Sphinx column directive extension コラムディレクティブ拡張 for sphinx-1.5 or earlier. LICENSE: CC BY https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed

conf.py

# -- directive/role definition ------------------------------------------------>

from docutils.parsers.rst.directives.admonitions import BaseAdmonition
from docutils import nodes
from sphinx.util.compat import make_admonition


class NamedNoteDirective(BaseAdmonition):
    node_class = nodes.admonition
    css_class = 'note'
    #required_arguments = 1
    required_arguments = 0
    optional_arguments = 1

    def run(self):
        title = u''
        if self.arguments:
            title += self.arguments[0]

        if 'class' in self.options:
            self.options['class'].append(self.css_class)
        else:
            self.options['class'] = [self.css_class]

        ret = make_admonition(
            nodes.admonition, self.name, [title], self.options,
            self.content, self.lineno, self.content_offset, self.block_text,
            self.state, self.state_machine)
        ret[0].attributes['name'] = self.name
        return ret


class ColumnDirective(NamedNoteDirective):
    css_class = 'column'


def setup(app):
    app.add_stylesheet('custom.css')
    app.add_directive('column', ColumnDirective)

custom.css

div.column {
    background-color: #eee;
    border: 1px solid #ccc;
}

index.txt

.. reStructuredText sample

Sphinx column directive extension: usage
===================================================


.. column:: this is column title

   tihs is column body.

New version for sphinx-1.6 or later is here: https://gist.github.com/shimizukawa/9cd6721cc922776c2167f92d857ea121