Question

flexible height for div

Asked by: manivineet

I have a left hand menu (div) and a content (div)

I want to scale the side menu div to the size of the screen (window) and the same goes for the content (div)

also when the window is resized, both div's (side menu and content) should resize accordingly.

the left hand menu is a user control.

how do I do it?

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Asked On: 2009-06-17 at 23:39:06ID24501553
Topics: Programming for ASP.NET
,; Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)
,; Extensible HTML (XHTML)
Participating Experts: 5
Points: 0
Comments: 13

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Answers

by: ZylochPosted on 2009-06-17 at 23:45:04ID: 24654963

Set its CSS style to have

height: 100%;

Does that do the trick?

by: dipakdave1983Posted on 2009-06-18 at 06:18:52ID: 24657084

set css of body tag height = 100% or some fix like 860px..

and now do height of div to 100%

in order to use 100% your control's parent must have some height..

by: dachusaPosted on 2009-06-18 at 12:27:23ID: 24660929

height 100% to the HTML & BODY tags as well as the classes that handle the menu and content.

html, body{
    height:100%;
    padding:0px;
    margin:0px;
}
.menu{
    height:100%;
}
.content{
    height:100%;
}

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by: manivineetPosted on 2009-06-18 at 18:00:55ID: 24663092

can i please get a reference to a working example on the web ...

by: QuaoarPosted on 2009-06-18 at 19:30:16ID: 24663455

This CSS and HTML shows a very basic idea of how to set up something on the left (eg. a menu), and something on the right (eg. main content).

The CSS ensures that everything is contained in the main container. Using percentages for this type of thing is handy because the percentages are calculated based on the parent container... So if your main container is 600px and you have something contained in there that's 10% wide, it'll translate to 60px. If that 600px wide container changes to 300px, then the 10% wide thing becomes 30px.

If you were to use absolute "px" values, then you end up with things that can be unpredictable depending on how you declare your doctype, which browser you use, and the remainder of your code. Also, the absolute px values will prevent things from re-adjusting the way you want them to.

Check the code out in this sample HTML file - it demonstrates how the %'s work for both height and width - using different values for everything to try to give as good an idea as possible.

http://funtasticbids.com/eesamples/eetestmanivineet.html

by: manivineetPosted on 2009-06-18 at 20:11:10ID: 24663613

@Quaoar: I do no want the menu div to have a flexible width. it needs to be fixed width and variable height

how do i do that?

by: dachusaPosted on 2009-06-18 at 20:13:42ID: 24663620

Change the width % to a fixed value

<html>
 
<head>
<style type="text/css">
 
#container{
	border-width: 1px ;
	border-color: black ;
	border-style: solid ;
 
	width: 95% ;
	height: 90% ;
 
	padding: 10px ;
}
 
.menu{
	border-width: 1px ;
	border-color: black ;
	border-style: solid ;
 
	float: left ;
	/*width: 33% ;  Was this*/
        width:200px;  /*now this*/
	height: 80% ;
}
 
.content{
	border-width: 1px ;
	border-color: black ;
	border-style: solid ;
 
	float: right ;
	width: 66% ;
	height: 60% ;
}
 
</style>
 
</head>
 
<body>
 
	<div id="container">
		<div class="menu">
			Content<br />
 
			Content<br />
			Content<br />
			Content<br />
			Content<br />
			Content<br />
			Content<br />
 
		</div><!-- menu -->
 
		<div class="content">
			Content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content
		</div><!-- content -->
	</div><!-- container -->
 
</body>
 
</html>

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by: QuaoarPosted on 2009-06-18 at 20:17:07ID: 24663627

For the fixed widths, use a px value (instead of % values).

PX defines the number of pixels that an element will be - 300px means 300 pixels wide. I've put the same CSS below, but just changed the widths to have "px" at the end. You'll need to figure out for yourself what the numbers will be - that'll depend entirely on the site you're designing, and the resolutions you're designing it for.

