Editing Template:Multicol/doc

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== Usage ==
{{tl|Multicol}} is used to start a multi-column section of a page. Between each block of column text insert <kbd>{{tl|Multicol-break}}</kbd> and close the last column with <kbd>{{tl|Multicol-end}}</kbd>. For example:

<pre>
 {{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}}
</pre>

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.

== Parameters ==
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., <kbd>40em</kbd>) or a percentage of the available page width (e.g., <kbd>50%</kbd>). This parameter defaults to <kbd>100%</kbd>. For example, to create a multi-column section that is only 50% the width of the page:

<pre>
 {{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}}
</pre>

The multi-column region is always positioned on the left side of the containing block. To change this, place the above Wikitext in a <kbd>div</kbd> block that has the [[Cascading Style Sheet|CSS]] attribute <kbd>text-align</kbd> set to either <kbd>center</kbd> or <kbd>right</kbd>, like this:

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

== Related templates ==
The templates {{tl|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):

{{center/top}}
{{Multicol|50%}}
<pre>
 {{Multicol}}
 Column 1
 {{Multicol-break}}
 Column 2
 {{Multicol-break}}
 Column 3
 {{Multicol-end}}
</pre>
{{Multicol-break}}
<pre>
 {{Col-begin}}
 {{Col-3}}
 Column 1
 {{Col-3}}
 Column 2
 {{Col-3}}
 Column 3
 {{Col-end}}
</pre>
{{Multicol-end}}
{{center/end}}

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