OK issue solved, although you might only have some data sources set to display in the html map, they all count regarding order even though the multiple columns seems to only apply to the html map.
In my case I have 8 active data sources but only three set to show on the html map. To get one visible data source in each of three columns I need to set their order to be 1, 5 and 8. If I set them as I originally thought, the three visible ones set to order 1,2,and 3 I only get two columns with two items in the first.
Works well now and responsive for mobile devices.