CSS: Placing divs left/center/right inside header - css

Question

I've been trying to create a site with the following structure:
But I can't seem to get the header correct (e1 left, e2 centered, e3 right). I want the three elements e1, e2 and e3 to be left, middle and right positioned. This is what I'm trying:
<div id="wrapper">
<div id="header">
<div id="header-e1">
1
</div>
<div id="header-e2">
2
</div>
<div id="header-e3">
3
</div>
</div>
<div id="nav">
links
</div>
<div id="content">
content
</div>
<div id="footer">
footer
</div>
</div>
With this css:
#wrapper
{
width: 95%;
margin: 20px auto;
border: 1px solid black;
}
#header
{
margin: 5px;
}
#header-e1
{
float: left;
border: 1px solid black;
}
#header-e2
{
float: left;
border: 1px solid black;
}
#header-e3
{
border: 1px solid black;
}
#nav
{
margin: 5px;
}
#content
{
margin: 5px;
}
#footer
{
margin: 5px;
}
Can someone give me tips to what I can do? The structure is going to be used on a mobile website.
UPDATE
The code I have above gives me this:
But I want the 2 centered and the 3 on the right side. I don't want to set the width to a percent because the content in the elements may vary, meaning it may be 20/60/20 - 10/80/10 - 33/33/33 or something else.

Answer 1

Utilize the Magic of Overflow: Hidden
If you can swap the html position of 2 & 3 like so:
<div id="header-e1">
1 is wider
</div>
<div id="header-e3">
3 is also
</div>
<div id="header-e2">
2 conforms
</div>
Then you can set this css which will cause 2 to "fill" the available space because of the overlow: hidden on it. So if 1 & 3 expand, 2 narrows (shrink window down to see what happens at really small size).
#header-e1 {float: left;}
#header-e2 {overflow: hidden;}
#header-e3 {float: right;}
Technically, you could keep your current html order and your float: left on both 1 & 2 and make 3 the flex div with overflow: hidden. You could do the same with 1 by reversing the order of the html completely and setting 2 & 3 to float: right with 1 having overflow: hidden. To me it would seem best to have the middle flex, but you know your application better than I.

Answer 2

If you are trying to make the site with a responsive width, you can try the following (33% is roughly one-third):
#header-e1 {
float: left;
width:33%;
border: 1px solid black;
}
#header-e2 {
float: left;
width:33%;
border: 1px solid black;
}
#header-e3 {
float: left;
width:33%;
border: 1px solid black;
}
You could also used fixed widths for the divs. If you want the further from each other you can play with their left/right margins etc. Hope that helps!
Here is an edit for no widths:
#wrapper {
position:relative; (add to wrapper)
}
#header-e1 {
position:absolute;
left:0;
border:1px solid black;
}
#header-e2 {
position:absolute;
left:50%;
border:1px solid black;
}
#header-e3 {
position:absolute;
right:0;
border: 1px solid black;
}

Answer 3

You need to give the divs in your header a width, and float header-e3 left.
Note: They all have the same CSS properties, so just give them the same class like .headerDivs and then you don't have repeating code
Edit: here is a working jsfiddle: http://jsfiddle.net/eNDPG/

Answer 4

I'm using a similar idea to what RevCocnept suggested with the width: 33%, except using display: inline-block instead of float: left. This is to avoid removing the div elements inside #header from the flow of the page and causing the height of #header to become zero.
#header > div {
display: inline-block;
width: 31%;
margin: 5px 1%;
}
Demo

Answer 5

You can do something like this:
HTML
<div>
<div id="left">Left</div>
<div id="right">Right</div>
<div id="center">Center</div>
</div>
CSS
#left {
float: left;
border: 1px solid red;
}
#right {
float: right;
border: 1px solid blue;
}
#center {
margin-left: 50px;
margin-right: 50px;
border: 1px solid green;
text-align: center;
}
The centered <div> must come as the last one in the HTML code.
Here's a JS Bin to test: http://jsbin.com/evagat/2/edit

Answer 6

<style type="text/css">
body {
margin:0;
}
#header {
width:100%;
**strong text**margin:auto;
height:10%;
background-color:red;
}
#left {
width:20%;
float:left;
#margin:auto auto auto auto;
height:100%;
background-color:blue;
}
#right {
float:right;
width:20%;
#margin:auto auto auto auto;
height:100%;
background-color:green;
}
#middle {
position:relative;
left:0;
right:0;
margin:auto;
height:80%;
background-color:yellow;
width:100%;
}
#middle1 {
width: 80%;
margin:auto;
height:45%;
background-color:black;
}
#middle2 {
width: 80%;
margin:auto;
height:40%;
background-color:brown;
}
#middle3 {
width: 80%;
margin:auto;
height:15%;
background-color:orange;
}
#midmain {
width: auto;
margin:auto;
height:100%;
background-color:white;
}
#footer {
width:100%;
margin:auto;
height:10%;
background-color:red;
}
</style>
now check comment for html design.