asked on

How can I get rid of the extra space at the bottom of my page?

Attached is a screen shot of a page I'm working on and the CSS and HTML are below.

Where you see the arrow pointing to the lower right hand corner of the page - I want to get rid of that space and I don't know how. Ultimately, I want 100% of the height of the screen to be just that and not 100% plus a mystery supplement that I can't account for.

Where is that extra space coming from and how can I get rid of it?

Here's my CSS:

html, body {
height:100%;
width:100%;
margin:0px;
font-family:Arial;
size:11pt;
color:#000000;
}

 #header {
width:100%;
height:109px;
position:absolute;
background-image:url(../images/background.png);
background-repeat:repeat-x;
 }
 
#header_image {
width:1199px;
height:109px;
position:relative;
background-image:url(../images/header.png);
 }
 
 #side_nav {
position:relative;
float:left;
width:190px;
height:100%;
padding-left:10px;
background-image:url(../images/sidebar_background.jpg);
background-repeat:repeat-y
 }
  
 #mainContent {
width:1000px;
height:100%;
position:relative;
margin-left:200px;
 }
 
 #footer {
 width:100%;
 height: 35px;
 background-color:#000000;
 }


 a.side_nav {
color:#000000;
font-size:10pt;
text-decoration:none;
} 

 a.side_nav:hover {
color:#000000;
font-size:10pt;
text-decoration:underline;
} 

 a.side_nav:visited {
color:#000000;
font-weight:bold;
font-size:10pt;
text-decoration:none;
}

Open in new window

..and here's my HTML:

<!DOCTYPE html>
		<html lang="en">
		<head>
		<title>dashboard</title>
		<link href="styles/style.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />
		<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=100" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width" /><meta http-equiv="Pragma" content="no-cache" /><meta http-equiv="Expires" content="-1" /><meta charset="utf-8" />
		</head>
		<body>
			<div id="header"></div>
			<div id="header_image"></div>
				<div id="side_nav">
					<br><a href="home.php" class="side_nav">home</a>
				</div>
			<div id="mainContent">
		<br><b>home</b><br><br>This is the beginning of my tool...
			</div> <!-- close mainContent -->

			</body>
		</html>

Open in new window

What do you think?

Bruce Gust

ASKER

Here's the screenshot...
screenshot.png

Marcellino Santoso

remove height:100%; from the html, body {} (line 2 of your CSS)

see: http://jsfiddle.net/kpuy00nw/

Bruce Gust

ASKER

Meb, when I do that, I get this:

In other words, when I eliminate the 100% dynamic from my html / body tag, my sidebar quits right after the "home" menu option.

Is there a way to get my content and my menu to occupy the entire page AND still have the overall result not bleed over into an additional 120 pixels?

Marcellino Santoso

I think you can read this and apply the same approach: http://alistapart.com/article/fauxcolumns (i.e. use a background image to "fill" the body and thus creating a visual separation between your sidebar and content area.)

Bruce Gust

ASKER

Meb!

We're there except for one thing...

I've got my footer running along the bottom, but I can't get the "internal" divs to extend to the bottom of the page. Anytime I try to change something from min-height to height, I lose my effect with the footer.

So...

What can I do to get my background image on my sidebar menu to run down the length of the page instead of stopping short like it is in the attached screenshot?

What do you think?
almost-there.png

Bruce Gust

ASKER

Here's my CSS:

html, body {
width:100%;
height:100%;
margin:0px;
font-family:Arial;
size:11pt;
color:#000000;
background-color:#ffffff;
}

#wrap {
min-height:100%;
}

 #header {
width:100%;
height:109px;
position:absolute;
background-image:url(../images/background.png);
background-repeat:repeat-x;
 }
 
#header_image {
width:1199px;
height:109px;
position:relative;
background-image:url(../images/header.png);
 }
 
 #side_nav {
position:relative;
float:left;
width:190px;
height:100%;
padding-left:10px;
padding-bottom:35px;
background-image:url(../images/sidebar_background.jpg);
background-repeat:repeat-y;
 }
  
 #mainContent {
width:1000px;
min-height:100%;
position:relative;
overflow:auto;
background-color:#cccccc;
margin-left:200px;
padding-bottom:35px;
 }
 
 #footer {
 width:100%;
 height: 35px;
 margin-top:-35px;
 background-color:#000000;
 }


 a.side_nav {
color:#000000;
font-size:10pt;
text-decoration:none;
} 

 a.side_nav:hover {
color:#000000;
font-size:10pt;
text-decoration:underline;
} 

 a.side_nav:visited {
color:#000000;
font-weight:bold;
font-size:10pt;
text-decoration:none;
}

Open in new window

Here's my HTML:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<title>dashboard</title>
<link href="styles/style.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />
<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=100" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width" /><meta http-equiv="Pragma" content="no-cache" /><meta http-equiv="Expires" content="-1" /><meta charset="utf-8" />
</head>
<body>
	<div id="wrap">
		<div id="header"></div>
		<div id="header_image"></div>
			<div id="side_nav">
				<br><a href="home.php" class="side_nav">home</a>
			</div>
			<div id="mainContent">
			<br><b>home</b><br><br>This is the beginning of my tool...
			</div> <!-- close mainContent -->
	</div>
	<div id="footer"></div>
</body>
</html>

Open in new window

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

Marcellino Santoso

membership

This solution is only available to members.

To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.

Start Free Trial

Bruce Gust

ASKER

Meb!

You, sir, are a genius!

I have googled this up and down and was repeatedly coming up with counsel that basically said you're obligated to conform to the dimensions of your parent div, hence what I was attempting was looking pretty impossible.

Never thought to make the side bar part of the html div! Look at that! Works great!

Thanks so much!

Marcellino Santoso

I don't know about being a genius, but many thanks for the points :-)

It is actually a very old technique, originating from <html background="image.jpg">, etc...

It has been years that i don't use this kind of method since the design world evolved oh so quickly.

Should you have build a page with more content, i would suggest that you go back to your original css scenario and use fluid instead of fixed widths and heights. You'll get my point eventually :-)