CSS rule: the content area must fill the entire height available

Dealing with this is absolutely driving me insane... While constructing the page over at , I've encountered a rather perplexing issue. The layout consists of a header, left menu, content, and footer within a fixed width of 960px, all centered horizontally which functions as intended. However, when there is minimal text in the content section, I desire for the gray content area to always occupy the available screen height, thereby pushing the footer downwards.

The structure of the page resembles the following:

  <body>

    <!-- Centralized container housing the site -->
    <div id="centeredcontainer">            
        <!-- Header area -->
        <div id="header">                
            Insert header here                              
        </div>            
        <!-- Main menu on left-hand side, content on right-hand side -->
        <div id="mainmenuandcontent">
            <!-- Left-hand main menu -->
            <div id="mainmenu">
                Main menu content                  
            </div>
            <!-- Content on the right-hand side -->   
            <div id="content">
                 Body content goes here
            </div>                
            <!-- Clears floats to allow normal margins for subsequent elements -->
            <div class="clearer"></div>
            <!-- Red line beneath content -->
            <div id="RedLineUnderContent"></div>
        </div>                         
        <!-- Footer area with language options -->
        <div id="languages">
          Add footer information here           
        </div>                       
    </div>            
</body>

Below you'll find the relevant CSS:

body
{
    font-size: 12px;
    font-family:Century Gothic,Helvetica,Verdana,Arial,sans-serif; 
    line-height:1.5em;      
    margin: 0; 
    padding: 0;   
    background-color: Black;
}

#centeredcontainer  
{
    width: 960px;    
    margin-left: auto ;
    margin-right: auto ;
}

#header
{
    margin-bottom: 20px; 
    margin-top:20px;  
}

#mainmenuandcontent
{  
    width: 960px;
    clear: both;       
    position: relative;    
}

#mainmenu
{        
    float: left;   
    width:180px; 
    padding:10px;
}

#content
{
    float: left;
    background-color: #403F3F;        
    width: 760px; 
    min-height: 400px;
    color:White;
}

#RedLineUnderContent
{
    height: 20px;
    background: #A10C10;
    margin-left: 200px; 
}

#languages
{        
    margin-top: 10px;   
    margin-left: 200px; 
    margin-bottom:20px;  
    text-transform:uppercase;  
}

.clearer
{
    clear:both;
}

Answer №1

There isn't a consistent way across different browsers to achieve this using CSS alone.

I recently tackled a similar issue by utilizing JavaScript like so:

<head>
   ....
    <script type="text/javascript">
        function resize() {
            var frame = document.getElementById("main");
            var windowheight = window.innerHeight;
            document.body.style.height = windowheight + "px";
            frame.style.height = windowheight - 180 + "px";
        }
     </script> 
</head>
<body onload="resize()" onresize="resize()">
...

This script dynamically adjusts the height of the element with the ID "main" to match the visible height of the window minus 180px (which is the height of my header).

Answer №2

One approach could be to implement CSS techniques like those demonstrated on this website showcasing a 100% height layout.

Answer №3

After experimenting with jquery, I believe I have found a workaround. I included the following script in the masterpage:

    <script type="text/javascript">
        var contentHeight;
        $(document).ready(function () {
            contentHeight = $('#content').height();
            Resize();
            $(window).resize(function () {
                Resize();
            });
        });                    
        function Resize() {
            currentWindowHeight = $(document).height();                                
            if (contentHeight < currentWindowHeight - 160) {
                $('#content').css('height', (currentWindowHeight - 160) + "px");   
            }                               
        }
    </script>

On each page load, this script captures the original height of the content area and adjusts it to fit the window height. It ensures that when the content is smaller than the window, it expands to match the window size (minus header and footer heights). If the browser window is resized, the script maintains the original content height for consistency.

While I would have preferred a CSS solution, I am open to suggestions or alternative ideas from others :)

Answer №4

No JavaScript required here. Check out my response to a similar inquiry, "Adjusting div height with CSS when adjacent divs have unknown heights". The content automatically adjusts to fit the space available.

Answer №5

To ensure that the container maintains a minimum height of 100%, you must also specify a min-height of 100% for its parent containers. In older browser versions, it may be necessary to set the body and html tags to a height of 100% (without using min-height).

Answer №6

Is it advisable to set the height of a container to 100%?

Recently in 2016: It is recommended to utilize viewport-relative units rather than percentages or pixels, for instance width: 100wv; height: 100wh;. This unit represents a percentage of the browser window size, disregarding any sizes of parent elements.

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