HTML and CSS Reference
In-Depth Information
MULTI-COL PROBLEMS
Apart from some of the support issues documented earlier, the CSS Multi-column
layout module has other problems associated with it. First, it obviously won't work
in older browsers like IE6-9. To remedy this, you could use Modernizr to detect
support for multi-col (see Chapter 5 for more information on Modernizr) and pro-
vide alternative styling for nonsupporting browsers, perhaps using some kind of
slightly more limited floated layouts. Modernizr refers to multi-col as
csscolumns
.
This is what you are testing for.
Second, multi-col has a fairly limited scope in terms of how it can be used: It
was created to be used in specific circumstances where you want to put content
into multiple columns and the content isn't too complicated. You can't create full
magazine-style layouts or full multiple-column sites with multi-col, because you
can't specify widths of individual columns, column breaking seems unreliable, and
the spec in general is limited in scope. For such tasks, you need a combination of
different layout tools.
