How to position two divs horizontally within another div - css

I haven't played with CSS for too long a time and am without references at the moment. My question should be fairly easy but googling isn't bringing up a sufficient answer. So, adding to the collective knowledge...
|#header---------------------------------------------------------------|
| TITLE |
|#sub-title------------------------------------------------------------|
|bread > crumb | username logout |
|#sub-left | #sub-right|
|---------------------------------|------------------------------------|
That's what I'm wanting my layout to be. The heading anyways. I wanted sub-title to contain sub-left AND sub-right. What css rules do I use to ensure a div is bound by the attributes of another div. In this case, how do I ensure that sub-left and sub-right stay within sub-title?

Its quite a common misconception that you need a clear:both div at the bottom, when you really don't. While foxy's answer is correct, you don't need that non-semantic, useless clearing div. All you need to do is stick an overflow:hidden onto the container:
#sub-title { overflow:hidden; }

When you float sub-left and sub-right they no longer take up any space within sub-title. You need to add another div with style = "clear: both" beneath them to expand the containing div or they appear below it.
HTML:
<div id="sub-title">
<div id="sub-left">
sub-left
</div>
<div id="sub-right">
sub-right
</div>
<div class="clear-both"></div>
</div>
CSS:
#sub-left {
float: left;
}
#sub-right {
float: right;
}
.clear-both {
clear: both;
}

This should do what you are looking for:
<html>
<head>
<style type="text/css">
#header {
text-align: center;
}
#wrapper {
margin:0 auto;
width:600px;
}
#submain {
margin:0 auto;
width:600px;
}
#sub-left {
float:left;
width:300px;
}
#sub-right {
float:right;
width:240px;
text-align: right;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<div id="wrapper">
<div id="header"><h1>Head</h1></div>
<div id="sub-main">
<div id="sub-left">
Right
</div>
<div id="sub-right">
Left
</div>
</div>
</div>
</body>
</html>
And you can control the entire document with the wrapper class, or just the two columns with the sub-main class.

I agree with Darko Z on applying "overflow: hidden" to #sub-title. However, it should be mentioned that the overflow:hidden method of clearing floats does not work with IE6 unless you have a specified width or height. Or, if you don't want to specify a width or height, you can use "zoom: 1":
#sub-title { overflow:hidden; zoom: 1; }

This answer adds to the solutions above to address your last sentence that reads:
how do I ensure that sub-left and sub-right stay within sub-title
The problem is that as the content of sub-left or sub-right expands they will extend below sub-title. This behaviour is designed into CSS but does cause problems for most of us. The easiest solution is to have a div that is styled with the CSS Clear declaration.
To do this include a CSS statement to define a closing div (can be Clear Left or RIght rather than both, depending on what Float declarations have been used:
#sub_close {clear:both;}
And the HTML becomes:
<div id="sub-title">
<div id="sub-left">Right</div>
<div id="sub-right">Left</div>
<div id="sub-close"></div>
</div>
Sorry, just realized this was posted previously, shouldn't have made that cup of coffee while typing my reply!
#Darko Z: you are right, the best description for the overflow:auto (or overflow:hidden) solution that I have found was in a a post on SitePoint a while ago Simple Clearing of FLoats and there is also a good description in a 456bereastreet article CSS Tips and Tricks Part-2. Have to admit to being too lazy to implement these solutions myself, as the closing div cludge works OK although it is of course very inelegant. So will make an effort from now on to clean up my act.

Seriously try some of these, you can choose fixed width or more fluid layouts, the choice is yours! Really easy to implement too.
IronMyers Layouts
CSS Layouts
Layouts Customization Guide
750 Pixel CSS Layouts
950 Pixel CSS Layouts
100 Percent CSS Layouts
more more more
Layout Gala CSS Layouts
Glish CSS Layouts
Code Sucks CSS Layouts
Max Design CSS Layouts
CSS Play CSS Layouts

You can also achieve this using a CSS Grids framework, such as YUI Grids or Blue Print CSS. They solve alot of the cross browser issues and make more sophisticated column layouts possible for use mere mortals.

