Multi-column CSS lists

Question

Is there a way to do re-flowable, multi-column lists, where the list can have list items of varying heights, using only valid CSS? By re-fl

Answer 1

Original post

In fact the single command does the trick for me (although it comes in -webkit- and -moz- versions):

div.wrapper 
{
    -webkit-column-width: 10em;
    -moz-column-width: 10em;
}

Here are additional rules to improve readability. Insert the code below and above into an example from A List Apart article (I can paste the whole HTML if somebody clears copyright) and enjoy:

div.wrapper {       
    border: 2px solid blue;
    -webkit-column-rule: 2px solid blue;
    -moz-column-rule: 2px solid blue;
}

.wrapper ol {
    margin: 0;
}

.wrapper br {
    display: none; /* Extra BR is unnecessary there */
}

Tested: Safari 4 (4528.17), Fx 3.5b4 /Mac.

Note that on the first encounter of column-width properties some time ago I completely missed the crucial fact that it does rebalancing. Discovered it now at W3C and confirmed with Surfin' Safari.

Addendum: Fixed number of columns

As I understand from the clarification, the width of columns should change with the widthof the page, so the commands are more like

div.wrapper 
{
    -webkit-column-count: 3;
    -moz-column-count: 3;
}

Addendum: Vertical scrolling

Now you say that there should be a vertical scrollbar. Since there is no UI that would do separate scrollbars to the right of each column, I think you have in mind one scrollbar that would scroll the whole multicolumn list. That can be done by wrapping one more div with

div.morewrap 
{
     height: 50%; /* whatever you need */
     overflow-y: scroll; 
}