A simple 3 column layout

Step 1 - set up the XHTML markup.First type in the links and content for your page. Then, within the HTML page add a div tag that surrounds the links, assign an "id" to this div and name it "nav". Next Surround the content of your page with another div tag which has an "id" of "content", and finally add more text which is surrounded by a div tag with an "id" of "rightcolumn".

Step 2 - create css style to control the first column. I will assign an absolute position for the "nav" div tag and also assign a fixed width of 200 pixels. Please note - in this file I have placed the styles in the head of the document, however I usually locate these styles in an external or linked style sheet.

Step 3 - create css styles to control the second column.This column of text will not need an absolute position, it will float on the page and the size will stretch or shirnk to meet the size of the browser window. I do need to add a left margin so that the links on the left do not overlap the content on the right.

Here is some text which I will use to illustrate a 3 column layout. I could add images to this area, or just stick to text.