Best and simple approach with css3
#subtitle{
/*for webkit browsers*/
display:-webkit-box;
-webkit-box-align:center;
-webkit-box-pack: center;
width:100%;
}
#subleft,#subright{
width:50%;
}

Something like this perhaps...
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">
<html>
<head>
<style>
#container
{
width:600px;
}
#head, #sub-title
{
width:100%;
}
#sub-left, #sub-right
{
width:50%;
float:left;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<div id="container">
<div id="head">
#head
</div>
<div id="sub-title">
#sub-title
<div id="sub-left">
#sub-left
</div>
<div id="sub-right">
#sub-right
</div>
</div>
</div>
</body>
</html>

#sub-left, #sub-right
{
display: inline-block;
}

Via Bootstrap Grid, you can easily get the cross browser compatible solution.
<div class="container">
<div class="row">
<div class="col-sm-6" style="background-color:lavender;">
Div1
</div>
<div class="col-sm-6" style="background-color:lavenderblush;">
Div2
</div>
</div>
</div>
jsfiddle: http://jsfiddle.net/DTcHh/4197/

You do it like this:
<table>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">TITLE</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>subleft</td><td>subright</td>
</tr>
</table>
EASY - took me 1 minute to type it.
Remember the CSS file needs to be downloaded to the client, so don't worry about the waffle about extra tags, its irrelavent in this instance.

Related

3 column, fixed header, sidebars fixed, content scrollable

Can anyone assist me with the following div layout? I have tried a couple of solutions, however, the only way i have been able to accomplish this is using tables.
I had a look at Holy Grail 3 Column Layout, however, this layoyt is not 100% height, and header is not fixed, i also need only the content to scroll, the sidebars needs to be fixed 100% height
It seems the answers here ignored most of your requirements. I stumbled upon this because I am having a rendering issue with the same layout you are after. I forked the fiddle above to show you:
http://jsfiddle.net/RsRf9/2/
The major difference is that the entire body is scrollable, not just the tiny area in the center (I think this is what you are after).
Aside from cleaning up styles that weren't doing anything (like floats while position fixed), the major change is to the center col - all you should need is this:
.center{margin:100px 200px;}
The other change is how you get that "height 100%" effect on your sidebars - my trick is to do this:
.left,.right{width:200px;top: 100px; bottom: 0px;position: fixed;}
Instead of height 100%, I simply tell it to stretch from top 100 (the bottom of the nav) to bottom 0 (the bottom of the page)
That will push the content bellow the top nav and in between your two fixed side bars.
I have created a working fiddle as per your requirements:
Here is working fiddle - UPDATED to include fixed header ONLY TOP BAR IS FIXED
The important thing to note is the structural layout of the divs... notice that the .center is AFTER the .right
<div class='wrap'>
<div class='head'>Header</div>
<div class='bodywrap'>
<div class='left'>left</div>
<div class='right'>right</div>
<div class='center'>center center center center center center center center center center center center ... blah</div>
</div>
</div>
and the css is:
JUST HEADER FIXED:
html,body{height:100%}
.wrap{width:100%;height:100%;position:relative}
.head{height:100px;position:fixed;top:0;left:0;width:100%} << UPDATED for fixed header
