A home page with two columns in it is a slightly
more flexible form to use, and is easier on the
reader. Research has shown the muscles controlling the
eyes during reading, as you scan from left to right,
tire sooner if your text column is wider than a few
inches. Thus, putting your text into columns makes
reading easier.
The columns can be equally wide, or disparate in size.
This is the case in pages with a row of buttons or links
down the left hand side of the screen, and a block of
text to the right. Alternatively, you can have graphics
spanning the top of the page, or neatly tucked into the
left-most column.
This first example demonstrates a simple variant of the
two column style. The main logo fills the upper left
hand corner, and the remainder of both columns is filled
with text. A "breaking news" banner spans the bottom of
the page. This sort of layout is excellent for spare,
clean graphics and text-heavy content with a lot of
links deeper into your site.
Another variant on the two column format is to have the
title bar span the top of the screen, and a graphic to
fill the left hand column. A few subdirectory links read
down the right hand column. This effect provides a clean,
artistic-looking layout, and works best if there are
strongly divergent subjects you wish to cover. Click the
thumbnail to the right to see a variant on this style.
A side note:
In the above somewhat Asian-looking example of the two
column page, the arrangement of elements is accomplished
with tables. The main graphic is one our Principal inked
herself years ago, and served as the inspiration for the
example, even though the painting is more Japanese in
style than Chinese. Also, each of the Chinese characters
was chosen both for meaning and for visual appeal,
as apparently this is also an important consideration.
Please go to the FAQ if you wish to know more
about the Chinese characters.
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The simplest and most commonly applied two column layout
is a narrow row of links or buttons down the left hand
side of the screen, with a wider column to the right
with graphics and text. The thumbnail to the left is a
link to an actual working example of this form of page
layout. The title bar spans the top of the right hand
column, and a graphic is neatly tucked into the right
hand side of the right column.
