Columns Do Not Work

After downloading and installing Magazine columns the folder is sitting in the WordPress plugins directory. I used ForFTP to make it happen. With the unzipped file folder in the location it is in, it either doesn’t work, or I don’t know how to use it. Is there a simple way to test WordPress to know if you have Magazine installed correctly for making 1 to 5 columns and if it is working? Do I need to buy a theme or will wordpress and your magazine plugin apply two columns on every page? Could I cut and paste float CSS codes into the frontpage in wordpress to get columns or does it restrict stuff. I am not learning the connections, but I will keep trying.

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/magazine-columns/