Assessment on how to ...

[eluser]John_Betong[/eluser]
[quote author="Ryann" date="1224672001"]another thing, do i have to put the views into a public array in the controller? so when i load the view i'll just call the array variable?[/quote]
 
Take a look at the way I do it with Message:4
 
http://ellislab.com/forums/viewthread/90724/
 
You mentioned stacking of the partial views so I think your problem is with HTML/CSS
 
Try this in your view

Code:

...
   ...
   ...
  
    <div style='clear:both; width:90%; margin:1em auto; border:dotted'>

      <div style='width:12%; float:left; border:dotted'>
        <br />This is where your menu goes
        <br />menu item : 1  
        <br />menu item : 2  
        <br />menu item : 3  
        <br />menu item : 4
     </div>
  
      <div style='width:80%; float:right; border:dotted'>
        &lt;?= $content ?&gt;
      </div>

    </div>  
   ...
   ...
   ...

 
 
Try Google with "CSS two-column layouts"