CSS Layout - Vertical Source Order - css

Is there a common CSS layout technique for controlling the vertical source order of a page?
For example, can I change this...
<container>
<header></header>
<content></content>
<footer></footer>
</container>
...to this...
<container>
<content></content>
<header></header>
<footer></footer>
</container>
...while still having the <header> appear at the top of the page, above the <content>?
In other words, I'd like to apply the techniques used for controlling horizontal source order, such as "One True Layout" and "Holy Grail", to the vertical source order of the page.
This question asks essentially the same thing, but the responders didn't seem to get what was being asked and the asker's solution seems cumbersome.
I might get criticism for micro-optimizing, but Mega Menus and responsive design keep pushing my page content down further and further.

Littlefool's answer works well if you know the height of the block you are moving (if you are swapping two blocks, it's sufficient for either of them to have a fixed height).
However it doesn't help if the blocks all have flexible height. In that case you can try the technique from http://tanalin.com/en/articles/css-block-order/:
<div class="container">
<div class="block-1">1st block</div>
<div class="block-2">2nd block</div>
<div class="block-3">3rd block</div>
</div>
<style>
.container { display: table; width: 100%; }
.block-1 { display: table-footer-group; } /* Will display at the bottom. */
.block-2 { display: table-row-group; } /* Will display in the middle. */
.block-3 { display: table-header-group; } /* Will display at the top. */
</style>
(see demo: http://jsbin.com/etujad/11/edit)
Caveats:
It only works for up to 3 blocks (you may be able to achieve more by nesting).
It doesn't work in IE6/7, and there are some wrinkles in IE8.
Many browsers (except Firefox?) don't allow replaced elements like images to be given these display values (testcase), so you'd have to wrap them in a div and reorder the div instead.
You could either supplement this with JavaScript for old IE, or depending on the design it might be acceptable to just leave the blocks in the wrong order in old IE (note that very few smartphones run old versions of IE, as even Windows Phone 7.5 runs IE9, so this is a good option if you're only swapping the source order on mobile devices).

You cannot alter the source of a page with CSS. You can, to some mild degree, alter the HTML output, but not in this way.
The order of elements in an HTML document has meaning. So typically it won't make sense for your source to have a heading which comes after its related content. It is the order which defines that relationship in many cases.
What you can do is use CSS techniques to lay out these elements visually so that they appear to be in different order.
But their vertical order in HTML should be semantically logical.

You should know that searching for "the holy grail" is quite useless. Although I can understand why you want to have the content section in front. Usually search engines index the pages on the content as they appear in html. Having first a bunch of headers and other things won't do any good.
I haven't had time to look into HTML5 and CSS3 yet, but it is quite possible to alter your layout with only css. I'm a developer so my css and html skills are less then real web producer but you can play around with the position properties in CSS.
<div id="content">this is your content</div>
<div id="header">this is the header</div>
<div id="footer">this is your footer</div>
This html can still show the header tag on top of your page with the following css.
#header
{
height:100px;
width:100%;
background-color:Red;
position:absolute;
top:0;
}
#content
{
margin-top:100px;
height:500px;
background-color:Green;
}
#footer
{
height:100px;
background-color:Blue;
}
I hope it gives you an idea of what is possible. (since you mention HTML5 I suppose you don't need to worry about older browsers but only the latest releases).

You can use the old friend display:table to re order your element.
Lets say this is your source.
<div id="container">
<div id="header"></div>
<div id="content"></div>
<div id="footer"></div>
</div>
In order to reorder try this.
#container{
display: table;
}
#content{
display: table-header-group;
}
#header{
display: table-row-group;
}
#footer{
display: table-footer-group;
}
bam. you got it. Here is the proof of concept. http://jsfiddle.net/k0La8egp/1/

Related

Can I use CSS to reverse the display order of two elements?

