All
those groupings which are not hold together by a second or third control that,
on the visual side, is rendered as a box, are called soft groups. Soft groups
are formatted text or elements that are both, gathered under a header and
separated by caesuras. We separate soft groups from each other by using blank
space. The advantage of doing so is, we need less code as we do not use an
additional control. Second, we have a quite interface as we do not use group
boxes with borders or HTML elements like horizontal rulers. The disadvantage
of this method is, we have to waste a lot of space to clearly separate single
groups from each other.
Use a caesura of 15 pixels to separate soft groups from each other.
Soft groups
Title and Text can be assigned clearly.
Example of soft groups
It is possible to use a two column layout like in this example. If doing so, a caesura of 30 pixels should be used.
Caesura between a two column layout
Whenever we decide to use a layout of this kind, we
do not use more then two columns. When using two columns we can decide
between dividing the available space in proportions of:
1/2 and 1/2
or: 2/3 and 1/3
or: 1/3 and 2/3.
Multiple column layout