transition from 2 columns to 3 columns

I am not a fan of the 3 column format but that being said it is not “hard” but requires work. Alex’s 3dots version uses the current index page to give a 3 column look. But to really make a 3 column layout you have to redo the index page and make a 2nd menu div, moving the items you want to put in a third column there. It requires a bit more work than simply tweaking the css.

Can you set yourself up a testblog ?
If so, you could try ‘Dots’ or the layout I tried at https://www.tamba2.org.uk/testblog/
I do recommend not using your ‘live’ blog for this though until you have perfected the layout, and checked the display in IE /FF/ Opera etc.

Thank you Beel and Podz for your responses and thoughts. I am interested in a third right-side column for a few reasons. First, I think it would be a great place to apply mtdewvirus’s “recent comments” and “most commented” plugins as well as perhaps a plugin/application for random quotes I like. Secondly, I thought it might slim down my posts area which is pretty wide. But those are just some thoughts.
I won’t be able to implement this change immediately anyway, as I’ll need some time to do it.
Beel, do you want to share more about why you don’t favor the three-column blog … any specific disadvantages or problems I should be considering here or is this more just a personal stylistic thing? Either way I’m interested in hearing your thoughts/opinions on the matter.

For one, it makes the site too busy, distracting from the post content. All the “most recent” posts, searches, comments, referrals, ad naseum could go on a separate linked page. My menu, even with its collapsed archives, categories, and recent comments, is just too much and spreading it across two columns would just make it atrocious. It’ll all go once the fun of playing around with, and testing, the hacks and plugins wears off. I was never one to play “Where’s Waldo?” anyway – if Waldo is hidden, Ill go elsewhere but fast.

Thanks again for even more feedback. Beel, I went and scrutinized your blog a bit more and noticed that you have some of your options (such as recent comments) “tabbed” so that a person can press on them and show or hide the recent comments accordingly. I saw the same thing was done with several other options as well. Nifty!
I’m going to think hard about whether or not I’ll really make that change then. I can tell that you guys know what you are talking about so maybe I’ll just stick with the two columns format.
I have been tinkering quite a bit with my plugins etc. but maybe I could use some help since I”ve been so amateurish. I think I could make my column info more compact and neat. I’m not sure if it has to be compact. Any chance you guys could look over what I’m doing and give me some suggestions on things I could do to improve?

BTW, I’d like to center the information about how many new posts and comments have been made since your last visit that appears below the Wump Blog logo. I’m not sure how to do that, as I couldn’t find any examples of similar calls in my index.php file. Maybe I wasn’t looking hard enough or in the right place.

You could wrap the banner in something like <p id="last_visit"> and set in your css:
#last_visit { text-align:center}

The call for that comment info is the script right below the image in the index.php. In there I would add an id=”thenameyouchoose” inside the script tag then in the css I would add
# theidname {
text-align: center;
}
Plus any other styles like font size color, borders etc you may want.
HTH.