5.30.2 Greatest hits from previous weeks

5.30.2.1 How can I make an enumerate list start at something other than 1?

https://tex.stackexchange.com/landing/r/digest?cta=question&id=142

Sometimes, I want to have enumerate lists in LaTeX start at other than the first value (1, a, i, etc.) How can I make an enumerate list start at an arbitrary value? 
[lists] [numbering] [enumerate]
 

asked by vanden https://tex.stackexchange.com/landing/r/digest?cta=user&id=93 363 votes

answered by ShreevatsaR https://tex.stackexchange.com/landing/r/digest?cta=user&id=48 436 votes

5.30.2.2 Absolute Value Symbols

https://tex.stackexchange.com/landing/r/digest?cta=question&id=43008

What is the "best LaTeX practices" for writing absolute value symbols?  Are there any packages which provide good methods? 
Some options include|x| and \mid x \mid, but I'm not sure which is best... 
[math-mode] [symbols]
 

asked by jamaicanworm https://tex.stackexchange.com/landing/r/digest?cta=user&id=9757 229 votes

answered by Peter Grill https://tex.stackexchange.com/landing/r/digest?cta=user&id=4301 175 votes

5.30.2.3 Command for argmin or argmax?

https://tex.stackexchange.com/landing/r/digest?cta=question&id=5223

How can you get the argmin or argmax in Latex? Two solutions I found are: 
\underset{x}{\operatorname{argmax}} 
\DeclareMathOperator*{\argmin}{arg\,min} 
Any other ideas? 
[1]  ... 
[math-mode] [symbols] [math-operators]
 

asked by Alejandro https://tex.stackexchange.com/landing/r/digest?cta=user&id=1128 197 votes

answered by Jan Hlavacek https://tex.stackexchange.com/landing/r/digest?cta=user&id=396 195 votes

5.30.2.4 What is the "correct" way of embedding text into math mode?

https://tex.stackexchange.com/landing/r/digest?cta=question&id=3415

Lets say I have something like: 
\[ Let x = number of cats \] 
(This is a contrived example, but pretend we are actually inside a long align environment block...) "Let" and "number of cats" need to  ... 
[math-mode]
 

asked by Billy ONeal https://tex.stackexchange.com/landing/r/digest?cta=user&id=192 205 votes

answered by Michael Underwood https://tex.stackexchange.com/landing/r/digest?cta=user&id=32 188 votes

5.30.2.5 Which dot character to use in which context?

https://tex.stackexchange.com/landing/r/digest?cta=question&id=19180

Wikipedia lists several dot characters in Unicode.  These are the ones that are ambiguous to me: 
interpunct, middle dot (A^\[CenterDot])   ·   ·   U+00B7   "midpoint (in typography)" 
... 
[symbols] [best-practices] [punctuation] [unicode] [unicode-math]
 

asked by endolith https://tex.stackexchange.com/landing/r/digest?cta=user&id=5773 157 votes

5.30.2.6 Syntax similar to \centering for right and left?

https://tex.stackexchange.com/landing/r/digest?cta=question&id=91566

For images we can use \centering is there anything to position the image to right side or left side of the page. 
[graphics] [horizontal-alignment]
 

asked by sachin irukula https://tex.stackexchange.com/landing/r/digest?cta=user&id=24343 109 votes

5.30.2.7 Real number symbol (UTF-8: a^\204\235) in XeTeX

https://tex.stackexchange.com/landing/r/digest?cta=question&id=104274

How can I get the 'real number' sign (something like \mathbb{R} with the amssymb package in LaTeX) in XeTeX? 
[math-mode] [xetex] [symbols] [amsmath] [plain-tex]
 

asked by lvaneesbeeck https://tex.stackexchange.com/landing/r/digest?cta=user&id=24686 106 votes

answered by lvaneesbeeck https://tex.stackexchange.com/landing/r/digest?cta=user&id=24686 8 votes