Template:Multicol

{{Multicol}} is used to start a multi-column section of a page. Between each block of column text insert {{Multicol-break}} and close the last column with {{Multicol-end}}. For example:

 {{Multicol}}
 This text appears in the first column.
 {{Multicol-break}}
 This text appears in the second column.
 {{Multicol-break}}
 This text appears in the third column.
 {{Multicol-end}}

You can have any number of columns. Each column will be the same width, equally dividing the available horizontal space. Each column has a small right margin (20 pixels), creating a "gutter" that prevents text in one column from touching text in the column to its right. See franl's user page for examples of how this template can be used.

This template has two optional parameters: the overall width of the set of columns and the width of the gutter. The overall width of the set of columns can be an absolute value (e.g., 40em) or a percentage of the available page width (e.g., 50%). This parameter defaults to 100%. For example, to create a multi-column section that is only 50% the width of the page:

 {{Multicol|50%}}
 This text appears in the first column.
 {{Multicol-break}}
 This text appears in the second column.
 {{Multicol-break}}
 This text appears in the third column.
 {{Multicol-end}}

The multi-column region is always positioned on the left side of the containing block. To change this, place the above Wikitext in a DIV block that has the CSS attribute text-align set to either center or right, like this:

 <div style="text-align:center;">{{center|
 {{Multicol|50%}}
 ...
 {{Multicol-end}}
 }}</div>

The templates {{Col-begin}} and friends do something similar to this template and its friends, but this template may be easier to use. Each of the following examples produce the same result (a 3-column table in which all columns have equal width):

 {{Multicol}}
 Column 1
 {{Multicol-break}}
 Column 2
 {{Multicol-break}}
 Column 3
 {{Multicol-end}}

 {{Col-begin}}
 {{Col-3}}
 Column 1
 {{Col-3}}
 Column 2
 {{Col-3}}
 Column 3
 {{Col-end}}

It's simpler to add more columns to the {{Multicol}} example than to the {{Col-begin}} example, because in the latter case, all occurrences of {{Col-3}} would need to be changed to {{Col-4}}.