Multicol

Multi Column Support Key: [2\|3\|3.2\|4] [X1\|X1.1] [IE\|M\|*N3B5-4.x*\|O]	What is it? Attributes Tag Example	Parent/Content Model Tips & Tricks Browser Peculiarities
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Quick Statistics
End Tag:		Required
Standards Details:		NA
XHTML Modules:		NA
CSS 'display' Type:		block
CSS Mapping:		NA
Default Rendering:		Content split into the indicated number of columns
Official Docs:		Netscape 3.0 Release Notes

What is it?: MULTICOL specifies that all contained text will be displayed in multi-column format. All columns will have the same width and data should be spread evenly across each of the columns to achieve roughly equal column heights.

Common Attributes
%Core%: [2|3|3.2|4] [X1|X1.1] [IE|M|N4B2-4.x|O]
Specific Attributes
Cols
[2|3|3.2|4] [X1|X1.1] [IE|M|N3B5-4.x|O]: Standards Details: NA; Required? Yes; Description:
This attribute indicates the number of columns the contained data will be split into. The browser should try to evenly distribute the content evenly across each of the columns in order to achieve roughly the same column height.; Values: Positive integers - default is 1.
Gutter
[2|3|3.2|4] [X1|X1.1] [IE|M|N3B5-4.x|O]: Standards Details: NA; Required? No; Description:
This attribute controls the amount of pixel space between columns.; Values: Specified as positive integers with the default being 10
Width
[2|3|3.2|4] [X1|X1.1] [IE|M|N3B5-4.x|O]: Standards Details: NA; Required? No; Description:
This optional attribute is supposed to control the width of an individual column. All columns are always the same width, so the overall width of a multi-column layout should be (as specified by Netscape):
(cols * width) + ((cols - 1) * gutter)
However.
Through direct experimentation, this attribute seems to control the TOTAL width of the column apparatus, not the width of each individual column. The multi-column apparatus will remain left-justified if a width results in an amount less than the overall browser window size. If no WIDTH is specified, the default width is 100% [full screen width]; Values: Positive integer pixel values or a percentage of the overall screen width.

Example: <multicol cols="3" width="80%" gutter="20">
This is multi-column layout text that should be distributed evenly across 3 columns
</multicol>

Parent Model: %Block Parent%
Content Model: %In-line Content% | %Block Content%

Tips & Tricks

This element is not a part of any HTML standard or draft and it never will be. It is only supported by 4.x series Netscape browser versions. Its use is not recommended.
Using the WIDTH attribute the way Netscape specifies is incorrect. Use the WIDTH attribute to specify the overall width of the multi-column structure.
Robustness in layout never seemed to be this element's strong point.

Browser Peculiarities

Centering a MULTICOL structure does NOT work reliably. Using the Center, Div, Heading, P or table cell elements in conjunction with MULTICOL can have adverse effects on layout.
[Test] Using WIDTH attributes that are too small will result in a multi column layout where text runs into each other, thus making it unreadable.
[Test] Applying some CSS (specifically tested: borders) flattens MULTICOL display to a single column.
MULTICOL structures are nestable, but this quickly becomes unreadable.
Character level formatting can serve as the parent of MULTICOL in Netscape, but I chose to model this element with other block-level elements. Block elements generally do not serve as content of character level elements.
Netscape 6+ does not support the original use of this element, but its default stylesheet for browser rendering treats it like a block-level element ("display: block") instead of just an inline element as it would by default.

Multi Column