##usage instructions:
##take the list that you want to format with multiple columns
##add the number of columns you want to end up with as the first line
##select the whole shebang and copy to the clipboard
##run script
##your clipboard now contains your list formatted as a dtext table with the desired number of columns
##entries go left to right then down a line

import pyperclip as clip
instring = clip.paste()
inlist = instring.splitlines()
inlist[:] = [s.strip() for s in inlist]
cols = int(inlist[0])
outlist = []
outlist.append('[table] ')
for x in range(1,cols):
    outlist.append('| ')
outlist.append('\n')
for x in range(1,len(inlist)):
    outlist.append(inlist[x])
    if (cols-1) == ((x-1)%cols):
        outlist.append('\n')
    else:
        outlist.append(' | ')
if outlist[-1] == ' | ':
    outlist[-1] = '\n'
outlist.append('[/table]')
outstr = ''.join(outlist)
clip.copy(outstr)