Column-Matic Setup

jaydokie, sorry that you have been banging your head on this all day. If you like, we’d be happy to set up a sample on your site. Just create a temp admin account and email the login details to: support (at) twinpictures (dot) de
We’ll get you squared away.

Alright, we see what your problem was.

1. the shortcode:

[column class="column1"]content[/column]
[column class="column2"]content[/column]
[end_columns]

is what goes in your post or page (not your style.css file)

2. the class definitions

.column1 {
	width: 45%;
}
.column2 {
	width: 45%;
    	margin-left: 10px;
    	padding-left: 10px;
}

go in your style.css file.
all of this is explained in detail in the column-matic documentation.

your working example is set up at:
http://roundhousetalk.com/?page_id=907&preview=true

and we also inserted the columns on the front page:
http://roundhousetalk.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=22&action=edit

and the editorials: http://roundhousetalk.com/editorials/

Hello Margaret,

You have three options:
Good Enough:

[column width="45%"]content[/column]
[column width="45%" margin_right="5%"]content[/column]
[end_columns]

This will allow you to change the width as you need directly within the shortcode.
Pro: easy, and requires no additional work
Con: a bit messy, and not suited for more than a few sets of columns

Better:

[column class="column_left"]content[/column]
[column class="column_right"]content[/column]
[end_columns]

And then enter the following under the Column-Matic Options page under Custom CSS:

.column_left, .column_right {
    width: 45%;
}
.column_right {
    margin-left: 5%;
}

Pro: cleaner and better suited for more than a couple sets of columns.
Cons: It involves very basic CSS… which is a very useful skill to get familiar with.
Note: Both of these methods are shown with examples in the documentation.

Pro and/or Lazy:
We will set it up for you via our very reasonable support pack
Pro: It only costs 15 bucks
Con: It costs 15 bucks… and you miss out on your first adventure with CSS

Let us know how it goes!