\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{fixltx2e}%% the official fixes for LaTeX2e
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% User specified LaTeX commands.
\usepackage{multicol}
\newcounter{myFCounter}[section]
\usepackage{graphicx}
\newcommand{\myFigure}[3]{%
    \begin{center}\begin{minipage}[t]{\columnwidth}%
    \begin{center}\refstepcounter{myFCounter}\vspace{1ex}%
    \includegraphics[width=#1\columnwidth,keepaspectratio]{#2}\ \\%
    \sc Figure \thesection .\arabic{myFCounter}:\ \rm #3 
    \vspace{1ex}\end{center}%
    \end{minipage}\end{center}}
\newcommand\myColumnSep[1]{%
  \setlength{\columnsep}{#1}%
}
\usepackage{url}
\usepackage[english]{babel}
\begin{document}

\title{Multicols with Pictures\thanks{Herbert.Voss@alumni.TU-Berlin.DE}}
\author{Herbert Voss}
\date{31.12.00}
\maketitle

\begin{abstract}
This template is based on the article-class with the multicol-package.
The multicol environment doesn't allow floating pictures, which are
located in a column. Only the figure{*}-option is possible, which
means textwide pictures over all colums. With this template you are
able to insert pictures with a caption and a specific size.
\end{abstract}
\tableofcontents{}

\newpage\myColumnSep{0.25cm}\begin{multicols}{3}

\section{Introduction}

the best way. All images are only for demonstration, without any sense
...  ;-) \myFigure{0.5}{nihongo.eps}{Japanese in Japanese with a
width of 50\% of columwidth}

The only problem for non-floating figures is the missing option for
a caption. Therefore I defined a new command, which insert pictures
and gives the possibility for a caption. For the future a lof, a list
of figures is planned. But this may take some times ...

\myFigure{0.2}{nihongo.eps}{Japanese in Japanese with a picturewidth
of 20\% of columwidth, which is soooooooooo small ... ;-), but with
a sooooooo long caption, which is much more longe than the image ...}

This documentation is written in the templates style, so you can see,
what you can get ... ;-) In this package is a real template-file which
does not have all this text stuff, only the important \LaTeX-preamble. 


\section{Packages}

There are required packages for the template and some more only for
this doc.


\subsection{Required Packages}

This template needs only the following \LaTeX packages:

\begin{itemize}
\item multicol
\item graphicx
\end{itemize}
\end{multicols}\myColumnSep{0.5cm}\begin{multicols}{2}


\subsection{Other Packages}

There are some more packages used in this documentation, which are
only important for this documentation and therefore not needed if
you write some other stuff.

\begin{itemize}
\item url
\end{itemize}

\subsubsection{Where to get the packages}

First let me say, that I switched to a two-column mode ;-)

\myFigure{0.75}{nihongo.eps}{Japanese in Japanese with a picturewidth
of 75\% of columwidth}

Both packages are often part of a standard \LaTeX-Installation. Otherwise
you can get it at CTAN or any other Tex-mirror:

\myFigure{1.0}{nihongo.eps}{Japanese in Japanese with a picturewidth
of 100\% of columwidth}

\begin{description}
\item [DANTE:]\url{ftp://ftp.dante.de/tex-archive/...}
\item [multicol:]\url{ftp://.../macros/latex/required/tools/multicol.dtx}
\item [graphicx:]\url{ftp://.../macros/latex/required/graphics/graphicx.dtx}
\end{description}

\subsubsection{Installing the packages}

Look at the \LaTeX{} documentation.


\section{The commands}


\subsection{Insert Images}

\verb/\includegraphics/ from the \verb/\graphicx/-Package needs
the eps-Format, so you must transform any other graphic-type. This
is possible with a lot of different programs, e.g. \verb/convert nihongo.gif nihongo.eps/

There are three parameters for the \verb/\myFigure/-command:

\begin{description}
\item [imagewidth]this is a factor, which is multiplied with the columnwidth,
so that \verb/0.75/ gives a picture with a width-size of 75\% of
the colum. The height depends to the choosen width, so that the aspectratio
is a constant value.
\item [imagename]with full path!
\item [imagecaption]if there are special charakters in this caption like
\% it's important, that you don't write this caption-text in tex-mode,
means red. Have a look at the example file!
\end{description}

\subsection{Set Columseparator}

Space between the colums is saved in \verb/\columnsep/ and the command
\verb/myColumnSep/ makes it only a bit easier to change this value.
There is only one parameter:

\begin{description}
\item [columnsep]this must be a value with a valid \LaTeX unit, like cm,
pt, ...
\end{description}
\end{multicols}% if needed, before the end of text, otherwise as last textline


\section{The code}


\subsection{\LaTeX}

\begin{itemize}
\item article.class (may be changed)
\item language english
\end{itemize}

\subsection{\textbackslash{}multicol}

\begin{verbatim}
\usepackage{multicol}
\end{verbatim}
\verb/\begin{multicols}{columns}/ starts the multicol environment
and \verb/\end{multicols}/ ends the environment.


\subsection{\textbackslash{}myFigure}

\begin{verbatim}
\newcounter{myFCounter}[section]
\usepackage{graphicx}
\newcommand{\myFigure}[3]{%
    \begin{center}\begin{minipage}[t]{\columnwidth}%
    \begin{center}\refstepcounter{myFCounter}\vspace{1ex}%
    \includegraphics[width=#1\columnwidth,keepaspectratio]{#2}\ \\%
    \sc Figure \thesection .\arabic{myFCounter}:\ \rm #3 
    \vspace{1ex}\end{center}%
    \end{minipage}\end{center}
}
\end{verbatim}
\verb|myFigure{width1}{path/image.name}{captiontext}|

\begin{description}
\item [\textbackslash{}vspace\{1ex\}]the space above the image (the height
of an lower x)
\item [\textbackslash{}keepaspectratio]can be changed to \textbackslash{}verb/height=\#2/,
if you prefer four parameters, so that you can handle the pictre without
a right aespectratio.
\item [\textbackslash{}sc]Small Caps, can be changed to any other captionstyle
\item [\textbackslash{}thesection]gives the sectionnumber
\item [\textbackslash{}rm]switches to roman style for the captiontext
\end{description}

\subsection{\textbackslash{}myColumnSep}

\begin{verbatim}
\newcommand\myColumnSep[1]{%
  \setlength{\columnsep}{#1}%
}
\end{verbatim}
It's called with 

\begin{verbatim}
\myColumnSep{3cm}
\end{verbatim}
The value must have a valid unit.
\end{document}