[Tex/LaTex] Itemize in latex table with multicolumn and uneven number of columns

itemizemulticolumntables

I am trying to create a latex table as the one shown below and looking for any help possible as I am stuck.

enter image description here

However, the result that I have come to is really bad and I'm pretty much stuck. the MWE gives me somthing that is somewhat an ugly compromise and have the following problems:

  • I'm not able to put in an itemize in a multicolum cell, so I can utilize the full space of the row.
  • The coloured cell does not have a \hline
  • I have not control of where to put the vertical lines that mark up the cells.
  • I have tried normal itemize but did not work, so I used a tabitem environment as given in bullet in table not aligned

Ideally, I would have wanted a 3 column table with multicolumns spanding 1.5 columns with itemize inside, but as I could not find any solution to this I made like that. Anyway, any help in making it look as the 'golden sample' above is very much appreciated!

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{xcolor,colortbl}
\usepackage{paralist}
\usepackage{booktabs}
\newenvironment{tabitem}{%
    \vspace*{-0.5\baselineskip}%
    \setdefaultitem{\normalfont\bfseries\textbullet}%
    {\normalfont\bfseries\textendash}{}{}%
    \setdefaultleftmargin{1.1em}{1.1em}{}{}{}{}%
    \begin{compactitem}%
    }{%
    \end{compactitem}%
    \vspace*{-\baselineskip}%
}

\begin{document}

\begin{table}

    \begin{tabular}{|p{0.16\textwidth}p{0.16\textwidth}p{0.16\textwidth}p{0.16\textwidth}p{0.16\textwidth}p{0.16\textwidth}|}
        \bottomrule
        \multicolumn{6}{|c|}{\textbf{Work system snapshot}}\\ \hline

        \multicolumn{3}{|c|}{\cellcolor{black!25}Customers} & \multicolumn{3}{c|}{\cellcolor{black!25}Products \& services}\\ \hline

        \multicolumn{3}{|l|}{People who have a need for the Smartdevice} & &
        \begin{tabitem} 
            \item smartdevice in white 
            \item smartdevice in black \end{tabitem} & \\ \hline

        \multicolumn{6}{|c|}{\cellcolor{black!25}Major activities or processes}\\ \hline

        \begin{tabitem} 
            \item Procurement 
            \item  Inventory Management 
            \item sales 
            \item Manufacturing 
            \item Billing system \end{tabitem} &&&&& \\ \hline

        \multicolumn{2}{|l|}{\cellcolor{black!25}Participants} & \multicolumn{2}{l|}{\cellcolor{black!25} Information} & \multicolumn{2}{l|}{\cellcolor{black!25}Technologies} \\ \hline

        \begin{tabitem}
            \item Owner 
            \item  Employees 
            \item  Customers 
            \item Users 
        \end{tabitem}
        &&
        \begin{tabitem}
            \item BOM 
            \item Order database which consist of: sales-, purchase and production orders)
            \item Inventory information
        \end{tabitem}
        &&
        \begin{tabitem}
            \item ERP system 
            \item ME \& MII system 
            \item Web interface 
        \end{tabitem} & \\ \toprule[0.2em]

    \end{tabular}

\end{table}
\end{document}

enter image description here

Best Answer

You could use something like the following:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{xcolor,colortbl}
\usepackage{enumitem}
\newlist{tabitemize}{itemize}{1}
\setlist[tabitemize]{label=\textbullet,nosep,after=\strut,align=parleft,leftmargin=*,}

\usepackage{calc}
\newcolumntype{P}[1]{>{\raggedright\arraybackslash}p{#1\textwidth-2\tabcolsep-0.6pt}}
\begin{document}
\noindent
\begin{tabular}{|*6{P{0.16}}|}
\hline
\multicolumn{6}{|c|}{\textbf{Work system snapshot}}\\ \hline
\rowcolor{black!25}\multicolumn{3}{|c}{Customers} & \multicolumn{3}{|c|}{Products \& services}\\ \hline
\multicolumn{3}{|P{0.5}}{
      \begin{tabitemize} 
      \item People who have a need for the Smartdevice 
      \end{tabitemize}} &
\multicolumn{3}{|P{0.5}|}{
      \begin{tabitemize} 
      \item smartdevice in white
      \item smartdevice in black 
      \end{tabitemize}}\\ \hline
\rowcolor{black!25}\multicolumn{6}{|c|}{Major activities or processes}\\ \hline
\multicolumn{3}{|P{0.5}}{
      \begin{tabitemize} 
      \item Procurement
      \item inventory management
      \item Sales
      \end{tabitemize}} &
\multicolumn{3}{P{0.5}|}{
      \begin{tabitemize} 
      \item Manufactoring
      \item Billing System
      \end{tabitemize}}\\ \hline
\rowcolor{black!25}\multicolumn{2}{|c|}{Participants} & \multicolumn{2}{c|}{Information} & \multicolumn{2}{c|}{Technologies}\\ \hline
\multicolumn{2}{|P{0.33}|}{
      \begin{tabitemize} 
      \item Owner 
      \item  Employees 
      \item  Customers 
      \item Users
      \end{tabitemize}} &
\multicolumn{2}{P{0.33}|}{
      \begin{tabitemize} 
       \item BOM 
       \item Order database which consist of: sales-, purchase and production orders)
       \item Inventory information
      \end{tabitemize}} &
\multicolumn{2}{P{0.33}|}{
      \begin{tabitemize} 
      \item ERP system 
      \item ME \& MII system 
      \item Web interface 
      \end{tabitemize}}\\ \hline

\end{tabular}
\end{document}

enter image description here

To decresae vertical spaces above and below the items, you can add something like ,after=\vspace{-\baselineskip},before=\vspace{-0.5\baselineskip} to the \setlist command.

