Multi-columns with CSS3 tutorial. Have you ever had the need to create multi-column layout to display any information? What looks like the columns of newspapers. I think that your answer is – yes. And many of you may have implemented it using just ordinary DIV (or other) elements, with the property float: left. More recently – CSS3 gives us his alternative. You do not need to be cut into blocks of text output – multi-column layout is quite possible to do using a single element.
In our example we will use the new CSS3 properties: column-count, column-gap and column-rule. It is possible that not all browsers support these CSS3 styles, but I think – most newer browsers already support them. Here we see that the result should look like:
Live Demo
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Ok, download the example files and lets start coding !
Step 1. HTML
Here are full html code of our result page. Pay attention – that I have only single DIV element with text.
index.html
<!DOCTYPE html> <html lang="en" > <head> <meta charset="utf-8" /> <title>Multi-columns with CSS3 | Script Tutorials</title> <link href="css/main.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" /> <script type="text/javascript" src="js/jquery-1.5.2.min.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="js/script.js"></script> </head> <body> <div class="controls"> <input type="button" id="more_cols" value="More columns" /> <input type="button" id="less_cols" value="Less columns" /> <input type="button" id="more_gap" value="More gap" /> <input type="button" id="less_gap" value="Less gap" /> </div> <div class="container" id="container"> <p>The King sat naked. Like a foolish pauper on the street, he sat leaning against a cold wall, drawing in his blue, goose-bumped legs. He shivered, with his eyes closed, he listened, but everything was quiet.</p> <p>He awoke at midnight from a nightmare and immediatelly understood that he was finished. Some one weezed and writhed by the door of the bedroom suite, he heard footsteps, metalic jingling and drunken mummbling of His Highness, Uncle Buht: "Let me through... Let me.. Break it down, hell with it..." Wet with icy sweat, he slintly rolled off his bed, ducked into a secter closet, and loosing himself he ran down the underground passage. Something sqelched under his bare feet, the startled rats dashed away, but he did not notice anything, just now, sitting next to a wall he remembered everything; the darkness, the slippery walls, and the pain from a blow on the head against the shakled door to the temple, and his own unberable high yelp.</p> <p>They shall not enter here, he thought. No one shall enter here. Only if the King order's so. But the King shall not order... He snickered hysterically. Oh no, the King will not order! He carefully un screwed up his eyes and saw his blue, hairless legs with scraped knees. Still alive, he thought. I will live, because they shall not enter here.</p> <p>Everything in the temple was blueish from the cold light of the lanterns -- long glowing tubes that were stretched under the ceiling. In the center, God stood on an eminence, big, heavy, with sparkling dead eyes. The King continuously and stupidly stared, until God was suddenly screened by a shabby lay brother, still a greenhorn. Scraching, with an open mouth he gazed at the naked King. The King squinted once again. Scum, he thought, a lousy vermine, catch the mongrel and to the dogs, for them to ravage... He reasoned that he did not remember the lout well, but he was long gone. So scrawny, snotty... That's all right, we'll remember. We'll remeber everything, Your Highness, Uncle Buht. During the father's reighn, I dare say you sat quietly, drank a bit and kept silent, were afraid to be noticed, you knew that King Prostyaga did not forget you ignoble treachery...</p> </div> <footer> <h2>Multi-columns with CSS3</h2> <a href="https://www.script-tutorials.com/how-to-do-multi-columns-with-css3/" class="stuts">Back to original tutorial on <span>Script Tutorials</span></a> </footer> </body> </html>
Step 2. CSS
Now – all CSS styles
css/main.css
*{ margin:0; padding:0; } body { background-color:#bababa; color:#fff; font:14px/1.3 Arial,sans-serif; } footer { background-color:#212121; bottom:0; box-shadow: 0 -1px 2px #111111; display:block; height:70px; left:0; position:fixed; width:100%; z-index:100; } footer h2{ font-size:22px; font-weight:normal; left:50%; margin-left:-400px; padding:22px 0; position:absolute; width:540px; } footer a.stuts,a.stuts:visited{ border:none; text-decoration:none; color:#fcfcfc; font-size:14px; left:50%; line-height:31px; margin:23px 0 0 110px; position:absolute; top:0; } footer .stuts span { font-size:22px; font-weight:bold; margin-left:5px; } /*new styles*/ .container { background:#C5DFF0; color:#000; margin:20px auto; padding:20px; position:relative; width:800px; border-radius:5px; -moz-border-radius:5px; -webkit-border-radius:5px; box-shadow:1px 1px 5px #111111; column-count: 3; column-gap: 3em; column-rule: 1px dashed black; -moz-column-count: 3; -moz-column-gap: 3em; -moz-column-rule: 1px dashed black; -webkit-column-count: 3; -webkit-column-gap: 3em; -webkit-column-rule: 1px dashed black; } .controls { background:#C5DFF0; margin:20px auto; padding:20px; position:relative; width:800px; box-shadow:1px 1px 5px #111111; border-radius:5px; -moz-border-radius:5px; -webkit-border-radius:5px; } .controls input[type=button] { border: 1px solid #000; background-color: #666; box-shadow: 0 1px 0 rgba(150, 150, 150, 0.5); color: #FFF; cursor: pointer; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; margin-right: 10px; padding: 8px 12px; } .controls input[type=button]:hover { background-color:#444; } .controls input[type=button]:active { background-color:#000; }
Most imporant styles is styles of ‘.container’ selector. See how I’m using our new styles.
Step 3. JavaScript
I added some JS functionality, so you can play with the styles (column-count and column-gap) in real time.
js/script.js
$(function(){ var iColumns = 3; var iGap = 3; var cont = document.getElementById('container'); $('#less_cols').click(function(e) { // mouse click handler iColumns--; // decreasing amount of columns if (iColumns < 1) iColumns = 1; cont.style.MozColumnCount = iColumns; // apply styles cont.style.WebkitColumnCount = iColumns; }); $('#more_cols').click(function(e) { iColumns++; // increasing amount of columns if (iColumns > 5) iColumns = 5; cont.style.MozColumnCount = iColumns; // apply styles cont.style.WebkitColumnCount = iColumns; }); $('#less_gap').click(function(e) { iGap--; // decreasing value of gap if (iGap < 0) iGap = 0; cont.style.MozColumnGap = iGap+'em'; // apply styles cont.style.WebkitColumnGap = iGap+'em'; }); $('#more_gap').click(function(e) { iGap++; // increasing value of gap if (iGap > 5) iGap = 5; cont.style.MozColumnGap = iGap+'em'; // apply styles cont.style.WebkitColumnGap = iGap+'em'; }); });
Live Demo
Conclusion
I hope that our nice tips help you. Good luck!
thanks for coding. it was really nice tutorial.