Adjusting the Size of DIV Elements with CSS on the Fly

Question

Adjusting the Size of DIV Elements with CSS on the Fly

I am facing an issue with dynamically resizing the height of my sidebar div to match the content div. Despite setting no specific height, it seems to adjust its height according to the content rather than using the parent div's height as I expected.

You can observe this issue on "baradineholdings.com.au" (please reserve your judgment on the site, as I am a newbie and focusing on getting the basics right before making it visually appealing).

The home page appears fine due to lack of content. However, if you navigate to the about page, you will see the problem. It seems like in the case of the main page, the content div is dictating the height of the sidebar div, but I cannot figure out why.

HTML:

<body>
    <div id="wrapper">
        <?php include('includes/header.php'); ?>
        <div id="internal">
            <div id="sidebar">
                <h3>Navigation</h3>
                    <li><a href="index.php">Home</a></li>
                    <li><a href="about.php">About</a></li>
                    <li><a href="gallery.php">Gallery</a></li>
                    <li><a href="contact.php">Contact</a></li>
            </div> <!-- end #sidebar -->
            <div id="content">
                <p>Images Coming Soon!</p>
                <p>Please see the about page for more information.</p>
            </div> <!-- end #content -->
        </div> <!-- end #internal -->
        <?php include('includes/footer.php'); ?>
    </div> <!-- end #wrapper -->
</body>

CSS:

body {
background-color: #f1f1f1;
font-family: georgia,sans-serif;
color: #333;
margin: 0;
padding: 0;
}

#wrapper {
width: 960px;
background-color: #f1f1f1;
margin: 0 auto;
border-left: 1px solid #ccc;
border-right: 1px solid #ccc;
}

#internal
{
width: 959px;
height: auto;
background-color: #f1f1f1;
margin: 0 auto;
border-right: 1px solid #ccc;
}

#content {
width: 675px;
height: auto;
float: left;
padding: 10px;
}

#sidebar {
width: 150px;
/* height: 410px; */
float: left;
background-color: #27408B;
color: white;
}

#sidebar a {
text-decoration: none;
color: white;
}

#sidebar li {
list-style: none;
}

As mentioned, I am new to this, so I might be missing something obvious... I attempted using jsfiddle, but even when adding a substantial amount of content to the about page, it displayed small and did not impact the sidebar... The issue persists across Chrome and IE browsers.

css dynamic html

Answer 1

Answer №1

Your current code can easily be modified to fix this issue. The solution involves creating a wrapper div and adjusting the background colors as outlined in this resource: CSS Equal Height Columns.

To achieve equal height columns, you need to set the sidebar color to a wrapper div (in your case, use #internal). This wrapper will expand based on content. To make it resemble a sidebar, give the main content a background color matching the body. The actual sidebar div does not have a background but contains text. Here is the relevant CSS:

#internal {
    background-color: #27408B; /* sidebar color */
}

#content {
    background-color: #f1f1f1; /* body background color */
}

Remove the background-color line from #sidebar, add float and adjust width of #internal if needed.

View the implementation in action on JSFiddle.

Answer 2

Your current code can easily be modified to fix this issue. The solution involves creating a wrapper div and adjusting the background colors as outlined in this resource: CSS Equal Height Columns.

To achieve equal height columns, you need to set the sidebar color to a wrapper div (in your case, use #internal). This wrapper will expand based on content. To make it resemble a sidebar, give the main content a background color matching the body. The actual sidebar div does not have a background but contains text. Here is the relevant CSS:

#internal {
    background-color: #27408B; /* sidebar color */
}

#content {
    background-color: #f1f1f1; /* body background color */
}

Remove the background-color line from #sidebar, add float and adjust width of #internal if needed.

View the implementation in action on JSFiddle.

Answer 3

Answer №2

Are you looking to achieve a specific goal? Perhaps you want the blue sidebar to match the height of the text in the content area?
If that's the case, one simple solution is to add a blue background image to the div that contains both the sidebar and the content.

To accomplish this, just insert <div style="clear:both"></div> after your <div class="content">...</div>
This will ensure that your internal div adjusts its height based on the floating children elements.

<div class="sidebar">...</div><br />
<div class="content">...</div><br />
<div style="clear:both">...</div><br />

Once that's done, you can apply a repeating blue image:

#internal {
background: url(blue.png) top left repeat-y;
}

Alternatively, you could explore using jquery/css hacks, but it may not be worth the extra effort.

Answer 4

Are you looking to achieve a specific goal? Perhaps you want the blue sidebar to match the height of the text in the content area?
If that's the case, one simple solution is to add a blue background image to the div that contains both the sidebar and the content.

To accomplish this, just insert <div style="clear:both"></div> after your <div class="content">...</div>
This will ensure that your internal div adjusts its height based on the floating children elements.

<div class="sidebar">...</div><br />
<div class="content">...</div><br />
<div style="clear:both">...</div><br />

Once that's done, you can apply a repeating blue image:

#internal {
background: url(blue.png) top left repeat-y;
}

Alternatively, you could explore using jquery/css hacks, but it may not be worth the extra effort.

Adjusting the Size of DIV Elements with CSS on the Fly

Answer №1

Answer №2

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