.bodywrap{margin-top:100px;width:102%;margin-left:-1%} << UPDATED - Terrible hack and you may find something more elegant
.left,.right{width:200px;height:100%}
.left,.center,.right,.bodywrap{height:100%}
.left{float:left;}
.center{margin-left:200px; overflow:scroll; overflow-x:hidden;}
.right{float:right;}
.left{background-color:#aaa}
.right{background-color:#ccc}
.center{background-color:#444}
.head{background-color:#777}
HEADER AND SIDEBARS FIXED (Also was able to fix dirty hack for .left and .right undersizing
html,body{height:100%}
.wrap{width:100%;height:100%;position:relative}
.head{height:100px;position:fixed;top:0;left:0;width:100%}
.bodywrap{margin-top:100px;margin-left:-8px}
.left,.right{width:200px;height:100%}
.left,.center,.right,.bodywrap{height:100%}
.left{float:left;position:fixed}
.center{margin-left:200px; overflow:scroll; overflow-x:hidden;margin-right:191px}
.right{position:fixed;right:0}
.left{background-color:#aaa}
.right{background-color:#ccc}
.center{background-color:#444}
.head{background-color:#777}
Here is with top and sides fixed center scroll liquid center column (and no gaps on .left and .right)
It's basic use of floats but the structural markup layout is key ;)
I use the YUI grids style sheet for this kind of layout. It is tried and tested and works in multiple browsers.
This is actually quite easy to do in a rudimentary sense, you don't need tables (or table-cell) but mixing px and % sizes can be problematic. If you stick to % your page will resize better anyway. Handling the cross browser issues takes a bit more CSS tweaking, but there are plenty of grid solutions out there that implement tried and tested solutions even for IE6 and frameworks like twitter's bootstrap will offer a lot more on top.
In other words, this is a solved problem, but here's a quick example of how you can get there by hand;
<div class="container">
<div class="header">
header
</div>
<div class="left">
left
</div>
<div class="main">
content
</div>
<div class="right">
right
</div>
</div>
And the CSS;
html, body, .container
{
height:100%;
}
.container
{
background-color: pink;
}
.header
{
background-color: yellow;
height:50px;
}
.left
{
background-color: red;
float:left;
width:10%;
height:100%;
overflow: hidden;
}
.right
{
background-color: blue;
float:left;
width:10%;
height:100%;
overflow: hidden;
}
.main
{
background-color:#fefefe;
float:left;
height:100%;
width: 80%;
overflow-y:scroll;
}
And of course the Fiddle
Using % sizing will also allow you to approach a more responsive design that works for tablet and mobile. Again, many of the grid frameworks out there are 'responsive' in design.
You can use scrollToFixed plugin for left-sidebar and right-sidebar fixed and center column content only scroll up side and downside.
For demo scroll use below link
http://bigspotteddog.github.io/ScrollToFixed/
And one more thing use Bootstrap for design UI.
Include Bootstrap CSS and JavaScript in your page header part
<div class="container">
<div class="col-md-12">
<div class="col-md-3" id="left-sidebar">
left-content
<div>
<div class="col-md-6" id="center">
center content
</div>
<div class="col-md-3" id="right-sidebar">
right-content
</div>
</div>
</div>
You can modify as per your requirement. I just give you general hint.
Just write below script for scrolling
$(document).ready(function(){
$('#right-sidebar').scrollToFixed({
marginTop: function() {
return 5;
},
limit: function() {
return (
$('#footer-widgets-bg').offset().top - $('#right-sidebar').outerHeight(true)
);
},
zIndex: 1,
removeOffsets: true
});
});

