Two column lists

[deeptikorwar]

Hi,

Is there a way to format lists to two columns wherever necessary? In word, the page layout can be set to multiple columns wherever necessary by selecting the appropriate page layout. Is there something similar in Flare?

Regards,
Deepti

[LTinker68]

It's possible, but not quite as easy. You need to create a page layout that has the two column layout, then you put your list into its own topic. In the TOC, you set that topic to have a page layout break and specify that two column page layout. The content following the list goes in another topic, and in the TOC, you set the page layout break for the following topic so it switches back to the normal layout.

Note that if you're single sourcing your project that you're not going to want that topic separation in your online outputs, so you might want two sets of topics -- one topic for online output has the list and the content proceeding and following it. For print output, you have at least 2, possibly 3 topics so that you can do the page layout break on the middle topic.

If you meant you want two columns in online output, too, then the only way to get two columns for a list is to either put the list in a table, which requires you to manually continue the list into the second column, or to use two DIVs that are set to be positioned side-by-side, but again, you have to manually continue the list in the second DIV. Of the two, the table method is the easiest.

[deeptikorwar]

Thank you Lisa. The table option seems to be easier.

[feitelberg]

Why can't you use CSS properties to create a div with a multiple column layout and then put the list inside the div?

Or does that only work for web based output and not PDF or Word?

[Nita Beck]

Why can't you use CSS properties to create a div with a multiple column layout and then put the list inside the div?

Or does that only work for web based output and not PDF or Word?

Every day I learn something new, and you're today's teacher. Using example code I found at http://www.w3schools.com/cssref/css3_pr_columns.asp, I was about to create a div that would indeed lay out content into columns. However, it appears only to work for online output and not for PDF or Word output. I actually wouldn't expect it to work for Word output because Word doesn't support divs so Flare's Word-generator unbinds anything in a div as part of the build process.