How to create horizontal box layout?

Question

I'm trying to create a daily planner for myself that looks somewhat like this.

My current version

\documentclass[a5paper]{article}
\usepackage[a5paper, portrait, margin=0.5cm]{geometry}
\usepackage{multirow}
\usepackage{tabularx}
\usepackage[table, svgnames]{xcolor}
\newcommand{\grayline}{\arrayrulecolor{lightgray}\cline{1-5}\arrayrulecolor{white}}
\begin{document}
\pagecolor{black}
\color{white}
\setlength{\extrarowheight}{10pt}
\noindent
\begin{tabularx}{\linewidth}{c|X|X|X|X|}
    \cline{1-5}
    \multicolumn{5} {r|} {Date: 2021|\hspace{0.5cm}|\hspace{0.5cm}|}\\
    \hline
    \hspace{0.5cm} & & & & \\
    \grayline
    \hspace{0.5cm} & & & & \\
    \hline
    \hspace{0.5cm} & & & & \\
    \grayline
    \hspace{0.5cm} & & & & \\
    \hline
    \hspace{0.5cm} & & & & \\
    \grayline
    \hspace{0.5cm} & & & & \\
    \hline
    \hspace{0.5cm} & & & & \\
    \grayline
    \hspace{0.5cm} & & & & \\
    \hline
    \hspace{0.5cm} & & & & \\
    \grayline
    \hspace{0.5cm} & & & & \\
    \hline
    \hspace{0.5cm} & & & & \\
    \grayline
    \hspace{0.5cm} & & & & \\
    \hline
    \hspace{0.5cm} & & & & \\
    \grayline
    \hspace{0.5cm} & & & & \\
    \hline
    \hspace{0.5cm} & & & & \\
    \grayline
    \hspace{0.5cm} & & & & \\
    \hline
    \hspace{0.5cm} & & & & \\
    \grayline
    \hspace{0.5cm} & & & & \\
    \hline
    \hspace{0.5cm} & & & & \\
    \grayline
    \hspace{0.5cm} & & & & \\
    \hline
    \hspace{0.5cm} & & & & \\
    \grayline
    \hspace{0.5cm} & & & & \\
    \hline
    \hspace{0.5cm} & & & & \\
    \grayline
    \hspace{0.5cm} & & & & \\
    \hline
\end{tabularx}
Reflections:
\begin{tabularx}{\linewidth}{l|l}
 TASKS: \hspace{5cm} & IDEAS: \hspace{5cm} \\ 
 \cline{1-2}
 \hspace{5cm} & \hspace{5cm} \\
 \cline{1-2}
 \hspace{5cm} & \hspace{5cm} \\
 \cline{1-2}
 \hspace{5cm} & \hspace{5cm} \\
 \cline{1-2}
 \hspace{5cm} & \hspace{5cm} \\
 \cline{1-2}
 \hspace{5cm} & \hspace{5cm} \\
 \cline{1-2}
 \hspace{5cm} & \hspace{5cm} \\
 \cline{1-2}
 \hspace{5cm} & \hspace{5cm} \\
 \cline{1-2}
 \hspace{5cm} & \hspace{5cm} \\
 \cline{1-2}
 \hspace{5cm} & \hspace{5cm} \\
 \cline{1-2}
 \hspace{5cm} & \hspace{5cm} \\
 \cline{1-2}
 \hspace{5cm} & \hspace{5cm} \\
 \cline{1-2}
 \hspace{5cm} & \hspace{5cm} \\
 \cline{1-2}
 \hspace{5cm} & \hspace{5cm} \\
 \cline{1-2}
 \hspace{5cm} & \hspace{5cm} \\
 \cline{1-2}
 \hspace{5cm} & \hspace{5cm} \\
 \cline{1-2}
 \hspace{5cm} & \hspace{5cm} \\
 \cline{1-2}
 \hspace{5cm} & \hspace{5cm} \\
 \cline{1-2}
 \hspace{5cm} & \hspace{5cm} \\
 \cline{1-2}
 \hspace{5cm} & \hspace{5cm} \\
 \cline{1-2}
 \hspace{5cm} & \hspace{5cm} \\
 \cline{1-2}
\end{tabularx}
\end{document}

The end goal is to stack this two a5 pages side by side in one single a4 page.

Unrelated to the actual question, but you can remove all occurences of \hspace{0.5cm} in the first column of your first table if you replace \begin{tabularx}{\linewidth}{c|X|X|X|X|} with \begin{tabularx}{\linewidth}{wc{0.5cm}|X|X|X|X|}. In the second table, you can also remove all \hscpae commands in both columns if you use \begin{tabularx}{\linewidth}{X|X} instead of \begin{tabularx}{\linewidth}{l|l}. (A tabularx environment without any X type column does not really make sense and won't adapt to the tetwidth.) — leandriis, Jun 20 '21 at 09:39

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 20 '21 at 09:53

Probably you're interested in the following minipage-based approach:

In the following example, I also removed all \hspace commands and instead used fixed or flexible width columns to achieve a similar layout. Intead of repeating the empty lines in the table over and over again, I used loops (inspired by https://tex.stackexchange.com/a/50299/134144)

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[landscape, margin=0.5cm]{geometry}
\usepackage{tabularx}
\usepackage[table, svgnames]{xcolor}
\newcommand{\grayline}{\arrayrulecolor{lightgray}\cline{1-5}\arrayrulecolor{white}}
\begin{document}
\pagecolor{black}
\color{white}
\setlength{\extrarowheight}{10pt}
\begin{minipage}[b]{0.475\linewidth}
\newcounter{rownumber}
\setcounter{rownumber}{0}
\def\fillfirsttable{}%
\loop\ifnum\therownumber<12
  \addtocounter{rownumber}{1}
  \expandafter\def\expandafter\fillfirsttable\expandafter{%
    \fillfirsttable
     & & & & \
    \hline
     & & & & \
    \grayline
  }%
\repeat
\noindent
\begin{tabularx}{\linewidth}{wc{0.5cm}|X|X|X|X|}
    \cline{1-5}
    \multicolumn{5} {r|} {Date: 2021|\hspace{0.5cm}|\hspace{0.5cm}|}\
    \hline
    \fillfirsttable
\end{tabularx}
\end{minipage}
\hfill
\begin{minipage}[b]{0.475\linewidth}
Reflections:
\setcounter{rownumber}{0}
\def\fillsecondtable{}%
\loop\ifnum\therownumber<20
  \addtocounter{rownumber}{1}
  \expandafter\def\expandafter\fillsecondtable\expandafter{%
    \fillsecondtable
     & \ \hline
  }%
\repeat
\noindent
\begin{tabularx}{\linewidth}{X|X}
 TASKS: & IDEAS:  \ \hline
 \fillsecondtable
\end{tabularx}
\end{minipage}
\end{document}

How to create horizontal box layout?

1 Answers1