Template:Col-begin/doc

This is a documentation subpage for Template:Col-begin. It contains usage information, categories and other content that is not part of the original Template page.

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Not to be confused with Template:Colbegin, a redirect to Template:Div col.

This template creates a table rather than actual columns. This means that it may displays poorly on mobile devices or narrow screens and is sub-optimal in terms of accessibility. Approximately half of the readers of English Wikipedia articles are using mobile devices and may have trouble reading the content that is wrapped in this template. Please consider using one of the CSS-based column templates (listed at the end of this page) instead, or not using columns at all if there is any trouble affects page layout.

Column templates
Accessibility
Basic
{{col-begin}} {{col-break}} {{col-end}} {{columns-list}}
Float
{{col-float}} {{col-float-break}} {{col-float-end}}
Div col
{{div col}} {{div col end}}

The {{col-begin}}, {{col-break}} and {{col-end}} templates control columns of text on a page:

• {{col-begin}}: starts a table (followed by {{col-break}} for 1st column)
• {{col-break}}: triggers the start of each column
• {{col-end}}: ends the multi-column table.

The widths of columns can be specified by using various additional codes. See below for examples.

Usage

{{col-begin|width=70%}}: start table with specific width.
{{col-break|width=66%}}: start column-1 as 66% wide.
This is text in column-1.
{{col-break|width=33%}}: start column-2 as 33% wide.
This is text in column-2.
{{col-end}}

The table will have two columns, with column 1 twice (2×) the width of column 2.

A border of 2px (1px width on each side) corresponds to a 5%. Therefore, with a 2px border, the width needs to be 95% for the table to fit within the screen. Since it's possible that some tables might not have a border, correction on the individual page could be made after substitution. Another way to create a two column table is like this:

{{col-begin|width=95%}} |- | Left column | Right column |}

{{Col-begin}}
{{Col-2}}
Column 1 here
{{Col-2}}
Column 2 here
{{Col-end}}

{{Col-begin}}
{{Col-3}}
Column 1 here
{{Col-3}}
Column 2 here
{{Col-3}}
Column 3 here
{{Col-end}}

and so on, up to {{Col-5}}

{{Col-begin}}
{{Col-break}}
Column 1 here
{{Col-break}}
Column 2 here
{{Col-break}}
Column 3 here
{{Col-break}}
Column 4 here
{{Col-break}}
Column 5 here
{{Col-break}}
Column 6 here
{{Col-end}}

{{Columns-start|num=3}}
Column 1 here
{{Column}}
Column 2 here
{{Column}}
Column 3 here
{{Columns-end}}

Examples

Here are some example codes that you can use to make columns of text in your Wikipedia article. You can change the width of your columns by changing the code words that go between the text of your columns. Good luck!

Example 1, using col-break

{{col-begin}}
{{col-break}}
{| class="wikitable" style="width:18em"
|+ Production by year
|-
! 1980
| 50,000
|-
! 1990
| 75,000
|-
! 2000
| 90,000
|}
{{col-break}}
{| class="wikitable" style="width:18em"
|+ Profit by year
|-
! 1980
| $6,000
|-
! 1990
| $7,500
|-
! 2000
| $8,200
|}
{{col-end}}

gives:

Production by year

1980	50,000
1990	75,000
2000	90,000

Profit by year

1980	$6,000
1990	$7,500
2000	$8,200

Example 2, using col-2

{{col-begin}}
{{col-2}}
{| class="wikitable" style="width:18em"
|+ Production by year
|-
! 1980
| 50,000
|-
! 1990
| 75,000
|-
! 2000
| 90,000
|}
{{col-2}}
{| class="wikitable" style="width:18em"
|+ Profit by year
|-
! 1980
| $6,000
|-
! 1990
| $7,500
|-
! 2000
| $8,200
|}
{{col-end}}

gives:

Production by year

1980	50,000
1990	75,000
2000	90,000

Profit by year

1980	$6,000
1990	$7,500
2000	$8,200

Example 3, use col-break with specified widths

{{col-begin}}
{{col-break|width=80%}}
{| class="wikitable" style="width:18em"
|+ Production by year
|-
! 1980
| 50,000
|-
! 1990
| 75,000
|-
! 2000
| 90,000
|}
{{col-break|width=20%}}
{| class="wikitable" style="width:18em"
|+ Profit by year
|-
! 1980
| $6,000
|-
! 1990
| $7,500
|-
! 2000
| $8,200
|}
{{col-end}}

gives:

Production by year

1980	50,000
1990	75,000
2000	90,000

Profit by year

1980	$6,000
1990	$7,500
2000	$8,200

Example 4, use col-break with auto outer width

{{col-begin|width=auto}}
{{col-break}}
{| class="wikitable" style="width:18em"
|+ Production by year
|-
! 1980
| 50,000
|-
! 1990
| 75,000
|-
! 2000
| 90,000
|}
{{col-break|gap=2em}}
{| class="wikitable" style="width:18em"
|+ Profit by year
|-
! 1980
| $6,000
|-
! 1990
| $7,500
|-
! 2000
| $8,200
|}
{{col-end}}

Production by year

1980	50,000
1990	75,000
2000	90,000

Profit by year

1980	$6,000
1990	$7,500
2000	$8,200

Example 5, Lots of columns, using col-break

Production by year

1980	50,000
1990	75,000
2000	90,000

Profit by year

1980	$6,000
1990	$7,500
2000	$8,200

Revenue by product

Widgets	$25,000
Foos	$65,500
Bars	$28,000

See also

Column-generating template families

The templates listed here are not interchangeable. For example, using {{col-float}} with {{col-end}} instead of {{col-float-end}} would leave a HTML "div" (division) open, potentially harming any subsequent formatting.

<section begin="table" />

Family	Type	Handles wiki  table code?	Responsive/ Mobile suited	Start template	Column divider	End template
"Col"	Table	Yes	Yes	{{Col-begin}}, {{Col-begin-fixed}} or {{Col-begin-small}}	{{Col-break}} or {{Col-2}} .. {{Col-5}}	{{Col-end}}
"Col-float"	CSS float	Yes	Yes	{{Col-float}}	{{Col-float-break}}	{{Col-float-end}}
"Columns"	Table	No	Yes	{{Columns}}	–	–
"Columns-list"	CSS columns	Yes	Yes	{{Columns-list}} (wrapper)	–	–
"Columns-start"	CSS float	Yes	Yes	{{Columns-start}}	{{Column}}	{{Columns-end}}
"Flex columns"	CSS flexbox	Yes	Yes	{{Flex columns}}	–	–
"Div col"	CSS columns	Yes	Yes	{{Div col}}	–	{{Div col end}}

I.e., can the columns handle the wiki markup {| | || |- |} used to create tables? If not, templates that produce these elements (such as {{(!}}, {{!}}, {{!!}}, {{!-}}, {{!)}}) or HTML tags (‎<table>...‎</table>, ‎<tr>...‎</tr>, etc.) will need to be used instead.<section end="table" />

TemplateData

This is the TemplateData for this template used by TemplateWizard, VisualEditor and other tools. Click here to see a monthly parameter usage report for this template based on this TemplateData.

TemplateData for Col-begin

<templatedata> { "description": "This template starts a multi-column table.", "params": { "width": { "label": "Table width", "type": "string", "description": "The width of the complete table, defined as a percent (i.e. 50%), typically no more than 95%" } } } </templatedata>