1]{\makebox[1em]{\color{iconcolor} #1}}
% \pointskill[<indent>]{<icon>}{<description>}{<points>}[<maxpoints>] creates
% | [indent] [icon] description \hfill ● ● ● ○ ○ |
% -- inspired by arravc.cls by LianTze Lim: https://github.com/liantze/AltaCV
\NewDocumentCommand{\pointskill}{ O{0em} m m m O{5} }{%
\hspace{#1} \cvicon{#2} ~ #3 \hfill%
%\ifdim#3<20pt\newline\hspace{20pt} \fi % my attempt to enter a new line, but I can't figure it out; #3 is the text entry variable
\foreach \x in {1,...,#5}{%
\space%
{\ifnumgreater{\x}{#4}{\color{skillbg}}{\color{iconcolor}}% from etoolbox
% don't use totalheight; see https://tex.stackexchange.com/a/41014
\raisebox{0.5\height-0.4ex}{\scriptsize\faCircle}%
}
}\par%
}
%-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
% SIDEBAR LAYOUT
%-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
% draw sidebar background on current page
\newcommand{\drawSidebarBG}{%
\AddToShipoutPictureBG*{%
\begin{tikzpicture}[remember picture, overlay]
\node[
rectangle,
fill=sidecolor,
anchor=north west,
minimum width=\sidebarwidth,
minimum height=\paperheight,
]{};%
% plot vertical red guideline
\plotvline%
\end{tikzpicture}%
}%
}
% use textpos to position textblock within TikZ background; we have to use
% the starred version for absolute values here, b/c we use \pagewidth directly
% instead of \setlength{\TPHorizModule}{<dimen>}, which seems to be "absolute"
% as opposed to "relative" - strange but true.
\newenvironment{sidebar}{%
\drawSidebarBG%
\begin{textblock}{\sidebartextwidth}(\leftrightmargin, \topbottommargin)
}{%
\end{textblock}%
}
% provide user interface for easily adding new sections in side bars
% default: empty sidebar
\newcommand{\frontsidebar}{}
\newcommand{\addtofrontsidebar}[1]{\apptocmd{\frontsidebar}{#1}{}{}}
\newcommand{\makefrontsidebar}{%
\begin{sidebar}
% most sidebar commands end with \par; increase space between them
\setlength{\parskip}{1ex}
% user definitions
\frontsidebar
\end{sidebar}
}
example.tex
\documentclass[
a4paper,
maincolor=shadygreen,
sectioncolor=lightgreen,
]{class}
% improve word spacing and hyphenation
\usepackage{microtype}
\usepackage{ragged2e}
% take care of proper font encoding
\ifxetexorluatex
\usepackage{fontspec}
\defaultfontfeatures{Ligatures=TeX}
\else
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\fi
\addtofrontsidebar{
\pointskill{\faBolt}{Effective communication}{5}[5]
\pointskill{\faChild \faUsers}{International work experience}{4}[5]
\pointskill{\faToggleOn}{Living abroad}{5}[5]
\pointskill{\faGavel}{IPR}{3}[5]
\pointskill{\faAngellist}{Project coordination}{3}[5]
\pointskill{\faBalanceScale}{Ethics}{5}[5]
}
\begin{document}
\makefrontsidebar
\end{document}
