I began discussing this issue in this thread and have have decided to move to Xero for it's simplicity.

How do I create three columns within the content?
Don't wish to use Grid. Whilst I understand all of this, maintaining the site is not going to be my task so I'm looking at making it easier for those who follow.

Thanks

With not using the grid syntax do you also mean the short code syntax?

Cheers
Paul

What is meant by "Short code syntax"?
MAy have the wrong view of this

For Xero check out this page

bambootheme.com/showcase/oct14/template-features/module-overview/typography-2

Cheers
Paul

Brilliant
Worked just as I was looking.

Thanks Paul

Hi there,
Excuse me that I chip in. I saw the other forum post and since we often face similar problems with picture + content grids (and learn a lot from Pauls answers) followed it.

@ Andrew: With regards to your previous post I think you need to decide on the setup.
a) Either you build the structure with articles meaning that each board member has on article including the picture.
When you do so, you can pull the items with zen tools in the grid modus or you use k2 and their item list in category view function (see the additional point for pic size below) and the article picture size.
This might be easier to maintain as every board member has one item and in case you just edit it or add one.

b) Alternatively, you decide to do it in one content item as you plan in this post.
Here you need to use the gridX or zen-X and have to add unlike the example from the previous posts rows (or divs). Something like this:
Row
Member1, member 2, member 3 each in zen-3
/row
This if you want to have each row with the same height and starting new. If not, try to change gkCols in your live example to span3 and you see what I mean.
Now comes the tricky part, I also would like to have Paul’s insight on – picture size:
I would cut the picture 100x100 (or 200px) have the img on 100% and auto, but assign a max-width to it. My logic here is that starting from a big screen the 100% screen size is always equally divided with the zen-X/gridX syntax making columns accordingly break. So, I only have to make sure the img size does not get out of control and have to live with different text floats.

I figured that works, but would be curious to have Paul’s insights especially with having the pictures bigger. I did that too for k2 categories, meaning I blew up a 150px pic to 800px to have it all the same size and small again in the k2 view. But - I thought this was due to the k2 image elaboration modus. Here the circle closes to the first alternative, setting it up with k2 or zen grid as you might have to adjust img max width, too, in order to avoid scaling – right?

Would appreciate you comment and hope the explanation helps you Andrew.

Thanks for the chip in

From my personal perspective I've used the a) option when building sites e.g. using zentools to display content from a category

Frequently I've used a single page to display content and then pull the category content in with no link to actual pages

I've done this a couple of times with board members / lawyer bios

So as they add or remove members its a case of just adding / removing articles to that category

K2 image wise this is one thing I hope improves with the upcoming new release - it can be a real pain

Cheers

MaMuster in putting together this site it's not about my skills etc, it's about the client. I'm Chairman of a not for profit community group and these people need to be able to maintain and update the site, not me.

This isn't going to be a monstrous site so I'm keeping it really simple.
Also their previous site was, while very cool, overly complex, built to cause high maintenance (make $$ for the developer) and was constantly hacked.

I gave them the two options, and Grid was knocked out.

Whilst I like the concept of K2 when migrating and updating it has caused me nothing but grief previously and so I've steered clear for a while.

This is more logical for me Paul.
They were more happy with the one page thing so will stick with that, but will see if I can persuade them otherwise.

Andrew wrote:
Fully understand your point, but this are the two options to implement it in Joomla to my knowledge, so I listed them based on what I got from your posts. I was hoping for some simpler, magic trick from Paul too .

Even with option a) which is easier for clients, one has to train them that the layout is coming from a module and changes have to take place there, too.

Workflow for changing and maintaining sites and editing article is still the downside of Joomla imho as it is not intuitive for the normal user.

I however figured out that good old documentation including "how to's" works wonders for clients.

Sorry for your bad experience with k2. It worked well for us. While it takes time in the beginning, layout wise one can do a lot of stuff and stay in the logic of category/item editing.

This is an example I used a while ago

www.ddavis.com.au/david-davis-and-associates-our-approach/our-team.html

A category showing all the content (large text limit) using columns and links to pages

Cheers
Paul

So what did you use here Paul?

ah didn't fully explain its zentools using the grid layout and using two columns to divide the content

Cheers
Paul

Thanks Paul.
Moving to Xero has resolved all my issues.

No problem

Good luck with the rest of the project

Cheers
Paul