Disclaimer: I have no experience with HTML::Template, but I thought I would bring up that generally the best way to try to divide things into even columns, IMHO, is to use the mod operator. You probably can't do someting like this in HTML::Template, but I thought it might be useful to someone. Here it is with dreaded HEREDOCs (NOT recommended):

$i=0; #iterator
$n=2; #the number of columns we want

print <<XHTML;
<table>
  <tr>
XHTML

while( grab each record )
{
    $i++;
    print '</tr><tr>' if not $n % $i;

    print <<XHTML;
<td>Record Goes Here</td>
XHTML

}

print <<XHTML;
  </tr>
</table>
XHTML
[download]