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I'm making a document to organize my plants (hundreds of different species) and want to have specific info for each. Basically a simplified how-to-care guide for each species, including at least the following info in tables (some with icons for things like shade/partial sun/full sun, etc):

  • Germination (stratification, growing medium, watering, light requirements)
  • Seedling (when to transplant, soil needs and types, watering, light needs)
  • Harvesting (when to harvest, what parts to harvest, storing seed)

I already have something set up in Excel which will include this info in separate tables for each growing phase, but I love LaTeX and it's so much prettier. I thought there would be some examples I could use for inspiration, but searching here and on Google/CTAN doesn't give anything relevant. Do I basically have to create this from scratch? Any leads would be appreciated!

Edit: Here's what I have so far in Excel -- I didn't make the separate tables yet; right now it's all in one box: enter image description here

Basically I wanna add germination info, seedling, harvesting, etc. in separate tables to reduce the huge block of text it has right now, and make navigating easier.

Ideally or Maybe: In the output, have one page for each plant that includes this above general info (picture, names, seed sources (the URLs in the lower table), and general description) as well as the germination / seedling plant / harvesting info on separate tables. So maybe four/five tables total.

Alborz
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  • If you already have your data, check out https://www.ctan.org/pkg/datatool – DG' May 05 '21 at 19:45
  • @EladDen thanks; there are some good starts in there but not exactly what I have in mind -- there'd be quite a bit more text in mine, as some parts will have written / more verbose instructions on how to sow, location, etc. That being said, I did find Showcase of beautiful typography done in TeX which also has some inspiration. – Alborz May 05 '21 at 20:32
  • @DG' thanks for the suggestion! Good to know something like this exists; I could group the plants info with it somehow (make a planting calendar, etc) and put it in the document, so thanks for that. – Alborz May 05 '21 at 20:33
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    My suggestion: Use tables only for data and short sentences. For the information that need more literature use plain text or whatever, but no tables. If you show that information very structured, use hierarchical headers, list, nested list, single labeled boxes, but not force the text to narrow cells of huge tables that will not allow a good document layout. – Fran May 05 '21 at 21:37

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