Geek Help?

[purejuice]

I want to make an updatable computer document of botanical info. It would be plants used by Pueblo indians, Navajo and Apache, both Mescalero and Chiricua. Each entry would have perhaps seven or eight components I'd like to have on a horizontal layout listed under column headings, such as Spanish name, Native name, usage, and so on.

I want it to be alphabetical, and I want the software to do the alphabetizing such that the laboriously entered info in the eight or so horizontal cells, ie., usage, Spanish name, etc., moves with the name of the plant as alphabetized by the computer. Excel does not do this reliably, or I don't know how to.

I think Excel, with all its math capabilities, may be way too complicated to learn for this simple problem.

What program (for Mac) should I be using? I am unable to get whatever that faux Excel freeware for Mac is to work for me, to get it out of read only mode, etc. The tutorials on all of them are useless. I'm looking for something that's the lowest tech solution. Got any suggestions? Thanks.

Comments

[tuscendi.livejournal.com]

It seems to me that what you described could best be handled by a simple "TABLE" in your word processing software (Word or WordPerfect). No need to resort to Excel (spreadsheets have all those calculating features that are superfluous to your project) and no need to resort to database programs (Paradox, Q&A, etc.) as they are designed to handle many more bits of information for each "record" (e.g., a plant) than you anticipate needing.

In a simple word processing TABLE, The "rows" can be alphabetized by the first word in the first cell, the name of your plant, automatically. The rows will stay alphabetized as you add and subtract plants.

The cells, components you want to list across under the column headings for each plant, would be kept with the row as the row changed position up or down due to the addition or subtraction of a plant row.

Your "header row" -- the one with the column headings -- can be made (with one click in the Tables menu) to repeat at the top of each page automatically. It's really easy.

The cells will expand as needed while you're entering text. You have the benefit of text editing functions of a word processing program. You can drag the guidelines to increase or decrease the width of a column. You can choose typeface, change font size, use bold, italic, color, etc. You can shade rows and cells for emphasis, legitibility, etc.

However, if you decide you'd really like to be able to track sixteen "components" instead of eight, then a word processing table would be unwieldy, in which case you should use a modest relational database program instead.

In no case, in my opinion, is a spreadsheet appropriate. True, it has cells which can be used to organize text, but it's designed to manipulate that information, to calculate, which gives it way more weight and complexity than you have any use for.

[purejuice.livejournal.com]

thank you for this, and for reading my specs so carefully. excel is almost entirelym superflous and somebody at work recommended this marvelously responsive and low tech table solution. excellent.

[tuscendi.livejournal.com]

Great! You're most welcome. I've whined long and loud about the loss of WordPerfect for DOS, which was such a good workhorse, capable of doing the daily drudgery while at the same time having great power to do the fancy stuff (what macros we had!) and so elegant and so lightweight. But the truth is I couldn't live without Tables. And I've never been able to make friends with Excel.

If I could say one more thing it would be to caution you to think hard about the number of components you're going to want to have.

Eight is already stretching it, because there's only so much space across the page (and do use "landscape" instead of "portrait" page orientation for your Table.).

One final thing about Tables is that if you fill a table with a monstrous amount of data, the program will start balking. There are limitations, though I couldn't say exactly what they are. I've had 80 page tables that still worked but were getting creaky. If that's going to happen, then think database instead.

If you suspect you might want to add more plant characteristics, then you might as well forget tables and construct a database to begin with. The nice thing about a database is that you can add and subtract components all you like as you go along. You can also redesign the configuration of the fields all you like, to make sense of your categories and priorities within each. The data moves with the field, so to speak.

If you make a database, simplify and abbreviate both your labels (field names) and data much as possible. That was you can see all the data in one plant record on one screen without scrolling, and you'll be able to print each plant record out on one page. You don't want a lot of digital clutter wasting a lot of screen real estate or paper.

Okay, now I shut up and go to sleep. Good luck and enjoy the project.

[orso-amoroso.livejournal.com]

wp5.1 users unite!

the transition from 5.1 to 6x was such a tremendous fail.