This sounds crazy, but bear with me. I'm writing a page that basically consists of the following:
<div id="container">
<div id="child1">...</div>
<div is="child2">...</div>
</div>
I want the page to appear different depending on whether it's being rendered for the screen or for printing, implemented through the magic of media queries. In particular, when printing, I want #child2 to appear on the page before #child1.
Is there any way I can swap their order without resorting to javascript, and preferably without nasty absolute positioning and whatnot?
I should add, "before" in this context means "directly under."
Yes, with flex boxes - http://jsfiddle.net/F8XMk/
#container{
display: flex;
flex-flow: column;
}
#child1{
order: 2;
}
#child2{
order: 1;
}
Newer browser support for flex is pretty good. You could also hack your way through it with negative margins :)
The following code will sort your issue and according to caniuse.com is compatible with all browsers except for IE7 and below.
Full support on CSS table display can be found here
HTML
<div id="container">
<div id="child1">1</div>
<div id="child2">2</div>
</div>
CSS
#child2 {
display:table-header-group;
}
#child1 {
display:table-footer-group;
}
You can achieve this using flex
<div id="container">
<div id="child1">1</div>
<div id="child2">2</div>
</div>
#container {
display: flex;
flex-direction: row-reverse;
}
No, there is no way to do this in pure CSS. CSS focuses on the presentation part, not the structure of the data that is being displayed.
The next best thing that comes to mind is having duplicate content:
<div class="child1 even">...</div>
<div class="child2 odd">...</div>
<div class="child1 odd">...</div>
<div class="child2 even">...</div>
and hiding the odd class in one view, evenin another.
It's not great, and it may come with SEO side-effects in some situations, I'm not sure.
It's the only way that comes to mind that doesn't involve server-side processing or JavaScript, though.

Firefox css table cells don't respond like other browsers with position:absolute

I have been creating a layout system in Javascript for application windows... The Javascript produces the code listed below...
Everything is working really well, except Firefox seems to have different rules for CSS tables than other browsers.
It seems that Webkit browsers set the context for sizing CSS table-cell elements to the nearest relatively/absolutely positioned parent element, just like normal elements, and from this we can treat each cell as a new context for sizing and positioning things absolutely.
Firefox does not appear to do it this way.
Here's sample code:
<div class="header"></div>
<div class='table'>
<div class='row'>
<div class='cell'>
<div class='wrap'>
<div class='pane'>
Content here that is long enough to wrap at the sides. Content here that is long enough to wrap at the sides. Content here that is long enough to wrap at the sides. And still hit the bottom.
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class='cell' style='background-color:orange; width:230px;'>
cell2
</div>
</div>
</div>
and css:
.header {
height: 50px;
width: 100%;
background: blue;
}
.table {
width:100%;
height:200px;
display:table;
}
.row {
display:table-row;
}
.cell {
display:table-cell;
background-color:red;
position:relative;
}
.wrap {
display:block;
position:absolute;
background-color:purple;
width:100%;
height:100%;
}
.pane {
background-color:green;
height:100%;
width:100%;
position:absolute;
}
Which can be viewed here: http://jsfiddle.net/XmUZ7/3/
This viewed in Webkit (Safari/Chrome) vs. Firefox/Mozilla exemplifies the issue.
I've tried adding a .wrap element into the cell but it doesn't seem to help reset the context. Am I thinking of this the wrong way? Other posts on SO seem to imply that the cell or the .wrap needs to be an inline-block, but those also don't seem to work.
Here are some other links related to this:
Positioning context on table-cell element in Firefox
css absolute position inside table-cell: strange Firefox display
CSS Positioning Absolute within table cells not working in Firefox
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=203225
At this point I am considering not supporting firefox because I've spent so many hours trying to fix it. But this seems silly because everything else is working well across browsers except for basic layout!
It feels like either there is a magic bullet I'm missing or that Firefox has deep design issues that will not allow this.
I think JSFiddle has gotten around this issue by using iframes and no tables at all in its layout, but it does imply there are bugs being avoided.
Your basic issue is that specifying position: relative on a table cell in Gecko does not make the cell a containing block for absolutely positioned kids. See https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=63895
The spec's take on this is at http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS21/visuren.html#choose-position:
The effect of 'position:relative' on table-row-group,
table-header-group, table-footer-group, table-row,
table-column-group, table-column, table-cell, and table-caption
elements is undefined.
What you want to do in the short term is put your position:relative on a block inside the cell (e.g. your "wrap" block).
Yes, that is exactly the issue. It should be defined!
So, is it decided that the Gecko renderer will not reset the sizing context for children of tables (IE the meaningful bits, like cells, who may want to request 100% of width and height) like other renderers?
It seems like cells should be a sovereign space for new sizing...

