Customer Account Registration Form

Question

I am relatively new to magento. I would like to place customer account registration page in two columns. Preferably, left side with First Name, Last Name, Email and password. Right Side, Address Fields.

I could find below code from layout/customer.xml for RWD theme.

Customer Account Registration Form

    <reference name="root">
        <action method="setTemplate"><template>page/1column.phtml</template></action>
    </reference>
    <reference name="content">
        <block type="customer/form_register" name="customer_form_register" template="customer/form/register.phtml">
            <block type="page/html_wrapper" name="customer.form.register.fields.before" as="form_fields_before" translate="label">
                <label>Form Fields Before</label>
            </block>
        </block>
    </reference>
</customer_account_create>

Is it possible to make changes to above code and split the forms into two columns?

Thank you

Answer 1

You cannot split the form into 2 columns via the layout xml. The term "columns" has a different meaning it Magento. A column acts like a container for the elements inside it and you need all the fields to be in the same container because they should be wrapped in a form.
But what you can do is to edit the template customer/form/register.phtml and change the markup to fit your needs. Copy the file from app/design/frontend/base/default/template/customer/form/register.phtml to your theme app/design/frontend/{package}/{theme}/template/customer/form/register.phtmlkeeping the same path and work your magic in the clone.