# Section Columns

With the Section Columns feature, **RadRichTextEditor** allows you arrange the text in a section into columns. This article will show you how to arrange the text into columns with different or customized width and set a separator between them.

* [SectionColumn Class](https://www.telerik.com/products/winforms/documentation/controls/richtexteditor/features/section-columns#sectioncolumn-class)

* [SectionColumnCollection Class](https://www.telerik.com/products/winforms/documentation/controls/richtexteditor/features/section-columns#sectioncolumncollection-class)

* [Using Section Columns](https://www.telerik.com/products/winforms/documentation/controls/richtexteditor/features/section-columns#using-section-columns)

> caption Figure 1: Text laid out in columns

![WinForms RadRichTextEditor Text laid out in columns](https://www.telerik.com/products/winforms/documentation/assets/a23c364b8f16f1ebbed4c67c3f01d571/radrichtextbox_features_section_columns_01.png)

## SectionColumn Class

The **SectionColumn** class holds the information about a particular column. It exposes the following properties:

* **Width**: Represents the text column width.

* **SpacingAfter**: Represents the spacing, which will be rendered before the next column. When columns are rendered, this value is ignored for the last section column. The default and minimal value is *48 dpi* (1 dpi = 1/96 inch).

You can create an instance of **SectionColumn** and specify the desired settings through the parameters of the exposed constructor overloads:

* **SectionColumn()**

* **SectionColumn(double width)**

* **SectionColumn(double width, double spacingAfter)**

## SectionColumnCollection Class

The **SectionColumnCollection** class contains the information about the text columns in a **Section**. The class exposes several constructor overloads that allow you create columns and specify different properties:

* **SectionColumnCollection(int equalColumnsCount)**: Initializes a new instance of the **SectionColumnCollection** class with equally sized columns and default spacing between them. The parameter represents the number of columns with equal width.

* **SectionColumnCollection(int equalColumnsCount, double columnSpacing = 48, bool hasSeparator = false)**: Initializes a new instance of the **SectionColumnCollection** class with equally sized columns and default spacing between them. Using the constructor parameters you can set a different width of the columns and choose whether a separator between the columns should be applied.

* **SectionColumnCollection(IEnumerable\<SectionColumn> sectionColumns, bool hasSeparator = false)**: Initializes a new instance of the **SectionColumnCollection** class based on the already existing collection, passed as a parameter.

**Example 1** demonstrates how you can create an instance of the **SectionColumnCollection** class that represents two text columns with a custom space and a separator between them.

#### Example 1: Create SectionColumnCollection

```C#
SectionColumnCollection sectionColumnCollection = new SectionColumnCollection(2, 75, true);
```

```VB.NET
Dim sectionColumnCollection As New SectionColumnCollection(2, 75, True)
```

**Figure 2** demonstrates the result of **Example 1**.

> caption Figure 2: Columns With Separator

![WinForms RadRichTextEditor Columns With Separator](https://www.telerik.com/products/winforms/documentation/assets/2acfb6f40c1470e49372b9e7a4c855f1/radrichtextbox_features_section_columns_02.png)

## Using Section Columns

Depending on whether you prefer to insert columns with equal width or assign a specific width for each of them, you will need to create an instance of the **SectionColumnCollection** class and assign it to the **Columns** collection of [Section](https://www.telerik.com/products/winforms/documentation/controls/richtexteditor/document-elements/section). Another option to achieve a similar scenario is to change the **Section** layout using [RadDocumentEditor](https://www.telerik.com/products/winforms/documentation/controls/richtexteditor/features/raddocumenteditor). This section will explain the different approaches.

### Apply Columns With Equal Width

To create text columns with equal width, you could directly use the **SectionColumnCollection** constructor overloads that allow you specify the number of columns you would like to insert. **Example 2** shows how to apply the **SectionColumnCollection** instance, created in **Example 1** to a Section object.

#### Example 2: Apply columns with equal width

```C#
section.Columns = sectionColumnCollection;
```

```VB.NET
section.Columns = sectionColumnCollection
```

### Apply Columns With Different Width

The API allows you create the columns severally from each other with the **SectionColumn** class. Then, the created columns could be united in a single **SectionColumnCollection** and applied to a **Section**. **Example 3** creates a collection of 3 columns with different settings and applies it.

#### Example 3: Apply columns with different width

```C#
IEnumerable<SectionColumn> columns = new List<SectionColumn>()
{
    new SectionColumn(100, 5),
    new SectionColumn(200, 10),
    new SectionColumn(300, 15)
};

SectionColumnCollection sectionColumnCollection1 = new SectionColumnCollection(columns);
section.Columns = sectionColumnCollection1;
```

```VB.NET
Dim columns As IEnumerable(Of SectionColumn) = New List(Of SectionColumn)() From {
    New SectionColumn(100, 5),
    New SectionColumn(200, 10),
    New SectionColumn(300, 15)
}

Dim sectionColumnCollection1 As New SectionColumnCollection(columns)
section.Columns = sectionColumnCollection1
```

### Apply Columns With RadDocumentEditor

In addition to the so far discussed approaches, [RadDocumentEditor](https://www.telerik.com/products/winforms/documentation/controls/richtexteditor/features/raddocumenteditor) exposes a method that you can utilize to lay out the text in columns as well. The overloads of the **ChangeSectionColumns()** method allows you to pass a **SectionColumnCollection** instance or a value of the [**SectionColumnsLayout enumeration**](http://docs.telerik.com/devtools/wpf/api/html/T_Telerik_Windows_Documents_Model_SectionColumnsLayout.htm).

**SectionColumnsLayout** enumeration could have the following values:

* **One**: Represents a single text column.

* **Two**: Represents two text columns with equal width.

* **Three**: Represents three text columns with equal width.

* **Left**: Represents two text columns where the left one has a smaller width than the right one.

* **Right**: Represents two text columns where the right one has a smaller width than the left one.

#### Example 4: Apply columns through editor

```C#
editor.ChangeSectionColumns(SectionColumnsLayout.Left);
```

```VB.NET
editor.ChangeSectionColumns(SectionColumnsLayout.Left)
```

> caption **Figure 3: SectionColumnsLayout.Left applied on a section**

![WinForms RadRichTextEditor SectionColumnsLayoutLeft applied on a section\_\_](https://www.telerik.com/products/winforms/documentation/assets/1c8d8031ada01f76815988498b26d294/radrichtextbox_features_section_columns_03.png)

You can insert a column break at a specific position inside a section column. For more information, check [this article](https://www.telerik.com/products/winforms/documentation/controls/richtexteditor/document-elements/break).

## See Also

* [Document Editor](https://www.telerik.com/products/winforms/documentation/controls/richtexteditor/features/raddocumenteditor)
* [RadDocument](https://www.telerik.com/products/winforms/documentation/controls/richtexteditor/document-elements/raddocument)
* [Section](https://www.telerik.com/products/winforms/documentation/controls/richtexteditor/document-elements/section)