side by side <div> and site centering

I'm trying to convert my site from using tables to just using css and divs but I'm running into a lot of problems with trying to figure how to exactly do it, I've been looking for tutorials on centering a site with css and how to put divs side by side but I can't really find one that does both and I keep getting confused by how to exactly achieve this, I asked around a bit and I got told to use absolute positioning but still I can't really wrap my head around this.
So basically how would I arrange the 2 central div side by side while keeping the whole thing centered in the browser? The following image is the layout I'm trying to achieve:
the blue boxes are eventual other stuff I might want to put in them, such as a blog requiring again the use of side by side divs.
right now I have the following layout:
<div id="wrap">
<div id="banner"> banner </div>
<div id="navbar"> navigation links </div>
<div id="body"> stuff </div>
<div id="footer"> stuff </div>
</div>
General idea: http://jsfiddle.net/JjbJE/
A little specific but provide you a great adventure to learn HTML | CSS : http://jsfiddle.net/JjbJE/3/
float:left|right this property does the side by side trick
clear:both this property clear away the float property
Other things are pretty easy to learn, just head to W3Schools
First you need a main container to center everything. Then two separate divs. See the HTML below:
<div id="main">
<div class="box">Left Box</div>
<div class="box">Right Box</div>
<div class="clear"></div>
</div>
Here is the CSS you will need:
#main{
width:960px;
margin:0 auto;
}
.box{
width:450px;
float:left;
border:solid 1px #000000;
}
.clear{
clear:both;
}
Hope that helps.
Here's my general overview on converting to a CSS based layout - if you have a table based layout, this is a good plan - in the end you can do more, Google will like you more, and it's much cooler.
My strategy is to look at all the groups of things on your page. Whatever needs to go into a group together, put inside a div. Assign this div a class and/or id to style it. If the divs are grouped, put them together in a div too.
In your case, you have two chunks of content to group inside of divs. Style them to be the size and shape you like, background, border, whatever is needed. Then group them together in an additional div, and center it. This and the rest of the page content can go inside a container div, which will determine the width of the page, how it's aligned, etc.
One possibility is to have a centered wrapper class and contain the divisons inside of that:
<div class="wrapper">
<header></header>
<div id="middle">
<div class="main-article clearfix"></div>
<aside></aside>
</div>
<footer></footer>
</div>
Then to style, center the wrapper, float the aside and main-article:
.wrapper { width: 1024px; margin: 0 auto; /* the auto centers it */ }
header, footer, aside, { display: block; }
.main-article { width: 50%; float: right; }
aside { width: 50%; float: left; }
.clearfix:before, .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; }
.clearfix:after { clear: both; }
.clearfix { *zoom: 1; }
Note: This is untested, and uses the clearfix from the HTML5 Boilerplate.
Update 01.22.2014: This "Holy Grail Layout" has ben solved by Flexbox. Check out Solved By Flexbox for more information on recreating this layout (and many more).

google wave css layout

how can one create a css layout as seen on google wave that resizes automatically according to window size without the need for scrolling (apart from the specific elements on each page which are using scrollbars) with each div positioned in a similar fashion as seen on the website? i really love this interface and have been trying to create it on dreamweaver (web programming is a hobby) without using tables as practice.
i am learning css from scratch.
i have included an image for reference.
many thanks!
The columns can be achieved using CSS floats. Simply create three div tags and apply float: left and assign a width to each one.
The 100% height can be achieved through CSS, but in Wave's case javascript is probably being used. The particular logic depends on the site's design, since you need to take into account other elements on the page, such as a header bar.
If you were interested, you could use Firebug/Developer console to inspect how Google Wave's basic layout is setup tag-wise. One wrapper div, 3 column divs, and a div or two within each column for the panels.
I made a lil example about how you could try to start achieving that kind of layout: http://jsfiddle.net/steweb/A77gy/
Working with widths is pretty simple because you set floating columns, % widths/margins and opla' you get the fluid width layout.
Working with heights is very hard I think, because if you want a 'fluid' behavior that also affects heights, without using abs positioning (good for setting % height, but you lose the % width powerful), you should do something with JS too (even if I would avoid to do something that concerns the pure layout by JS) - I apologize for this complicated sentence :D.
By dealing with this kinds of layout 'problems' you will also notice that some browsers (...IE?...) sometimes behave in a weird way... so you will need some kinds of tricks to make everything working in EVERY browser (this is the main challenge IMO)
markup:
<div id="header">
link 1
|
link 2
|
link 3
|
link 4
<!-- or a <ul> -->
</div>
<div class="column" id="first-column">
<div class="window" id="window-1"></div>
<div class="window" id="window-2"></div>
</div>
<div class="column" id="second-column">
<div class="window" id="window-3"></div>
</div>
<div class="column" id="third-column">
<div class="window" id="window-4"></div>
</div>
css:
body, html{
height:100%;
}
#header{
width:100%;
height:30px;
background:black;
}
.column{
float:left;
margin:1%
}
#first-column{
width:10%;
}
#second-column{
width:30%;
}
#third-column{
width:50%;
}
.window{
-webkit-border-radius: 5px;
-moz-border-radius: 5px;
border-radius: 5px;
border:1px solid #CECECE;
width:100%;
}
#window-1{
height:100px;
}
#window-2{
margin-top:10px;
height:200px;
}
#window-3{
height:310px;
}
#window-4{
height:310px;
}

