columns posts

For lists of narrow pieces of content, it can make sense to put them in multiple columns to better use available space. For things like image galleries (a list of images), where it tends to be easier to read from right to left, or when order is irrelevant, it is easy to turn a regular list into columns (like a grid in the case of the images) by simply making each item a fixed width and height and then floating the items left. This works fine back to IE6 and remains fully semantic and accessible as one list.

Text lists tend to be easier to read top to bottom though, so when they are in alphabetical or some other important order, it is generally better to order them top to bottom in each column. I haven’t delved into the CSS3 multi-column layout abilities yet, as that is not widely supported (especially no IE). The float item method cannot be made to appear in the proper order while truly keeping the items in proper order in the list for accessibility and semantics, and putting the data in the proper improper order to make that work would be complicated anyway. The only real way I am aware of to currently make the columns be in proper order is to separate the list into a list for each column and then float each column left. This is not ideal semantically and for accessibility, but will still read in the proper order for all users.