What control could I use to show text in multiple columns?

Question

I'm wondering what is the multicolumn text control used in "News App", in Windows 8:

I have seen this microsoft example where they use fixed RichTextBlock and RichTextBlockOverflow inside a grid. There must be a better way to do this (I hope). Do you know how?

Answer 1

Unfortunately that's the best way to do it, if you are creating your app in XAML. However, if you are creating creating your app using HTML5/JavaScript you can achieve this using CSS Overflow Properties.

There is a video from the BUILD conference 2012, showing how this is done: Key technologies for building great reading experiences - the overflow part begins after around 20 minutes.

Note: The video talks about the possibilities and limitations of both HTML5 and XAML, and shows how it's done.