100% height + floats help.

Scriptdaemon · 05-31-2009, 01:55 AM

I have a three column layout, and I can't quite figure out how to force the columns' heights to reach the bottom of the page so they blend seamlessly with the footer. The footer is stuck to the bottom of the page, and as the content overlaps the viewport the footer follows, but if the content of the page is less than the viewport, the columns don't expand 100% and leave a large gap.

HTML:

Code:

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en-US">
  <head>
    <title>Sciptdaemon</title>
    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="application/xhtml+xml; charset=utf-8" />
    <meta name="description" content="" />
    <meta name="keywords" content="" />
    <meta name="robots" content="index, follow" />
    <link href="favicon.ico" rel="shortcut icon" type="image/x-icon" />
    <link href="style.css" media="screen" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />
  </head>
  <body>
    <div id="container">
      <div id="header">
        <h1>
          <a href="#" title="Back to home">Scriptdaemon</a>
        </h1>
        <!-- Navigation bar start -->
        <div id="navbar">
          <form action="#" id="login" method="post">
            <fieldset>
              <label for="email">Email:</label>
              <input id="email" type="text" />
              <label for="password">Password:</label>
              <input id="password" type="password" />
              <input type="submit" value="Log in" />
            </fieldset>
          </form>
        </div>
        <!-- Navigation bar end -->
      </div>
      <div id="content">
        <div id="colmid">
          <div id="colleft">
            <div id="col1">
            <!-- Middle column start -->
              <h2>To Do</h2>
              <ol>
                <li>[bug] Set 100% column height;</li>
                <li>[feature] Add navigation tabs;</li>
                <li>[feature] Add breadcrumb navigation;</li>
                <li>[feature] Add print stylesheet;</li>
                <li>[feature] Add error pages;</li>
                <li>[feature] Add text-only sitemap;</li>
                <li>[feature] Add extended footer;</li>
                <li>[feature] Add password confirmation script;</li>
                <li>[test] Shorten line lengths to 45-60 characters;</li>
                <li>[test] Adjust page width;</li>
                <li>[test] Add page borders;</li>
              </ol>
              <!-- Middle column end -->
            </div>
            <div id="col2">
              <!-- Right column start -->
              <h2>Header</h2>
              <p>Content</p>
              <!-- Right column end -->
            </div>
            <div id="col3">
              <!-- Left column start -->
              <h2>Header</h2>
              <p>Content</p>
              <!-- Left column end -->
            </div>
          </div>
        </div>
      </div>
      <div id="footer">
        <p>Copyright &copy; 2009 Scriptdaemon</p>
      </div>
    </div>
  </body>
</html>

CSS:

Code:

html,body {
border:0;
font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;
font-size:small;
height:100%;
margin:0;
padding:0
}

body {
min-width:600px;
width:100%
}

h1,h2 {
color:#ffa500;
margin:.8em 0 .2em;
padding:0
}

h1 {
font:1.5em georgia,"times new roman",serif
}

h2 {
font:700 1.25em georgia,"times new roman",serif
}

p {
line-height:1.5;
margin:.4em .6em .8em;
padding:0
}

input {
background:#fff;
border:1px solid #808080;
color:#666;
font-size:.8em;
width:10em
}

input[type="submit"] {
background:#eee;
border:1px solid #000;
color:#666;
width:4.5em
}

img {
border:0
}

a {
color:#ffa500
}

div#container {
height:auto;
margin:0 auto;
min-height:100%;
position:relative
}

div#header {
background:#eee;
border-bottom:6px double #808080;
color:#ffa500;
width:100%
}

div#header h1 {
margin:0;
padding:.4em 15px
}

div#header a {
text-decoration:none
}

div#navbar {
background:#ddd;
border-top:4px solid #000;
color:#000;
font-weight:700;
margin:0;
padding:6px 15px;
text-align:right
}

div#navbar form {
padding:1px 0
}

div#navbar fieldset {
border:0;
padding:0;
margin:0
}

div#content {
background:#eee;
color:#000;
overflow:hidden;
width:100%
}

div#colmid,div#colleft {
float:left;
position:relative;
width:100%
}

div#colmid {
background:#fff;
border-right:2px solid #808080;
color:#666;
right:25%
}

div#colleft {
background:#eee;
border-right:2px solid #808080;
color:#000;
right:50%
}

div#col1,div#col2,div#col3 {
float:left;
overflow:hidden;
padding:0 0 3em;
position:relative
}

div#col1 {
background:#fff;
color:#666;
left:102%;
width:46%
}

div#col2 {
left:31%;
width:21%
}

div#col3 {
left:85%;
width:21%
}

div#footer {
background:#ddd;
border-bottom:4px solid #000;
border-top:6px double #808080;
bottom:0;
color:#666;
position:absolute;
text-align:center;
width:100%
}

div#footer p {
margin:0;
padding:6px 15px
}

abduraooft · 05-31-2009, 11:48 AM

Take a look at http://bonrouge.com/3c-hf-fluid.php

Scriptdaemon · 05-31-2009, 06:32 PM

I've seen ones with background images for the columns to accomplish this before and this one does that too, but is there an imageless way?

Relish · 05-31-2009, 07:02 PM

I don't believe there is a way to do this without the use of background images. Tables could accomplish this, but I do not recommend using them.

However, the link provided only requires one background image, so it's not all that bad.

Scriptdaemon · 05-31-2009, 07:15 PM

If there's no other alternative then I guess I'll be forced to use an image, but if someone can figure out an imageless way, if possible, I'd also appreciate it.

Thank you both.

Relish · 05-31-2009, 07:21 PM

I did find this, but I don't know if it will work correctly as either 100% height or 100% fluid width.

http://undergroundstylez.net/layout_..._ThreeColumns/

Scriptdaemon · 05-31-2009, 07:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Relish

I did find this, but I don't know if it will work correctly as either 100% height or 100% fluid width.

http://undergroundstylez.net/layout_..._ThreeColumns/

The difference with that though is that the footer does not stick to the bottom when there exists little to no content.

Relish · 05-31-2009, 07:40 PM

Yeah. Hmm. You could try min-height: 100%; but I don't know if that will work right with that layout.

_Aerospace_Eng_ · 05-31-2009, 07:42 PM

http://matthewjamestaylor.com/blog/u...ail-pixels.htm

Scriptdaemon · 05-31-2009, 08:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by _Aerospace_Eng_

http://matthewjamestaylor.com/blog/u...ail-pixels.htm

Those footers also do not stick the the bottom. The percentage layout of this page is actually where I got the idea for this to begin with.

Unless you are implying that if I used the pixel layout, what I want to accomplish would work if I implemented the footer I have?

Scriptdaemon · 05-31-2009, 08:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Relish

Yeah. Hmm. You could try min-height: 100%; but I don't know if that will work right with that layout.

I've tried that and quite a few other things and in the end it all just broke the layout (except the image, which is what I didn't really want to have to do), which is why I had to resort to looking for help.

Relish · 05-31-2009, 09:28 PM

Why do you not want to use images?

Scriptdaemon · 05-31-2009, 10:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Relish

Why do you not want to use images?

I wanted to create a basic imageless layout and then go from there when I fill in everything for an actual site.