PlantFile Quick Tour

The following tour covers many aspects of the PlantFile PC CD. It is suitable for southern or northern hemispheres and is available in two versions, Standard and Professional.

PlantFile Logo

VISUAL PLANT BROWSER

The Visual Plant Browser is the workhorse of the database allowing you to scroll through the plant images (picture book-like). It also gives you access to the many aspects of the PlantFile database.

GROUPING OF PLANTS
Plants may be grouped into growth types (trees, palms, grasses etc.) to ease locating a species. The plants may be sorted by botanical, common and family names.

SPECIAL GROUPS

All Plants
This group includes all the plants in the database.

Weeds Only
This group lists plants that are potential weeds and this may include common ornamentals.

Selected
The user can compile plant lists by right clicking on the image and adding it to the Selected list. The selections are used for study or client lists and for purchasing.

Filtered
When plants are selected by criteria (soil, position, flower colour, etc.) they are placed in the Filtered group. These plants, singularly or collectively can be added to the Selected list and saved.

QUICK SEARCH

Quick Search
Plants may be sorted by Botanic, Family, Common and Cultivar name or by their ID number by clicking on the appropriate tab.

Selecting Plants for Viewing
Typing in a partial name will incrementally short-list the plants to the nearest match. You can scroll down through the list and view a corresponding photo of the plant. After selecting the plant, you may locate it in the Visual Plant Browser or view the plant details by clicking the appropriate button.

SELECTED PLANTS

The selected plant is highlighted with a red rectangle. Double click on the image to open the plant details. All plants are documented in equal detail with five pages of information covering all aspects of the plant. Each detail section also includes a Glossary page and a page for User Comments.

PLANT & LEAF

Plant
This covers a physical description and a general overview of the plant eg height, growth habit, water usage and growth rate.

Leaf
Covers in detail a botanic description of the leaf. Click on the ‘?’ icon to reveal a pop up pictorial glossary of the term.

PLANT OVERVIEW

Covers in detail a botanic description of the leaf. Click on the ‘?’ icon to reveal a pop up pictorial glossary of the term. By pressing the icon next to the Plant Overview, a pop up screen will appear. This contains additional information on the plant and lists the cultivars with a brief description. It also contains the diagnostic features of the family and lists its USDA climatic range. The displayed information may be printed separately or copied to another application.

FLOWER & FRUIT

This page covers all aspects of the flower and fruit of the plant including botanical description and additional information.

Hemisphere Settings
This covers a physical description and a general overview of the plant eg height, growth habit, water usage and growth rate.

ENVIRONMENT & CULTIVATION
Environ & cutivation

Many aspects of the plant are displayed on this page in a practical easy to understand manner. This includes soils, aspect, pruning and fertilising of the plant.

Cultural Use
This is a general overview of what the plant is commonly used for and indicates how long it will take to establish.

Propagation
The normal propagating methods are displayed in this window and when opened, will reveal additional detailed information.

PESTS & DISEASES
Pests and Diseases

This page lists common pests and diseases that are likely to attack this plant. Scroll through the list and click on the pest or disease detail icon to reveal detailed information.

PLANT PHOTOS

Every plant has up to 5 photos that cover the different features, including leaf, flower, bark and growth habit. Profile sheet and images can be printed in report form or may be turned into a PDF with the Pro version.

PHOTO GALLERY
Gallery

The Professional version of PlantFile includes a DVD photo gallery with over 11,000 additional images. All images may be copied to other applications or printed in a report form. This makes PlantFile an excellent resource for landscapers, architects, students, nurseries for informing or display purposes.

The images are linked to the appropriate plant and can be printed or copied and turned into a PDF report for easy e-mailing.

HARDINESS ZONES

Each plant has a hardiness zone map that indicates the climate range of the plant. The maps can be selected for different zones, such as Australia, USA or UK.

REPORTS & GLOSSARIES
Report & Glossaries

Each plant has a Reports and Glossaries page.

Reports
A single page Profile Sheet covering all aspects of the plant may be printed. The plant images can also be printed in a report form. The plant profile can be used as a study guide or as an information sheet for suggested planting to a client.

Glossaries
The glossaries may also be printed in report form and used as handouts in a classroom situation. There are ten pictorial glossaries covering all botanic aspects of plants. A General Glossary that lists over 400 botanic terms with easy to understand descriptions is also available.

Glossary Types

Pictorial Glossaries have easy to understand descriptions of each part of the plant. The glossaries may be expanded for the visually impaired or copied out to other applications for reports or assignments. The glossaries can also be activated in other parts of the program, i.e. the Advanced Search.

Educational
The PlantFile program is an excellent learning tool for students of horticulture and avid home gardeners.

SELECTING PLANTS BY CRITERIA
Filtering Plants

Click on the Filter Search tab to open a window. Two types of search are available:

Simple Search allows 87 attributes to choose from.

Advanced Search offers over 260 different attributes for selecting plants.

SIMPLE SEARCH

The Simple Search system has 13 categories, allowing you to group plants according to your requirements, eg a shrub for a small garden growing in sandy soil in a cool temperate (zone 8) climate to 2m (6ft) tall. There are 87 criteria available to choose from and the results can be previewed at the bottom right hand corner or displayed on the Visual Plant Browser.

ADVANCED SEARCH

This facility allows you to select plants from 23 categories each with mutable choices including botanical descriptions, eg the leaf shape, inflorescence type or bark type, etc.
With this tool, you will be able to identify species or select plants with particular attributes. Selected plants may be previewed at the bottom right hand corner or displayed on the Visual Plant Browser.

PLANT LISTS
Selecting Plants

Plants can be added to the selected file to create lists. You can create up to 32 individual lists in the standard version and the professional version allows you to archive old lists to the hard drive or on to a CD as a back up.

Selected Storage

SAVING & PRINTING PLANT LISTS

Plant List Printout

Plant lists can have customer’s names or job numbers as a heading and can be opened to add or subtract plants from the list. The amended list will overwrite the existing file.

Plant lists can be printed with or without a thumbnail image and the Professional version can turn the lists in to a PDF for easy e-mailing.

PLANT PROFILE REPORT

The list is printed in a report form with your typed heading at the top.

A single page report can be printed from each plant as a fact sheet for clients or as a study guide for students. The plant images can also be printed in a report form. Both reports can be turned into a PDF with the Pro version for easy e-mailing.

PESTS & DISEASES

Common pest and disease information is included in PlantFile. This information can be accessed by clicking on the Pest and Disease tab on the left hand side of the screen.
This screen includes a tab for pests or diseases and a dictionary which contains information about insect orders and nutrient deficiency as well as many entomological terms.

ABOUT PLANTFILE