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).

Centered wrapper in full width divs

I found this thread on here which answers my question. I want to ask a question relating to this thread, but I'm not sure how to comment on the thread...excuse my ignorance :)
I followed the instructions of the ticked answer and it worked. Then in my content div I want three divs, but when I float one left...my background-color ont he content div won't stretch. So it looks something like:
html:
<div id="content">
<div class="wrapper">
<div id="content1></div>
<div id="content2></div>
<div id="content3></div>
</div>
</div>
CSS:
#content 1 {
width:300px;
float:left;
}
#content 2 {
width:300px;
float:left;
}
#content 3 {
width:300px;
float:right;
}
I will probably have to link you guys to the site before youc an understand what I'm waffling about. But it's not online yet so I just thought someone might be aware of an issue with floating divs left or right when using this wrapper class technique?
Colm
I ask only because you didn't mention it, but did you clear your floats after the floating divs? Make sure you do like this:
<div style="clear: both;"></div>
or you could put:
overflow: hidden; width: 100%;
in the style attribute of your wrapping div.
Try these options and see if they work for you.

CSS Appropriate Way to Center Content

I prefer working with CSS based design, but as more of a back end coder my CSS skills are a bit weak. When I get involved with layout, I tend to fall back on table based formatting because my mind has been warped by years of table based abuse. There's one particular problem that I always trip over. What is the best CSS alternative to:
<table width="100%">
<tr>
<td align="center">
content goes here
</td>
</tr>
</table>
I sometimes use:
<div style="width:100%; text-align:center">content</div>
But this doesn't seem quite right. I'm not trying to align text, I'm trying to align content. Also, this seems to have an effect on the text alignment of enclosed elements, which requires tweaking to fix. One thing I don't get is: why isn't there a float:center style? It seems like that would be the best solution. Hopefully, I'm missing something and there is a perfect CSS way to do this.
You are right that text-align is intended for aligning text. It's actually only Internet Explorer that lets you center anything other than text with it. Any other browser handles this correctly and doesn't let block elements be affected by text-align.
To center block elements using css you use margin: 0 auto; just as Joe Philllips suggested. Although you don't need to keep the table at all.
The reason that there is no float: center; is that floating is intended to place elements (typically images) either to the left or the right and have text flow around them. Floating something in the center doesn't make sense in this context as that would mean that the text would have to flow on both sides of the element.
I would recommend putting a <div> into your <td> and setting the style attribute to style="width: 200px; margin: 0 auto;"
The catch is that you must set a fixed width.
Edit:
After looking at the question again, I would recommend scrapping the table entirely. Just use a <div style="width: 200px; margin: 0 auto;> as I suggested and no need for a table.
Here is a good resource for centering using CSS.
http://www.w3.org/Style/Examples/007/center
This demonstrates how to center text, blocks, images and how to center them vertically.
Where do you find yourself commonly doing this? For me - I am most often trying to center the entire design of the site, so I usually do this:
<html>
<body>
<div id="wrapper">
<div id="header">
</div>
<div id="content">
</div>
<div id="footer">
</div>
</div>
</body>
</html>
body {text-align:center;}
#wrapper {margin:0 auto; text-align:left; width:980px;}
This will center the entire design on the page at 980px width, while still leaving all of your text left aligned (as long as that text is within the #wrapper element).
Use display:inline-block to enable text-align:center and center content without a fixed width:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<title>Centering</title>
<style type="text/css">
.container { text-align:center; }
/* Percentage width */
.wrapper { width: 99%; }
/* Use inline-block for wrapper */
.wrapper { display: inline-block; }
/* Use inline for content */
.content { display:inline; }
</style>
</head>
<body>
<div class="container">
<div class="content">
<div class="wrapper">
<div>abc</div>
<div>xyz</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</body>
</html>
d03boy's answer is correct for the right way to center things.
To answer your other comment, "Also, this seems to have an effect on the text alignment of enclosed elements, which requires tweaking to fix." That's the nature of how CSS works, setting a property on an element affects all of its children, unless the property is overridden by one of them (assuming the property is one that is inherited, of course).

Slicing a psd with div+css

I'm slicing a psd, and there is a part of the screen that will repeat with as many items as it needs, similar to the question list of stackoverflow.
It needs to have this structure:
Is it possible? How should the css be?
Thanks!
You could try the following:
<style type="text/css">
#container {
width:60%;
}
#content {
width:100%;
}
#user-content {
float:left;
}
</style>
<div id="container">
<div id="content">
<div id="user-content">
<p>This can change depending on what is in here.</p>
</div>
<!-- The rest of the page's content goes here. -->
</div>
</div>
This makes the "content" div fill the rest of the space that "user-content" doesn't fill. It will only be an issue when your content is taller than the user content... but that's a different problem :)
This is another possiblity:
<style type="text/css">
#container {
width:60%;
}
#content {
width:100%;
float:left;
}
#user-content {
float:left;
}
#page-content {
float:left;
}
</style>
<div id="container">
<div id="content">
<div id="user-content">
<p>This can change depending on what is in here.</p>
</div>
<div id="page-content">
<p>This should take up the rest of the space.</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
The problem lies in your left div where you state "width can increase depending on the content". How is this width defined? The div to the right can expand to 100% of the remaining space but you must define the relationship between the left and the right divs by either providing a fixed width to the left div or providing a percentage to both that equals 100%.
Well, as you’ve probably seen, so.com used fixed width div’s to achieve your layout goal.
Obviously my first tries setting the width automatically failed, but maybe I’ve a useful workaround for you: use left and right floating of both boxes.
<div style="border: 1px solid #000000; width: 60%">
<div style="border: 1px solid #444444; float: left;">
some text
</div>
<div style="border: 1px solid #999999; float: right;">
foo
</div>
</div>
Of course this will only help if I understood your question correctly ;)
As far as I know the only way to give your variable width container a variable width and float it to the left is to give it {width:auto;float:left;}
But I don't know if you can do anything useful with this because if you have text or a lot of small fixed width items to put in this container, they will keep expanding out along the first line until they've filled the width of the outer div before going on to the second line. They won't fill up the whole height and then push outward gradually as the text gets too much to contain.
Just a thought - you might be able to do some nifty JavaScript (possibly using jQuery?) which sizes those divs like you need them.

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