Question

browser avoid "left" attribute - weird..

Asked by: Forrest_Gump

I put two divs (relative position) one with left:756px and the other with 252px.
for some reasons the browser draw the page  with the two divs with an error: the second div position is 467px relative instead of 252px!!!
what is the problem? how to fix it?

picture and code attached.

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Asked On
2008-07-21 at 04:07:35ID23581393
Tags

css html

Topics

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)

,

Internet Explorer Web Browser

,

Hypertext Markup Language (HTML)

Participating Experts
4
Points
500
Comments
13

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Answers

 

by: nanharbisonPosted on 2008-07-21 at 04:37:55ID: 22049525

Can you please click on the "Attach Code Snippet" and copy and paste just the relevant code? It would be easier to read. Your tasks.txt file was huge and I think some of it was not necessary to see.
And can we see the css for these two divs? What are the names of these divs? You have a lot of them on this page so I don't know what I am looking for.
One thought - have you used overflow:hidden on the left div that you want to be overlapped with the next div.  I am not positive I understand the question you are asking.

 

by: mreuringPosted on 2008-07-21 at 05:38:15ID: 22049867

Without looking at the html, let me hazard a guess, the first div, at a guess would be 467 - 252 = 215 pixels wide?

Position: relative means that the element is displaced relative to its' original position in the flow of the document, I think that's what you were after. However, with that you must realize that its' original containing block is preserved within the flow of the document, unlike position: absolute where the element is removed from the flow of the document.

What you want to do is more likely achieved by giving the parent of these elements position: relative or absolute, whichever suits your needs (Judging from another q I was helping with I assume that your parent is already position absolute). When you give the two elements position:  absolute now they will be placed relative to the parent, which means that you can still use the same measurements you were using now.

Hope this is clear enough, if not let me know and I'll happily clarify :)

 Martin

 

by: mreuringPosted on 2008-07-21 at 05:51:07ID: 22049991

I just had a look at your html, using position: absolute on the eventsLayer seems to break this particular layout, where it didn't do so with the other Q. However, when I set the eventsLayer to position: relative and the divs to absolute it appears that they are placed as you intended.

I'm curious though, why the table when you're displacing the divs anyway?

 

by: Forrest_GumpPosted on 2008-07-21 at 13:53:57ID: 22054254

mreuring, tnx again for the help.
I havent find a time to apply your first solution (meetings day..), but I will do it now.
about this problem, I don't understand exactly what you ment.. Don't forget, I need this page work find under any resolution. using position:absolute won't work the same in different resolutions since I would have to specify left and top from the corner of the screen which isn't the same for all resolutions and screens.
Can you please explain your answer?

THANKS!!

 

by: TNamePosted on 2008-07-21 at 15:26:06ID: 22054899


Hi, just a remark - additionally to what mreuring said - I'm not sure if it is really understood what relative positioning really means. It might be a good idea to read different explanations, e.g.
   
    http://www.quirksmode.org/css/position.html
    http://www.autisticcuckoo.net/archive.php?id=2004/12/07/relatively-absolute
    http://www.christian-web-masters.com/articles/web_CSS-positioning-tutorial__page_1.html
    http://webdesign.about.com/od/advancedcss/a/aa061307.htm

In the picture you've posted, the div does exactly what it's told to do:
It is sitting 252px to the left and 33px down of it's normal position. And it's normal position is *in the upper left corner of it's parent* (a table cell), which itself is positioned well off the viewport's left margin.

If you give this parent cell a border, e.g.  style="border:1px solid #f00;"  and set the div's left and top to different values between 0 and 252px/33px,  you will better understand what's happening.

Giving the relevant elements (and their parents ;) borders and/or backgrounds just for testing - so that they become visible - can be very useful in order to understand the real structure of a page.
Also, tools like Firebug ( https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1843 ) can prove very helpful.

 

by: scrathcyboyPosted on 2008-07-21 at 15:55:22ID: 22055146

The type of data you are displaying in your picture is best done in a table (since it is tabular data).

Why not remove the DIVs and the DIV-based CSS and work on adjusting the table.  It will be easier than trying to relative position a TABLE using pixel offsets in a DIV.  No wonder you are confused !!

 

by: Forrest_GumpPosted on 2008-07-21 at 16:36:49ID: 22055368

tnx TName,
The div is sitting 252px to the left but I told it to sit 467px!

 

by: TNamePosted on 2008-07-21 at 16:45:46ID: 22055420

Hm, that's strage - in the file I downloaded ("Tasks.txt") the left value for that div is defined as 252px.
Also, I cannot find a 467px value on the page...
A typo or a c/p error maybe?

 

by: Forrest_GumpPosted on 2008-07-21 at 17:22:40ID: 22055574

Sorry!
I mistake you.
I need the div to be in position 252, but it position 467.

In the picture I attach I mark by mistake the right edge of the left div instead of it's left edge.

 

by: mreuringPosted on 2008-07-21 at 19:44:33ID: 22056141

When you set an element to have 'position: absolute' all you're doing at that point in time it taking it out of the flow of the document. When you do not give that element a top, left, right and/or bottom value, that element will be exactly where it would have been had it still been in the flow of the document.

Additionally, an element with position: absolute does NOT get it's top/left/bottom/right from the canvas, or body-element. It get it's position in relation to its' positioned ancestor. In your case, giving your eventLayer position:absolute will not move the eventLayer from the position where it was drawn, if will however take that layer out of the flow of the document and place it on top of any following elements. By giving the layer position, the children of this layer will now be positioned in relation to the eventLayer, hence you can give them position: absolute and reliably position them, in relation to evenLayer.

I've tested your attached html and like I said, position: relative worked fine, but you must first solve http:Q_23579691.html because anything coming out of that question can have a lot of impact on what you're doing here...

 

by: Forrest_GumpPosted on 2008-07-21 at 23:11:01ID: 22056733

mreuring, lets summarize bot of the problems, tell me if this is what you propose:
1. For the first problem, add position:absolute; attribute to EventsLayer.
2. for the second problem, transform both of the divs position to absolute.

am I right?

 

by: mreuringPosted on 2008-07-31 at 04:31:41ID: 22128692

I am so sorry, I completely missed your last post. Your summary however was correct, so I hope that you have gone along with that and managed to solve this issue by now!!!

If not, and you're still looking for input, please let me know!

 Martin

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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