Table layout - Which way is best?

["William Sherman" <bsherman77 -at- embarqmail -dot- com>]

At work, there have been a couple of people who have suddenly changed the 
directions of tables in our books.

Currently, we have a table that goes vertical in the first pair of columns, 
then vertical in the second pair of columns.

1  Main Body      4 Undercarriage
2  Work Access  5 Track System
3. Power Plant    6 Operator Cab


What they have done is go left right, then down.

1  Main Body     2 Work Access
3 Power Plant     4 Undercarriage
5 Track System   6 Operator Cab

Now on something short, probably most don't see an issue but several tables 
that we have like this has 30 or more items called out.

I have been trying to find something that gives a rule for this we can point 
to. I am sure I've heard of studies that down the first set, then down the 
second set (newspaper column style or regular multi-column style text) is 
the recommended and easiest to read, but I just can't find that now. Looking 
through Chicago Manual of Style, I'm apparently missing it if it is in 
there.

Searching tables styles or layouts on the Internet gets me a lot of 
furniture links.

Unfortunately, our style guide doesn't address this and I believe that they 
may decide to actually put this into the style guide, since one is a manger 
in another group.

Anyone have any links or references?





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