Test your skills: Multicol

The aim of this task is to get you working with the CSS column-count, column-width, column-gap, column-span and column-rule properties and values covered in our lesson on Multiple-column Layout. You will be working through three small tasks which use different elements of the material you have just covered.

Note: You can try out solutions in the interactive editors below, however it may be helpful to download the code and use an online tool such as CodePen, jsFiddle, or Glitch to work on the tasks.

If you get stuck, then ask us for help — see the Assessment or further help section at the bottom of this page.

Multicol One

In this task you need to create three columns, with a 50px gap between each column.

Three columns of text

Try updating the live code below to recreate the finished example:

For assessment or further work purposes, download the starting point for this task to work in your own editor or in an online editor.

Multicol Two

Create columns which have a minimum width of 200px.

Then, add a 5px, grey rule between each column, ensuring there is 10px of space between the edge of the rule and the column content.

Three columns of text with a grey rule between them.

Try updating the live code below to recreate the finished example:

For assessment or further work purposes, download the starting point for this task to work in your own editor or in an online editor.

Multicol Three

Cause the element containing the heading and subheading to span across all columns so it looks like the image.

Three columns of text with a heading and subheading spanning all three in the middle.

Try updating the live code below to recreate the finished example:

For assessment or further work purposes, download the starting point for this task to work in your own editor or in an online editor.

Assessment or further help

You can practice these examples in the Interactive Editors mentioned above.

If you would like your work assessed, or are stuck and want to ask for help:

  1. Put your work into an online shareable editor such as CodePen, jsFiddle, or Glitch. You can write the code yourself, or use the starting point files linked to in the above sections.
  2. Write a post asking for assessment and/or help at the MDN Discourse forum Learning category. Your post should include:
    • A descriptive title such as "Assessment wanted for Multicol skill test 1".
    • Details of what you have already tried, and what you would like us to do, e.g. if you are stuck and need help, or want an assessment.
    • A link to the example you want assessed or need help with, in an online shareable editor (as mentioned in step 1 above). This is a good practice to get into — it's very hard to help someone with a coding problem if you can't see their code.
    • A link to the actual task or assessment page, so we can find the question you want help with.