#container{
	border-width: 1px ;
	border-color: black ;
	border-style: solid ;
 
	width: 95% ;
	height: 90% ;
 
	padding: 10px ;
}
 
.menu{
	border-width: 1px ;
	border-color: black ;
	border-style: solid ;
 
	float: left ;
	width: <your width value>px ;
	height: 80% ;
}
 
.content{
	border-width: 1px ;
	border-color: black ;
	border-style: solid ;
 
	float: right ;
	width: <your width value>px ;
	height: 60% ;
}

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by: QuaoarPosted on 2009-06-18 at 20:17:57ID: 24663629

Sorry dachusa - didn't see that you had replied. :-)

by: manivineetPosted on 2009-06-18 at 20:44:48ID: 24663728

@Quaor and @dachusa

you solution doesn't seem to work

here is a screen shot of what I produced

please have look at the code an see if I 'am doing something wrong

<%@ Page Language="vb" AutoEventWireup="false" CodeBehind="Default.aspx.vb" Inherits="WebApplication1._Default" %>
 
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head runat="server">
    <title></title>
    <style type="text/css">
        #container
        {
            border-width: 1px;
            border-color: black;
            border-style: solid;
            width: 95%;
            height: 90%;
            padding: 10px;
        }
        .menu
        {
            border-width: 1px;
            border-color: black;
            border-style: solid;
            float: left; /*width: 33% ;  Was this*/
            width: 200px; /*now this*/
            height: 80%;
        }
        .content
        {
            border-width: 1px;
            border-color: black;
            border-style: solid;
            float: right;
            width: 66%;
            height: 60%;
        }
    </style>
</head>
<body>
    <form id="form1" runat="server">
    <div id="container">
        <div class="menu">
            Content<br />
            Content<br />
            Content<br />
            Content<br />
            Content<br />
            Content<br />
            Content<br />
        </div>
        <!-- menu -->
        <div class="content">
            Content content content content content content content content content content
            content content content content content content content content content content
            content content content content content content content content content content
            content content content content content content content content content content
            content content content content content content content content content content
            content content content content content content content content content content
            content content content content content content content content content content
            content content content content content content content content content content
            content content content content content content content content content content
            content content content content content content content content content content
            content content content content content content content content content content
            content content content content content content content content content content
            content content content content content content content content content content
            content content content content content content content content content content
            content content content content content content content content content content
            content content content content content content content content content content
            content content content content content content content content content content
            content content content content content content content content content content
            content content content content content content content content content content
        </div>
        <!-- content -->
    </div>
    <!-- container -->
    </form>
</body>
</html>

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result.JPG
- 160 KB
result page screenshot

by: QuaoarPosted on 2009-06-18 at 21:18:01ID: 24663829

Insert the following and play with the numbers a bit. Put it at the top of the CSS. You'll probably need to change some percentages to get things working properly.

The previous code worked great in browsers' quirks modes, but the doctype changes stuff.

html, body {
	height: 100%;
}

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by: GreatGermPosted on 2009-06-22 at 08:41:31ID: 24683572

Make your life easy. Use positioning then have the elements autosize. Here is an example, modify as you please.

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" 
 
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head runat="server">
    <title></title>
    <style type="text/css">
	*{
		margin:0px;
		padding:0px;
	}
        .menu
        {
            border-width: 1px;
            border-color: black;
            border-style: solid;
            width: 200px;
            height: 80%;
        }
        .content
        {
            border-width: 1px;
            border-color: black;
            border-style: solid;
            top:0px;
            left:200px;
            position:absolute;
        }
    </style>
</head>
<body>
    <form id="form1" runat="server">
        <div class="menu">
            Content<br />
            Content<br />
            Content<br />
            Content<br />
            Content<br />
            Content<br />
            Content<br />
        </div>
        <!-- menu -->
        <div class="content">
            Content content content content content content content content content content
            content content content content content content content content content content
            content content content content content content content content content content
            content content content content content content content content content content
            content content content content content content content content content content
            content content content content content content content content content content
            content content content content content content content content content content
            content content content content content content content content content content
            content content content content content content content content content content
            content content content content content content content content content content
            content content content content content content content content content content
            content content content content content content content content content content
            content content content content content content content content content content
            content content content content content content content content content content
            content content content content content content content content content content
            content content content content content content content content content content
            content content content content content content content content content content
            content content content content content content content content content content
            content content content content content content content content content content
        </div>
        <!-- content -->
    </form>
</body>
</html>

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by: manivineetPosted on 2009-07-01 at 20:48:00ID: 24760337

the height 100% option doesn't work well in all browsers

I found that using javascript to change the height 'onload' and 'onresize' is the way to go

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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flexible height for div

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Programming for ASP.NET

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)

Extensible HTML (XHTML)

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