I've been trying to set three columns to 100% height of a main content area with a header and footer on the top and bottom.
The desired behavior is:
- When the content does not take up the screen, the footer is at the
bottom of the screen, and the middle area stretches to fill the middle space.
- When the content takes up more than the screen, the footer is at the
bottom of the content, not the screen.
I ended up going with the table
and table-cell
solution, but the middle section extends below the footer - which causes an unnecessary scrollbar to appear, see:
https://jsfiddle.net/rwone/rqmrxfbp
A similar question was asked here.
Relevant HTML
<div id="container">
<div id="left_col"></div>
<div id="main_content"></div>
<div id="right_col"></div>
</div>
<div id="footer"></div>
CSS
#container {
display: table;
width: 100%;
height: 100%;
}
#left_col {
background: orange;
display: table-cell;
width: 15%;
}
#main_content {
background: #ff0;
display: table-cell;
}
#right_col {
background: green;
display: table-cell;
width: 15%;
}
#footer {
background: #3a3a3a;
height: 200px;
position: absolute;
width: 100%;
bottom: 0;
}
Continued on your choice to using display: table
, where I added the proper markup instead of using anonymous table elements.
In the future one don't know how those might render so I think have them added will make sure they work as intended (and make it easier to read the markup).
html, body{
height: 100%;
margin: 0;
}
.tbl{
display:table;
}
.row{
display:table-row;
}
.row.expanded{
height: 100%;
}
.cell{
display:table-cell;
}
.container,
.content{
width: 100%;
height: 100%;
}
.header {
background: #0099cc none repeat scroll 0 0;
height: 75px;
}
.menu {
border-bottom: 1px solid #555;
border-top: 1px solid #555;
background-color: #999;
height: 0;
}
.footer {
background: #3a3a3a;
height: 75px;
}
#left_col {
background: orange none repeat scroll 0 0;
width: 15%;
}
#main_content {
background: yellow none repeat scroll 0 0;
}
#right_col {
background: green none repeat scroll 0 0;
width: 15%;
}
ul#main_menu {
margin: 0;
padding: 0;
text-align: center;
}
#main_menu li {
border-right: 1px solid #555;
display: inline-block;
margin-right: -4px; /* might need adjustment based on font size */
width: 20%;
}
#main_menu li a {
color: #fff;
display: block;
font-family: arial;
font-size: 15px;
letter-spacing: 1px;
line-height: 24px;
padding: 5px 0;
text-decoration: none;
}
<div class="tbl container">
<div class="row">
<div class="cell header">
</div>
</div>
<div class="row">
<div class="cell menu">
<ul id="main_menu">
<li><a href="/">one</a></li><li><a href="/two.html">two</a></li><li><a href="/three.html">three</a></li><li><a href="/four.html">four</a></li><li><a href="/five.html">five</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
<div class="row expanded">
<div class="cell">
<div class="tbl content">
<div class="row">
<div id="left_col" class="cell">
long content <br>long content <br>long content <br>long content <br>
long content <br>long content <br>long content <br>long content <br>
long content <br>long content <br>long content <br>long content <br>
long content last
</div>
<div id="main_content" class="cell"></div>
<div id="right_col" class="cell"></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="row">
<div class="cell footer">
</div>
</div>
</div>
With flexbox
the markup can be cleaned up a little
html, body{
margin: 0;
}
.flex{
display:flex;
}
.flex.column {
flex-direction: column
}
.flexitem{
}
.container{
min-height: 100vh;
}
.header {
background: #0099cc none repeat scroll 0 0;
height: 75px;
}
.menu {
border-bottom: 1px solid #555;
border-top: 1px solid #555;
background-color: #999;
}
.content,
#main_content{
flex: 1;
}
.footer {
background: #3a3a3a;
height: 75px;
}
#left_col {
background: orange none repeat scroll 0 0;
width: 15%;
}
#main_content {
background: yellow none repeat scroll 0 0;
}
#right_col {
background: green none repeat scroll 0 0;
width: 15%;
}
ul#main_menu {
margin: 0;
padding: 0;
text-align: center;
}
#main_menu li {
list-style-type: none;
border-right: 1px solid #555;
width: 20%;
}
#main_menu li a {
color: #fff;
display: block;
font-family: arial;
font-size: 15px;
letter-spacing: 1px;
line-height: 24px;
padding: 5px 0;
text-decoration: none;
}
<div class="flex column container">
<div class="header">
</div>
<div class="menu">
<ul id="main_menu" class="flex">
<li><a href="/">one</a></li><li><a href="/two.html">two</a></li><li><a href="/three.html">three</a></li><li><a href="/four.html">four</a></li><li><a href="/five.html">five</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="flex content">
<div id="left_col">
long content <br>long content <br>long content <br>long content <br>
long content <br>long content <br>long content <br>long content <br>
long content <br>long content <br>long content <br>long content <br>
long content last
</div>
<div id="main_content"></div>
<div id="right_col"></div>
</div>
<div class="footer">
</div>
</div>
Hope this works.
#footer {
background: #3a3a3a;
height: 200px;
width: 100%;
position:absolute;
}