Positioning within divs

[cesarcesar]

Hello all. Lets see if i can explain this. I will start from the inside out.

 

div.Data holds dynamic copy. It lives and is incorrectly spilling out the bottom of div.SiteContainer. Why is this? Shouldn't the container div stretch to fit the data within it? I know that by removing the position:absolute; in div.Data it works but i need to position the div.

 

Another issue is that div.PageFooter is incorrectly positioning. I want it directly below div.Data inside of div.SiteContainer.

 

You can find the example here, http://www.tlcgiftsandbaskets.com/demo/position.htm. This code is stripped from the home page of the URL if you want the whole thing.

 

<style type="text/css" title="">
body{ 
margin:0px; 
text-align: center;
}

div.SiteContainer{ /* centers to the page.*/
position: absolute;
z-index:1;
width: 960px; 
left: 50%;  
margin-left: -480px;
border: 1px solid green; 
}

div.Data{
position: absolute; 
z-index:2; 
width: 600px; 
top:100px; 
left:100px;
border:1px solid yellow;
}

div.PageFooter{ border:1px solid red; width:600px; }
</style>

<div class="SiteContainer">

<div class="Data">

	Epsum factorial non deposit quid pro quo hic escorol. Olypian quarrels et gorilla congolium sic ad nauseum. Souvlaki ignitus carborundum e pluribus unum. Defacto lingo est igpay atinlay. Marquee selectus non provisio incongruous feline nolo contendre. Gratuitous octopus niacin, sodium glutimate. Quote meon an estimate et non interruptus stadium. Sic tempus fugit esperanto hiccup estrogen. Glorious baklava ex librus hup hey ad infinitum. Non sequitur condominium facile et geranium incognito. Epsum factorial non deposit quid pro quo hic escorol. Marquee selectus non provisio incongruous feline nolo contendre Olypian quarrels et gorilla congolium sic ad nauseum. Souvlaki ignitus carborundum e pluribus unum.<br />
	<br />
	Epsum factorial non deposit quid pro quo hic escorol. Olypian quarrels et gorilla congolium sic ad nauseum. Souvlaki ignitus carborundum e pluribus unum. Defacto lingo est igpay atinlay. Marquee selectus non provisio incongruous feline nolo contendre. Gratuitous octopus niacin, sodium glutimate. Quote meon an estimate et non interruptus stadium. Sic tempus fugit esperanto hiccup estrogen. Glorious baklava ex librus hup hey ad infinitum. Non sequitur condominium facile et geranium incognito. Epsum factorial non deposit quid pro quo hic escorol. Marquee selectus non provisio incongruous feline nolo contendre Olypian quarrels et gorilla congolium sic ad nauseum. Souvlaki ignitus carborundum e pluribus unum.<br />
	<br />
	Epsum factorial non deposit quid pro quo hic escorol. Olypian quarrels et gorilla congolium sic ad nauseum. Souvlaki ignitus carborundum e pluribus unum. Defacto lingo est igpay atinlay. Marquee selectus non provisio incongruous feline nolo contendre. Gratuitous octopus niacin, sodium glutimate. Quote meon an estimate et non interruptus stadium. Sic tempus fugit esperanto hiccup estrogen. Glorious baklava ex librus hup hey ad infinitum. Non sequitur condominium facile et geranium incognito. Epsum factorial non deposit quid pro quo hic escorol. Marquee selectus non provisio incongruous feline nolo contendre Olypian quarrels et gorilla congolium sic ad nauseum. Souvlaki ignitus carborundum e pluribus unum.<br />
	<br />
	Epsum factorial non deposit quid pro quo hic escorol. Olypian quarrels et gorilla congolium sic ad nauseum. Souvlaki ignitus carborundum e pluribus unum. Defacto lingo est igpay atinlay. Marquee selectus non provisio incongruous feline nolo contendre. Gratuitous octopus niacin, sodium glutimate. Quote meon an estimate et non interruptus stadium. Sic tempus fugit esperanto hiccup estrogen. Glorious baklava ex librus hup hey ad infinitum. Non sequitur condominium facile et geranium incognito. Epsum factorial non deposit quid pro quo hic escorol. Marquee selectus non provisio incongruous feline nolo contendre Olypian quarrels et gorilla congolium sic ad nauseum. Souvlaki ignitus carborundum e pluribus unum.<br />
	<br />
	Epsum factorial non deposit quid pro quo hic escorol. Olypian quarrels et gorilla congolium sic ad nauseum. Souvlaki ignitus carborundum e pluribus unum. Defacto lingo est igpay atinlay. Marquee selectus non provisio incongruous feline nolo contendre. Gratuitous octopus niacin, sodium glutimate. Quote meon an estimate et non interruptus stadium. Sic tempus fugit esperanto hiccup estrogen. Glorious baklava ex librus hup hey ad infinitum. Non sequitur condominium facile et geranium incognito. Epsum factorial non deposit quid pro quo hic escorol. Marquee selectus non provisio incongruous feline nolo contendre Olypian quarrels et gorilla congolium sic ad nauseum. Souvlaki ignitus carborundum e pluribus unum.<br />
	<br />

