[IxDA Discuss] columns of alphabetical checkboxes: across or down?

[Bryan J Busch]

Let's say you've got a few dozen checkboxes and associated labels  
(that the development team insists is the method they're going with  
despite any more elegant proposals). They're ordered alphabetically  
in three columns.

Are people more likely to want to scan for the word they want by  
looking across then down, or down and then across?

They're currently across then down (which, hello, English words do  
that), but it looks funny to me. Maybe it has something to do with  
the spacing. There's considerably more space between columns than  
there is between rows, but that should be the standard, as well.