London is the capital city of England. It is the most populous city in the United Kingdom, with a metropolitan area of over 13 million inhabitants.
Standing on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its founding by the Romans, who named it Londinium.
Websites often display content in multiple columns (like a magazine or newspaper).
HTML offers several semantic elements that define the different parts of a web page:
<header> - Defines a header for a document or a section
<nav> - Defines a container for navigation links
<section> - Defines a section in a document
<article> - Defines an independent self-contained article
<aside> - Defines content aside from the content (like a sidebar)
<footer> - Defines a footer for a document or a section
<details> - Defines additional details
<summary> - Defines a heading for the <details> element
<header> - Defines a header for a document or a section
<nav> - Defines a container for navigation links
<section> - Defines a section in a document
<article> - Defines an independent self-contained article
<aside> - Defines content aside from the content (like a sidebar)
<footer> - Defines a footer for a document or a section
<details> - Defines additional details
<summary> - Defines a heading for the <details> element
HTML Layout Techniques
There are five different ways to create multicolumn layouts. Each way has its pros and cons:
HTML tables (not recommended)
CSS float property
CSS flexbox
CSS framework
CSS grid
Which One to Choose?
HTML Tables
The <table> element was not designed to be a layout tool! The purpose of the
<table> element is to display tabular data. So, do not use tables for your page layout! They will bring a mess into your code. And imagine how hard it will be to redesign your site after a couple of months.
Tip: Do NOT use tables for your page layout!
CSS Frameworks
If you want to create your layout fast, you can use a framework, like
W3.CSS or Bootstrap.
CSS Floats
It is common to do entire web layouts using the CSS float property. Float is easy to learn
- you just need to remember how the float and clear properties work.
Disadvantages: Floating elements are tied to the document flow, which may harm
the flexibility. Learn more about float in our CSS
Float and Clear chapter.
Float Example
Cities
London
London is the capital city of England. It is the most populous city in the United Kingdom, with a metropolitan area of over 13 million inhabitants.
Standing on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its founding by the Romans, who named it Londinium.
Use of flexbox ensures that elements behave predictably when the page layout
must accommodate different screen sizes and different display devices.
Disadvantages: Does not work in IE10 and earlier.
Learn more about flexbox in our
CSS Flexbox chapter.
Flexbox Example
Cities
London
London is the capital city of England. It is the most populous city in the United Kingdom, with a metropolitan area of over 13 million inhabitants.
Standing on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its founding by the Romans, who named it Londinium.
The CSS Grid Layout Module offers a grid-based layout system, with rows and columns,
making it easier to design web pages without having to use floats and positioning.
Disadvantages: Does not work in IE nor in Edge 15 and earlier.
Learn more about CSS grids in our
CSS Grid View chapter.