</div>

<p>

<div class="PageFooter" style="">Epsum factorial non deposit quid pro quo hic escorol. Olypian quarrels et gorilla congolium sic ad nauseum. Souvlaki ignitus carborundum e pluribus unum. Defacto lingo est igpay atinlay. Marquee selectus non provisio incongruous feline nolo contendre. Gratuitous octopus niacin, sodium glutimate. Quote meon an estimate et non interruptus stadium. Sic tempus fugit esperanto hiccup estrogen. Glorious baklava ex librus hup hey ad infinitum. Non sequitur condominium facile et geranium incognito. Epsum factorial non deposit quid pro quo hic escorol. Marquee selectus non provisio incongruous feline nolo contendre Olypian quarrels et gorilla congolium sic ad nauseum. Souvlaki ignitus carborundum e pluribus unum.</div>

</div>

[bronzemonkey]

I see what you're trying to do but when you use {position:absolute} it effectively removes that element from the document flow. So the containing element behaves as if the absolutely positioned div isn't even there. It's correct behaviour for the containing element to "ignore" any absolutely positioned elements within it. But luckily you can still position divs the way that you want, without using {position:absolute}.

 

Test out and look at the code below. Is this the sort of thing you were after?

 

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
<title>My Page</title>

<style type="text/css">

/* BASIC CSS RESET
----------------------------------- */

html, body, div, span, object, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, p, blockquote, a, abbr, acronym, cite, code, em, img, small, strike, strong, dl, dt, dd, ol, ul, li {margin:0; padding:0; border:0; outline:0; font-weight:inherit; font-style:inherit; font-size:100%; font-family:inherit; vertical-align:baseline;}
/* remember to define focus styles! */
:focus {outline:0;}

ol, ul {list-style:none;}

blockquote:before, blockquote:after, q:before, q:after {content:"";}
blockquote, q {quotes:"" "";}

/* YOUR STYLES
----------------------------------- */

body {text-align:center;}

p {margin:10px 0 5px 0;}

/* These are the link styles, which must appear in this order only, and you should edit them to suit your needs. The :focus style is needed because we removed the outline in the reset above. */
a:link, a:visited {color:#000; text-decoration:underline;}
a:hover, a:focus, a:active {color:#c00; text-decoration:none;}

/* This is the css for your container div. The margin value is a short hand for {margin:0 auto 0 auto} which will automatically make the margins on the left and right fill the remaining width of the browser window - this centres the div. */
#container {width:960px; margin:0 auto; border:1px solid green;}

/* This is the css for your content div. Here the margins will position the div in the same way that you were trying to achieve with absolute positioning. However, depending on what you actually want for your layout you could just put padding in the #container div so that every div it contains will be positioned 100px within its inner border. */
#content {width:600px; margin:100px 0 0 100px; border:1px solid yellow;}

