CSS Multiple multi-column divs

Question

I have a bunch of items (text, image, mixed content, etc) that I want to display. The user can define what row and what column that item appears in. For example, in row 1, there

Answer 1

The 960 Grid System is designed to accomplish things just like this. Take a look at http://960.gs/ they have plenty of examples of what you can do with 960.

For the unindoctrinated, it defines two types of layouts 12 column or 16 column. Each column is a predefined width with predefined gutters between them. You can then use the built in css styles to have a div span any number of the columns. It's incredibly powerful for layouts where different sections of the page using different layouts.