Eliminating whitespace in table

Question

I'm quite new to LaTeX, and I'm trying to modify a CV template. Here's how it looks without modification.

The relevant code:

\begin{document}
\makefrontsidebar

\cvsection{Working Experience}
\begin{cvtable}[1.5]
    \cvitem{Year1 -- Year2}{Position}{Employer}{
        \begin{itemize}
            \item Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Donec convallis viverra lacus nec luctus. Aenean a gravida ipsum. Morbi sagittis mollis dapibus. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Etiam non lacus lacus. Phasellus volutpat pretium velit a fermentum.
            \item Duis fermentum porttitor consectetur. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Vivamus sit amet diam quis felis elementum posuere. Nam hendrerit sollicitudin nibh sit amet efficitur. Suspendisse efficitur dui quis magna pharetra pretium. Donec tempor, nunc placerat interdum fermentum, quam dolor tristique augue, eu vulputate orci dolor quis felis. Curabitur aliquam egestas ligula.
            \item Etiam auctor tortor vel commodo egestas. Praesent sed risus nisi. Integer est arcu, scelerisque eget rutrum vel, consequat sit amet orci. Vestibulum accumsan porta venenatis. Nulla porta ultrices facilisis.
        \end{itemize}
    }
    \cvitem{Year1 -- Year2}{Position}{Employer}{
        \begin{itemize}
            \item Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Donec convallis viverra lacus nec luctus. Aenean a gravida ipsum. Morbi sagittis mollis dapibus. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Etiam non lacus lacus. Phasellus volutpat pretium velit a fermentum.
            \item Duis fermentum porttitor consectetur. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Vivamus sit amet diam quis felis elementum posuere. Nam hendrerit sollicitudin nibh sit amet efficitur. Suspendisse efficitur dui quis magna pharetra pretium. Donec tempor, nunc placerat interdum fermentum, quam dolor tristique augue, eu vulputate orci dolor quis felis. Curabitur aliquam egestas ligula.
            \item Etiam auctor tortor vel commodo egestas. Praesent sed risus nisi. Integer est arcu, scelerisque eget rutrum vel, consequat sit amet orci. Vestibulum accumsan porta venenatis. Nulla porta ultrices facilisis.
        \end{itemize}
    }
\end{cvtable}

\end{document}

And the commands in the class file

\newenvironment{cvtable}[1][1]{%
    \renewcommand{\arraystretch}{#1}%
    % remove additional spacing before and after longtables
    \setlength{\LTpre}{0pt}
    \setlength{\LTpost}{0pt}
    \iftoggle{tshowframes}{%
        \begin{longtabu} to \textwidth {@{\extracolsep{\fill}}|l|l|}%
        \hline%
    }{%
        \begin{longtabu} to \textwidth {@{\extracolsep{\fill}}ll}%
    }
}{%
    \iftoggle{tshowframes}{%
        \hline%
        \end{longtabu}%
    }{%
        \end{longtabu}%
    }
}

\newcommand{\cvitem}[4]{%
    \parbox[t]{\datecolwidth}{\raggedright #1} &%
    \parbox[t]{0.98\textwidth-\datecolwidth}{%
        \if\relax\detokenize{#4}\relax%
            \parbox[t]{\linewidth-\widthof{\footnotesize #3}-1em}{\raggedright \textbf{#2}}%
            \hfill {\footnotesize#3}%
        \else%
            \parbox[t]{\linewidth-\widthof{\footnotesize #3}-1em}{\raggedright \textbf{#2}}%
            \hfill {\footnotesize#3} \\%
            \textcolor{itemtextcolor}{#4}%\vspace{\parsep}%
        \fi%
    }\\
}

As far as I can tell, the issue is that the body text for each \cvitem is in a column with the position and employer, and the dates have their own column. I'd like to keep the same format for the date/position/employer row, but have less whitespace for my bullet list.

I have tried this:

\newcommand{\cvitemnew}[4]{%
    \parbox[t]{\textwidth}{%
        \raggedright #1\space
        \parbox[t]{\linewidth-\widthof{\footnotesize #3}-\datecolwidth+1.5em}{\raggedright \textbf{#2}}%
         {\footnotesize#3}
        \textcolor{itemtextcolor}{#4}%
    }
}

with

\begin{document}
\makefrontsidebar

\cvsection{Working Experience}
\begin{cvtable}[1.5]
    \cvitemnew{Year1 -- Year2}{Position}{Employer}{
        \begin{itemize}
            \item Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Donec convallis viverra lacus nec luctus. Aenean a gravida ipsum. Morbi sagittis mollis dapibus. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Etiam non lacus lacus. Phasellus volutpat pretium velit a fermentum.
            \item Duis fermentum porttitor consectetur. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Vivamus sit amet diam quis felis elementum posuere. Nam hendrerit sollicitudin nibh sit amet efficitur. Suspendisse efficitur dui quis magna pharetra pretium. Donec tempor, nunc placerat interdum fermentum, quam dolor tristique augue, eu vulputate orci dolor quis felis. Curabitur aliquam egestas ligula.
            \item Etiam auctor tortor vel commodo egestas. Praesent sed risus nisi. Integer est arcu, scelerisque eget rutrum vel, consequat sit amet orci. Vestibulum accumsan porta venenatis. Nulla porta ultrices facilisis.
        \end{itemize}
    }
    \cvitemnew{Year1 -- Year2}{Position}{Employer}{
        \begin{itemize}
            \item Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Donec convallis viverra lacus nec luctus. Aenean a gravida ipsum. Morbi sagittis mollis dapibus. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Etiam non lacus lacus. Phasellus volutpat pretium velit a fermentum.
            \item Duis fermentum porttitor consectetur. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Vivamus sit amet diam quis felis elementum posuere. Nam hendrerit sollicitudin nibh sit amet efficitur. Suspendisse efficitur dui quis magna pharetra pretium. Donec tempor, nunc placerat interdum fermentum, quam dolor tristique augue, eu vulputate orci dolor quis felis. Curabitur aliquam egestas ligula.
            \item Etiam auctor tortor vel commodo egestas. Praesent sed risus nisi. Integer est arcu, scelerisque eget rutrum vel, consequat sit amet orci. Vestibulum accumsan porta venenatis. Nulla porta ultrices facilisis.
        \end{itemize}
    }
\end{cvtable}





\end{document}

This almost looks right for one cv item, except that Position and Employer end up on their own row. But a second item attempts to render to the right of the first, instead of below it, like so.

How can I achieve the same format as existed before, but less whitespace to the left of my bullet lists?

Answer 1

You can redefine \cvitem to shift the bullet list to the left and expand its bodytext by the same amount.

Add this code before \begin{document}:

\renewcommand{\cvitem}[4]{% 
    \parbox[t]{\datecolwidth}{\raggedright #1} &%
    \parbox[t]{0.98\textwidth-\datecolwidth}{%
        \if\relax\detokenize{#4}\relax%
        \parbox[t]{\linewidth-\widthof{\footnotesize #3}-1em}{\raggedright \textbf{#2}}%
        \hfill {\footnotesize#3}%
        \else%
        \parbox[t]{\linewidth-\widthof{\footnotesize #3}-1em}{\raggedright \textbf{#2}}%
        \hfill {\footnotesize#3} \\%
        \hspace*{-\datecolwidth}\parbox[t]{\linewidth+\datecolwidth}{\textcolor{itemtextcolor}{#4}}\vspace{3\parsep}% changed <<<<
        \fi%
    }\\ %
}