#footer {width:600px; margin-left:100px; border:1px solid red;}

</style>

</head>
<body>

<div id="container">
   <div id="content">
      <p>Epsum factorial non deposit quid pro quo hic escorol. Olypian quarrels et gorilla congolium sic ad nauseum. Souvlaki ignitus carborundum e pluribus unum. Defacto lingo est igpay atinlay. Marquee selectus non provisio incongruous feline nolo contendre. Gratuitous octopus niacin, sodium glutimate. Quote meon an estimate et non interruptus stadium. Sic tempus fugit esperanto hiccup estrogen. Glorious baklava ex librus hup hey ad infinitum. Non sequitur condominium facile et geranium incognito. Epsum factorial non deposit quid pro quo hic escorol. Marquee selectus non provisio incongruous feline nolo contendre Olypian quarrels et gorilla congolium sic ad nauseum. Souvlaki ignitus carborundum e pluribus unum.</p>
      <p>Epsum factorial non deposit quid pro quo hic escorol. Olypian quarrels et gorilla congolium sic ad nauseum. Souvlaki ignitus carborundum e pluribus unum. Defacto lingo est igpay atinlay. Marquee selectus non provisio incongruous feline nolo contendre. Gratuitous octopus niacin, sodium glutimate. Quote meon an estimate et non interruptus stadium. Sic tempus fugit esperanto hiccup estrogen. Glorious baklava ex librus hup hey ad infinitum. Non sequitur condominium facile et geranium incognito. Epsum factorial non deposit quid pro quo hic escorol. Marquee selectus non provisio incongruous feline nolo contendre Olypian quarrels et gorilla congolium sic ad nauseum. Souvlaki ignitus carborundum e pluribus unum.</p>
      <p>Epsum factorial non deposit quid pro quo hic escorol. Olypian quarrels et gorilla congolium sic ad nauseum. Souvlaki ignitus carborundum e pluribus unum. Defacto lingo est igpay atinlay. Marquee selectus non provisio incongruous feline nolo contendre. Gratuitous octopus niacin, sodium glutimate. Quote meon an estimate et non interruptus stadium. Sic tempus fugit esperanto hiccup estrogen. Glorious baklava ex librus hup hey ad infinitum. Non sequitur condominium facile et geranium incognito. Epsum factorial non deposit quid pro quo hic escorol. Marquee selectus non provisio incongruous feline nolo contendre Olypian quarrels et gorilla congolium sic ad nauseum. Souvlaki ignitus carborundum e pluribus unum.</p>
      <p>Epsum factorial non deposit quid pro quo hic escorol. Olypian quarrels et gorilla congolium sic ad nauseum. Souvlaki ignitus carborundum e pluribus unum. Defacto lingo est igpay atinlay. Marquee selectus non provisio incongruous feline nolo contendre. Gratuitous octopus niacin, sodium glutimate. Quote meon an estimate et non interruptus stadium. Sic tempus fugit esperanto hiccup estrogen. Glorious baklava ex librus hup hey ad infinitum. Non sequitur condominium facile et geranium incognito. Epsum factorial non deposit quid pro quo hic escorol. Marquee selectus non provisio incongruous feline nolo contendre Olypian quarrels et gorilla congolium sic ad nauseum. Souvlaki ignitus carborundum e pluribus unum.</p>
      <p>Epsum factorial non deposit quid pro quo hic escorol. Olypian quarrels et gorilla congolium sic ad nauseum. Souvlaki ignitus carborundum e pluribus unum. Defacto lingo est igpay atinlay. Marquee selectus non provisio incongruous feline nolo contendre. Gratuitous octopus niacin, sodium glutimate. Quote meon an estimate et non interruptus stadium. Sic tempus fugit esperanto hiccup estrogen. Glorious baklava ex librus hup hey ad infinitum. Non sequitur condominium facile et geranium incognito. Epsum factorial non deposit quid pro quo hic escorol. Marquee selectus non provisio incongruous feline nolo contendre Olypian quarrels et gorilla congolium sic ad nauseum. Souvlaki ignitus carborundum e pluribus unum.</p>
   </div><!-- end of content -->
   
   <div id="footer">
      <p>Epsum factorial non deposit quid pro quo hic escorol. Olypian quarrels et gorilla congolium sic ad nauseum. Souvlaki ignitus carborundum e pluribus unum. Defacto lingo est igpay atinlay. Marquee selectus non provisio incongruous feline nolo contendre. Gratuitous octopus niacin, sodium glutimate. Quote meon an estimate et non interruptus stadium. Sic tempus fugit esperanto hiccup estrogen. Glorious baklava ex librus hup hey ad infinitum. Non sequitur condominium facile et geranium incognito. Epsum factorial non deposit quid pro quo hic escorol. Marquee selectus non provisio incongruous feline nolo contendre Olypian quarrels et gorilla congolium sic ad nauseum. Souvlaki ignitus carborundum e pluribus unum.</p>
   </div><!-- end of footer -->
</div><!-- end of container -->

</body>
</html>

 

Here are a few other things I changed.

 

- I switched the doctype to html 4.01 strict. I'd recommend you keep it like this unless you know you are putting stuff in the document that requires a transitional doctype. Just make sure you use the w3c validators to check for errors in the html and css - http://www.w3.org/QA/Tools/

- I've included a basic "css reset" (that is just a cut down Eric Meyer's Reset)

- It is a better idea to use "id" rather than "class" for specific non-recurring divs - such as a container, header, content, footer - because id has a higher specificity.

- It's better to put paragraphs within <p> elements and then control their appearance in the css.

 

Is there anything else that you plan to add to your layout? If you're going to use a header above, or another column on the right, the way that you would position elements within the container is going to be slightly different.