Hi, I use Microsfot Publisher to make maps of my garden. I use the banner setting for some big ones. It works pretty well. I import photos of each daylily or other plants and then put a text box with the name and other info underneath. It is easy to update when I make changes. For example if I am replacing some daylilies with new ones I just drag the old photo and text box up to the top or bottom and then put in the new one. I can move them around once imported. I usually experiment with the new ones I have ordered putting them into an existing plan or starting a new one for a new flower bed. I can also print these off although they may take several pages depending on how much of the banner you used. I often do this though and tape the pages together. It gives me something to take out in the garden when I am thinking or looking for something that might have gone missing. A few years ago my daughter did garden maps for her employer using excell. I think they had downloaded some program on top of excell. Each cell was a box and she entered a plant in each box to make a map. You could click on the cell and it would go to an info page for that plant such as how many they had of it for example. I have been meaning to ask them how they did it but have never gotten around to it. I have been happy with my publisher maps. I do look after a rural cemetery that has 2 large old maps that are starting to crumble and I have often thought the excell maps would be good so I could enter all of the info I have about a plot and its holder and be able to link to that page when I click on the plot. It would be good to have it saved somewhere other than on these 2 maps which are going to crumble some day!

If you have a little patience for a little bit of a steep learning curve, and you think well in 3D, then I think Google SketchUp is the best thing going - and it's free! Watch the online video tutorials. Once you get the basic concepts you can go to work. It's a generic 3D modeler, but is particularly well suited for architecture. You really are virtually unlimited in what you can model. I've modeled our entire Kitchen/Family Room with vaulted ceilings running in two directions down to the fraction of an inch, and have used to plan our upcoming remodel.

I am not one who has software but the link below is from a GW thread discussion in Dec 2012/ Feb 2013. I googled gardenweb kitchen design software and several threads came up. This was the most recent with the most entries. Maybe other GWers will check in to give you more help. Here is a link that might be useful: GW design software discussion

Thanks, Cyn. I'll try that. I have a couple days left on my trial. Re Google Sketchup: I've just begun using it. There are some appliances and such like available. You can also pull them out of other kitchens people have uploaded. Not 100% conventient but not dire either. Also, it's really easy to make something that's pretty much box shaped. Here's a picture of my first model, of the 30" Sharp Microwave Drawer. First I saved the image from the web and cropped it to just the drawer using PaintShopPro (any image software will work). Then I drew a box the right size in sketchup, using lines and the Entity Info tool to get the size right. I'm still learning and I accidentally cut the back open, but that doesn't really matter. Last step, import the picture as a texture and fit it to the face of the box. It doesn't have the slight protrusion of the handle, but then even though I'm doing this to scale, it's not plan perfect, so it doesn't matter. The strengths of this program, once one really absorbs how to make boxes, make up for it. [IMG]http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l134/rummylands/30inchSharpMicroDrawerMODEL.jpg[/IMG] Does anyone know if you can make operable hinges? :D