Multi-Column content in CSS3, but no browser support :( Alternatives?

[Scott Blanchard]

I was all psyched to test out the new CSS3 multi-column module (specifically column-count) today only to be sorely disappointed that none of my browsers appear to support them (as far as I can tell I have the latest versions of Chrome, Firefox and IE9.

Can someone help me out here with the options for multi-column and is their a clean scripted fallback shim for column-count?

[Paul O'B]

I think they are only supported with the vendor prefixes still.

I haven't really played around with them much to draw any conclusions as I usually wait for things to settle down before learning to much about them.

There are some articles here that may help.
http://zomigi.com/blog/deal-breaker-...multi-columns/
http://trentwalton.com/2010/07/19/cs...-column-count/
https://developer.mozilla.org/en/CSS3_Columns
http://www.css3.info/preview/multi-column-layout/

[Scott Blanchard]

I think they are only supported with the vendor prefixes still.

Ah, I see now. You are right.

Works great now with the prefixes in place.

Do you know of any way to use column-count only when the word count exceeds a certain number (or the text is at least one viewport tall)?

[Paul O'B]

Ah, I see now. You are right.

Works great now with the prefixes in place.

Do you know of any way to use column-count only when the word count exceeds a certain number (or the text is at least one viewport tall)?

I'm not sure how that would work and wouldn't it be a bit strange. Or did you mean fill one column and then pour into the next one? That sounds a bit like the regions proposal here.

[Scott Blanchard]

Some pages are just not that tall, and it looks a bit strange in that case, to have multiple columns.

I've actually found a PHP script that will count the text and apply a special class to the content div when the count exceeds a pre-set limit count. This should work well in conjunction with the help you've already given me.

Thanks as always Paul.

~ s