The

• itemize-environment
• enumerate-environment
• description-environment

1.1 Vertical Linespacing

Linespacing in standard list environments may sometimes too big. There are several variables which controll this spacing:

• \topsep additional space before first and behind last item
• \partopsepsame as \topsep when an empty line is before the first and behind last item
• \parskipvertical space between paragraphs
• \parsepadditional space between paragraphs for the same item
• \itemsepadditional space between different items

1.2 Horizontal Linespacing

• \labelwidth as the name says ...
• \labelsep additional space between label and text
• \itemindent indenting of the first line for one item
• \listparindent same, but only for new paragraphs for the same item
• \leftmargin same as in standard text environment

1.3 Examples

At first we set all variables to the value 0:

\setlength{\topsep}{0pt}
\setlength{\partopsep}{0pt}
\setlength{\parskip}{0pt}
\setlength{\parsep}{0pt}
\setlength{\itemsep}{0pt}
\setlength{\labelwidth}{0pt}
\setlength{\labelsep}{0pt}
\setlength{\itemindent}{0pt}
\setlength{\listparindent}{0pt}
\setlength{\leftmargin}{0pt}

1. You can't put the TEX-commands before the environment, they will be overwritten whith the
   \begin{list-environment}-command.
   On the other hand you can't controll honrizontal spacing of the first label in the first item, when you put the TEX-commands behind the first item, which is shown in this example for item 1. and 2.
2. Therefore you have to write your own environment with
   \begin{list-environment}
   - all TEX-commands -
   \item my first bla bla textline
   \item my first bla bla textline
   \end{list-environment}
   This is possible in an existing list-environment in fact of the possibility of nesting lists.
   • The first line with a

     \setlength{\labelwidth}{2cm}
     \setlength{\labelsep}{0.1\textwidth}

     direct behind the \begin{itemize}-command, means before the first \item-command
   • A second line with a
     \setlength{\labelsep}{0}\setlength{\itemsep}{-0.5ex}
   • A last line with a \setlength{\labelsep}{1em} at the end of the following \item-command.
   • You have to remember that latex stores the values of the higher list-environment, therefore all commands in this nested itemize-list are not valid outside this list.
3. The last lines of the inner list are
   \end{itemize}
\setlength{\parskip}{1cm}
\setlength{\labelsep}{1em}
   You have to remember that latex stores the values of the higher list-environment, therefore all commands in this nested itemize-list are not valid outside this list and vice-versa.
4. The last line ...