CSS Page-Break Not Working in all Browsers

I'm having trouble getting this working in most browsers, except for IE (it even works correctly in IE6) and Opera.
Firefox separates the divs correctly but only prints the first page.
Chrome and Safari only applies the page break to the last div.
How can I get this working across all browsers correctly?
The HTML:
<div id="leftNav">
<ul>
<!--links etc-->
</ul>
</div>
<div id="mainBody">
<div id="container">
<div class="pageBreak">
<!--content-->
</div>
<div class="pageBreak">
<!--content-->
</div>
<div class="pageBreak">
<!--content-->
</div>
</div>
</div>
The divs with the IDs #leftNav and #mainBody are are set to float:left, so they display nicely.
I only want to print the .pageBreak classes, hiding the #leftNav and the rest of the #mainBody with CSS.
The CSS:
#media print
{
#leftNav
{
display:none;
}
#mainBody
{
border:none;
margin:none;
padding:none;
}
}
Parent elements can not have float on them.
Setting float:none on all parent elements makes page-break-before:always work correctly.
Other things that can break page-break are:
using page-break inside tables
floating elements
inline-block elements
block elements with borders
For the sake of completion, and for the benefit of others who are having the same problem, I just want to add that I also had to add overflow: visible to the body tag in order for FireFox to obey the page breaks and even to print more than just the first page.
I've found that Twitter Bootstrap classes add a bunch of stuff to the page which has made it difficult to get page-breaks working. Firefox worked right away, but I've had to follow various suggestions to get it to work in Chrome and, finally, IE (11).
I followed the suggestions here and elsewhere. The only property I "discovered" that I haven't seen yet mentioned is "box-sizing". Bootstrap can set this property to "box-sizing: border-box", which broke IE. An IE-friendly setting is "box-sizing: content-box". I was led to this by the caveat about "block elements with borders" made by Richard Parnaby-King https://stackoverflow.com/a/5314590/3397752.
It looks like it's a bit of an arms race to discover the next property that might break page-breaks.
This is the setting that worked for me (Chrome, FF, IE 11). Basically, it tries to override all the problematic settings on all divs on the printed page. Of course, this might also break your formatting, and that would mean that you'll have to find another way to set up the page.
#media print {
div { float: none !important; position: static !important; display: inline;
box-sizing: content-box !important;
}
}
There is a solution if the parent has float . For the element to which you applied the page-break, make the element overflow:hidden. Thats all. It worked for me.
<div style='float:left'>
<p style='overflow:hidden;page-break-before:always;'></p>
</div>
Although this is not prominently documented, it should be noted that the page-break properties cannot be applied to table elements. If you have any elements that have a display: table; or display:table-cell; applied to them (common in many templates under the clearfix class) then contained elements will ignore the page-break rules. Just cancel out the the rule in your print stylesheet and you should be OK (after the floats have also been removed, of course).
Here is an example of how to do this for the popular clearfix problem.
.clearfix:before, .clearfix:after{
display: block!important;
}
The other place I have run into this is when the template declared the entire page (usually called main or main wrapper) with display:inline-block;
If the section is inside of an inline-block, it will not work so keep your eyes open for those as well. Changing or overwriting display:inline-block; with display:block should work.
I had a position: absolute; in the div printing that caused this not to work.
Make sure the parent element has display:block; rather than display: flex;. This helped me fix the issue
"Firefox versions up to and including 3.5 don’t support the avoid, left, or right values."
IE support is also partial
you can achieve what needed by :page-break-before:always; which is supported in all browsers
"but only print the first page" : I don't think it is css related , I suppose it's sth on print window of browser :)
what's your code?
like this?:
<style>
#media print
{
table {page-break-after:always}
}
#media print
{
table {page-break-before:always}
}
</style>

Resources