How to go about making a 'fancy looking' table as provided?

Question

How would one go about making a fancy table like this one? By this I mean the line elements that begin in some column and end in another, as well as text in one cell that seems to overlap multiple cells below its row.

Answer 1

Two simple things.

• Use booktabs, it would give you \toprule, etc.
• For partial rulers there is a \cmidrule.

Here is a production example.

\begin{table*}
\centering
\caption[Comparison of execution times]{Comparison of execution times.
%  \newline
% We state time in
% hours:minutes:seconds.
  \textbf{Bold} font denotes best time,
  parameters in \emph{italic} designate the configuration we used for
  evaluation in
  Sections~\ref{sec:comp-vcbm}--\ref{sec:quantitative}.
  % 
  \newline
  \enquote{Scale}  denotes the minimal key point size. An asterisk
  (\textasteriskcentered) marks execution times specially discussed in
  Section~\ref{sec:execution-times}. In these cases phase contrast of
  unstained cells generates too many small features.}  
\label{tab:times}
\let\tabsepbakup\tabcolsep
\setlength{\tabcolsep}{2.8pt}
\begin{tabular}{lcc  lccc  r}
\toprule
\multicolumn{3}{c}{Specimen} & \multicolumn{4}{c}{Registration} &
\multicolumn{1}{c}{\multirow{2}{*}{Time}} 
%\multicolumn{1}{c}{Time}
\\
% rules!
\cmidrule(r{\tabcolsep}){1-3} \cmidrule(l{\tabcolsep}){4-7} % \cmidrule(r){8-8} % time is multirow
%
\multicolumn{1}{c}{Name} & Side & Slices &
\multicolumn{1}{c}{Method} & Multi-resolution? 
& Levels & \multicolumn{1}{c}{Scale} & 
\multicolumn{1}{c}{\tiny (hh:mm:ss)} \\
\midrule
\multirow{4}{3.6cm}{Single-stained spleen (Figs.~\ref{fig:specimens-single},
\ref{fig:one-milz-volume}, Chapter~\ref{cha:follikel})} & \multirow{4}{*}    {8000} &
\multirow{4}{*}{24} &
Chapter~\ref{cha:vcbm14} & no & -- & 100 & 0:21:11 \\
& & & \cite{elastix} & yes & 4 & -- & 01:01:05 \\
& & & \multirow{2}{*}{our method} & \multirow{2}{*}{yes}
 & 2 & 50 & \textbf{0:12:06} \\ % (100, 50)
&&& & & \emph{4} & \emph{10} & 0:49:20 \\
%&&& &
\midrule
\multirow{5}{3.6cm}{Double-stained spleen (Figs.~\ref{fig:specimens-double},
 \ref{fig:double-milz-other}\olcomment{, Chapter~\ref{cha:sheaths}})} &         \multirow{5}{*}{5032} &
\multirow{5}{*}{24} &
Chapter~\ref{cha:vcbm14} & no & -- & 100 & 0:18:31 \\
& & & \cite{elastix} & yes & 4 &--& 0:23:12 \\
%& & & ours & yes
& & & \multirow{3}{*}{our method} & \multirow{3}{*}{yes} & 
%\multirow{2}{*}{2} &
2 &
%% trying to adapt by increasing minimal feature size, from 100,20 to
%% 100,50:
50 & \textbf{0:18:09} \\ % @ 100, 50
&&&&& 2 & 20 & 04:03:14\hangright{\textsuperscript{\textasteriskcentered}} \\         % @ 100,20
% & & & our method & yes
&&&&& \emph{4} & \emph{10} &     14:40:14\hangright{\textsuperscript{\textasteriskcentered}} \\
\midrule
\multirow{5}{3.6cm}{Bone marrow (Figs.~\ref{fig:specimens-km},
   \ref{fig:km-z}, Chapter~\ref{cha:km})} & \multirow{5}{*}{4032} &     \multirow{5}{*}{30} &
Chapter~\ref{cha:vcbm14} & no & -- &100& 0:12:55 \\
& & & \cite{elastix} & yes & 4 &--& 0:17:43 \\
& & & \multirow{3}{*}{our method} & \multirow{3}{*}{yes} 
   & 2 &50& \textbf{0:07:07} \\ 
% ^^^ this is (100, 50)
& & &  &  & \emph{2} &\emph{20}& 0:13:00 \\
% ^^^ this is (100, 20)
& & &  &  & \emph{4} &\emph{10}& 0:44:42 \\
\bottomrule
\end{tabular}
\setlength\tabcolsep\tabsepbakup
\end{table*}

PS: Commentaries on the layout and typesetting are welcome.

PPS: I see, I omitted \hangright, it is not crucial for understanding or something, but still, here it is:

%%% hack for hanging footnotes in the table
\newcommand{\hangleft}[1]{\makebox[0pt][r]{#1}}
\newcommand{\hangright}[1]{\makebox[0pt][l]{#1}}

PPPS: For formatting numbers siunitx provides some new column styles.