TITLE: Pandoc LaTeX shopping list template
DATE: 2021-01-05
AUTHOR: John L. Godlee
====================================================================


I wanted to be able to create a printable shopping list with nice 
formatting, mainly as an exercise in practicing Pandoc templating, 
but also maybe to try and automate some of the recurring struggles 
with buying enough groceries and the correct items. Here is the 
LaTeX template:

    \documentclass[a4paper, 12pt, twocolumn]{article}

    % Language
    \usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
    \usepackage[UKenglish]{babel}

    % List items with boxes
    \usepackage{enumitem}
    \usepackage{amssymb}
    \renewcommand{\labelitemi}{$$\Box$$}
    \renewcommand{\labelitemii}{$$\Box$$}
    \renewcommand{\labelitemiii}{$$\Box$$}

    % Page geometry
    \usepackage{geometry}
    \geometry{left=2.2cm,
        right=2.2cm,
        top=1.5cm,
        bottom=2cm}

    % Pandoc specific
    \usepackage{hyperref}

    \providecommand{\tightlist}{
        \setlength{\itemsep}{0pt}\setlength{\parskip}{0pt}
    }

    % Title 
    \makeatletter
    \renewcommand{\maketitle}{\bgroup\setlength{\parindent}{0pt}
    \begin{flushleft}
        \textbf{\large{\@title}}\\
        \@date\\
        \rule{\textwidth}{1pt}
    \end{flushleft}\egroup
    }
    \makeatother

    % Section titles
    \usepackage{titlesec}

    \titleformat{\section}
      {\large\bfseries}{\thesection}{1em}{}
    \titleformat{\subsection}
      {\normalfont\bfseries}{\thesubsection}{1em}{}
    \titleformat{\subsubsection}
      {\normalfont\itshape}{\thesubsubsection}{1em}{}

    %\titlespacing{command}{left spacing}{before spacing}{after 
spacing}[right]
    \titlespacing\section{0pt}{12pt}{4pt}
    \titlespacing\subsection{0pt}{14pt}{4pt}
    \titlespacing\subsubsection{0pt}{14pt}{4pt}

    % Prevent section breaking across pages (columns)
    \let\oldsection\section
    \renewcommand{\section}{
    \filbreak
    \oldsection
    }

    % Text formatting
    \setcounter{secnumdepth}{0}  % Remove section numbers
    \pagenumbering{gobble}  % Remove page numbers
    \setlength{\parindent}{0pt}  % Stop indenting paragraphs

    % Pandoc arguments
    $if(title)$
    \title{$title$}
    $else$
    \title{Shopping List}
    $endif$

    $if(date)$
    \date{$date$}
    $else$
    \date{\today}
    $endif$

    \begin{document}
    \twocolumn[\maketitle{}]

    $body$

    \end{document}

Key features are a redefined title section so it doesn't take up so 
much space, tickable boxes instead of bullet points, and some 
trickery with the section headings so they take up less space, and 
so that a section never breaks across two columns or pages.

  ![Example shopping 
list](https://johngodlee.xyz/img_full/shopping_list/list.png)