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From: wtho@cgcha.UUCP (Tom Hofmann)
Newsgroups: comp.text
Subject: Re: Doing ".ip" type paragraphs in LaTeX (or plain TeX)
Message-ID: <376@cgcha.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 5-Jun-87 12:16:34 EDT
Article-I.D.: cgcha.376
Posted: Fri Jun  5 12:16:34 1987
Date-Received: Wed, 10-Jun-87 02:41:38 EDT
References: <94@rdlvax.UUCP>
Distribution: world
Organization: CIBA-GEIGY AG, FO/WIRZ/WRZ, CH-4002 Basel, Switzerland
Lines: 49

> And what I want is this (".ip" does it correctly):
> 
>     ITEM this is the paragraph.
>          Etc., etc., etc....
> 
>     IT   this is the paragraph.
>          Etc., etc., etc....
> 
>     ITEM 1
>          this is the paragraph.
>          Etc., etc., etc....


Use the following in LaTeX:

-----------------------------------------------------------------
% New environment: itemlist
%
\newbox\itembox
\def\itemlistlabel#1{#1\hfill}
\def\itemlist#1{\setbox\itembox=\hbox{#1}%
                \list{}{\labelwidth\wd\itembox
		             \leftmargin\labelwidth
		             \advance\leftmargin by\itemindent
		             \advance\leftmargin by\labelsep
		             \let\makelabel\itemlistlabel}}
\let\enditemlist\endlist
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Then write

     \begin{itemlist}{<text>}
     \item[<item>] <anything>
     \item ...
     \end{itemlist}

where the width of <text> is the width of the item column.
If you write \begin{itemlist}{ITEM} in your example, it works as
you want in the first two cases, in the third case it creates:

     ITEM 1 this is the paragraph.
          Etc., etc., etc....

Tom Hofmann
CIBA-GEIGY AG
Scientific Computer Center
P.O.Box                        Phone: +41 61 / 372059
CH-4002 Basel                  uucp:  ...!mcvax!cgcha!wtho
Switzerland