[csswg-drafts] [css-multicol] Clarify the section on Pagination and Overflow Outside Multicol Containers (#12632)

rachelandrew has just created a new issue for https://github.com/w3c/csswg-drafts:

== [css-multicol] Clarify the section on Pagination and Overflow Outside Multicol Containers ==
In working through the spec to make edits for https://github.com/w3c/csswg-drafts/issues/12593#issuecomment-3205806899 I need to clarify the section on overflow. We touched on most of this during the fact to face conversation. I think in the scenario where you have a height on the multicol container, overflow columns are still overflow columns even if they wrap so we just need to clarify this section to include the wrapping situation. Proposed edits follow.

```
A multicol container can have more columns than it has room for due to:

 <ul>
  <li>
   a declaration that constrains the column height
   (e.g., using 'height' or 'max-height').
   In this case, additional column boxes are created in the inline direction
  </li>
  <li>
   the size of the page.
   In this case, additional column boxes are moved to the next page(s).
  </li>
  <li>
   explicit column breaks.
   In this case, additional column boxes are created in the inline direction for continuous contexts
   and additional column boxes are moved to the next fragment(s) for fragmented media.
  <li>
 </ul>
```

I propose to update this to the following, which I believe reflects discussion at the August f2f.

* In the first bullet changing column height to multicol container height, as this is the height this section refers to (as there was no `column-height` in multicol-1.).
* Also in the first bullet changing "In this case, additional column boxes are created in the inline direction" to "In this case, additional column boxes are created in the wrapping direction (by default, the inline direction)." This would be less clumsy if we resolve to keep the `column-wrap` property as we could then say, "in the direction set by the value of `column-wrap`".
* Similarly clarify the final bullet to remove the mention of continuous contexts.

```
A multicol container can have more columns than it has room for due to:

 <ul>
  <li>
   a declaration that constrains the multicol container height
   (e.g., using 'height' or 'max-height').
   In this case, additional column boxes are created in the wrapping direction (by default, the inline direction).
  </li>
  <li>
   the size of the page.
   In this case, additional column boxes are moved to the next page(s).
  </li>
  <li>
   explicit column breaks.
   In this case, additional column boxes are created in the in the wrapping direction (by default, the inline direction for continuous contexts).
   and additional column boxes are moved to the next fragment(s) for fragmented media.
  <li>
 </ul>
```

Please view or discuss this issue at https://github.com/w3c/csswg-drafts/issues/12632 using your GitHub account


-- 
Sent via github-notify-ml as configured in https://github.com/w3c/github-notify-ml-config

Received on Thursday, 21 August 2025 06:08:44 UTC