Here are some additional alternative approaches, as you don't really need all the vertical lines to make your table understandable:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{booktabs}
\usepackage{enumitem}
\newlist{tabitemize}{itemize}{1}
\setlist[tabitemize]{label=\textbullet,nosep,after=\strut,align=parleft,leftmargin=*,after=\vspace{-\baselineskip},before=\vspace{-0.75\baselineskip}}

\usepackage{calc}
\usepackage{array}
\newcolumntype{P}[1]{>{\raggedright\arraybackslash}p{#1\textwidth-2\tabcolsep}}


\begin{document}
\noindent
\begin{tabular}{*6{P{0.16}}}
\toprule
\multicolumn{6}{c}{\textbf{Work system snapshot}}\\
\midrule
\multicolumn{3}{l}{Customers} & \multicolumn{3}{l}{Products \& services}\\
\midrule
\multicolumn{3}{P{0.5}}{
      \begin{tabitemize} 
      \item People who have a need for the Smartdevice 
      \end{tabitemize}} &
\multicolumn{3}{P{0.5}}{
      \begin{tabitemize} 
      \item smartdevice in white
      \item smartdevice in black 
      \end{tabitemize}}\\
      \midrule
\multicolumn{6}{c}{Major activities or processes}\\
\midrule
\multicolumn{3}{P{0.5}}{
      \begin{tabitemize} 
      \item Procurement
      \item inventory management
      \item Sales
      \end{tabitemize}} &
\multicolumn{3}{P{0.5}}{
      \begin{tabitemize} 
      \item Manufactoring
      \item Billing System
      \end{tabitemize}}\\ 
      \midrule
\multicolumn{2}{l}{Participants} & \multicolumn{2}{l}{Information} & \multicolumn{2}{l}{Technologies}\\ 
\midrule
\multicolumn{2}{P{0.33}}{
      \begin{tabitemize} 
      \item Owner 
      \item  Employees 
      \item  Customers 
      \item Users
      \end{tabitemize}} &
\multicolumn{2}{P{0.33}}{
      \begin{tabitemize} 
       \item BOM 
       \item Order database which consist of: sales-, purchase and production orders)
       \item Inventory information
      \end{tabitemize}} &
\multicolumn{2}{P{0.33}}{
      \begin{tabitemize} 
      \item ERP system 
      \item ME \& MII system 
      \item Web interface 
      \end{tabitemize}}\\ 
      \bottomrule
\end{tabular}
\end{document}

enter image description here

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{booktabs}
\usepackage{xcolor,colortbl}
\usepackage{enumitem}
\newlist{tabitemize}{itemize}{1}
\setlist[tabitemize]{label=\textbullet,nosep,after=\strut,align=parleft,leftmargin=*,after=\vspace{-\baselineskip},before=\vspace{-0.5\baselineskip}}

\usepackage{calc}
\newcolumntype{P}[1]{>{\raggedright\arraybackslash}p{#1\textwidth-2\tabcolsep}}

\begin{document}
\noindent
\begin{tabular}{*6{P{0.16}}}
\toprule
\multicolumn{6}{c}{\textbf{Work system snapshot}}\\

\rowcolor{black!25}\multicolumn{3}{l}{Customers} & \multicolumn{3}{l}{Products \& services}\\

\multicolumn{3}{P{0.5}}{
      \begin{tabitemize} 
      \item People who have a need for the Smartdevice 
      \end{tabitemize}} &
\multicolumn{3}{P{0.5}}{
      \begin{tabitemize} 
      \item smartdevice in white
      \item smartdevice in black 
      \end{tabitemize}}\\

\rowcolor{black!25}\multicolumn{6}{c}{Major activities or processes}\\

\multicolumn{3}{P{0.5}}{
      \begin{tabitemize} 
      \item Procurement
      \item Inventory management
      \item Sales
      \end{tabitemize}} &
\multicolumn{3}{P{0.5}}{
      \begin{tabitemize} 
      \item Manufactoring
      \item Billing System
      \end{tabitemize}}\\ 

\rowcolor{black!25}\multicolumn{2}{l}{Participants} & \multicolumn{2}{l}{Information} & \multicolumn{2}{l}{Technologies}\\ 

\multicolumn{2}{P{0.33}}{
      \begin{tabitemize} 
      \item Owner 
      \item  Employees 
      \item  Customers 
      \item Users
      \end{tabitemize}} &
\multicolumn{2}{P{0.33}}{
      \begin{tabitemize} 
       \item BOM 
       \item Order database which consist of: sales-, purchase and production orders)
       \item Inventory information
      \end{tabitemize}} &
\multicolumn{2}{P{0.33}}{
      \begin{tabitemize} 
      \item ERP system 
      \item ME \& MII system 
      \item Web interface 
      \end{tabitemize}}\\ 
      \bottomrule
\end{tabular}
\end{document}

enter image description here

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