CSS Column Span Property Lab

Medium
132
14
45.5% Acceptance

Overview

In this interactive lab, you will build a multi-column layout using CSS and manipulate it with JavaScript. You will work specifically with column-span and column-count properties. The final output will consist of six boxes, out of which the third box will span across two columns, and the column-count can be changed dynamically using a JavaScript function.

Concepts

  • CSS multi-column layout: Provides a way of creating layouts with columns, just like you'd see in some traditional newspapers and magazines.
  • column-span property: Allows an element to span across multiple columns in a multi-column layout.
  • column-count property: Specifies the number of columns an element should be divided into.

Steps

  • Start by creating an HTML structure. Your HTML should have a parent div with an id of 'container'. Inside this container div, create six child div elements each having class 'box'.
  • Make use of CSS to style your HTML elements. You will need to apply a column-count of 2 to your container, which will make the child boxes display in two columns.
  • To make one of the box elements span across two columns, select the third div box and apply a column-span of 'all'.
  • Lastly, write a JavaScript function changeColumnCount that takes an integer as a parameter. This function should change the column-count of the 'container' div to the passed integer.

Examples

The following is a basic example of how you can apply column-count and column-span CSS properties:

<div id="container">
    <div class="box"></div>
    <div class="box"></div>
    <div class="box"></div>
</div>
#container {
    column-count: 2;
}

.box {
    column-span: all;
}

In the above example, all boxes will span across two columns.

Hints

  • Use the getElementById method in your JavaScript function to select the 'container' div.
  • You will need to manipulate CSS properties using JavaScript. This can be done accessing the style property of your selected element, like so: document.getElementById('elementId').style.cssPropertyName.

Remember to think this lab in terms of boxes (div elements) and how you can manipulate their distribution across multiple columns, both statically with CSS and dynamically with JavaScript.