CSS Div stretch 100% page height

CssHeightMaxStretch

Css Problem Overview

I have a navigation bar on the left hand side of my page, and I want it to stretch to 100% of the page height. Not just the height of the viewport, but including the areas hidden until you scroll. I don't want to use javascript to accomplish this.

Can it be done in HTML/CSS?

Css Solutions

Solution 1 - Css

Here is the solution I finally came up with when using a div as a container for a dynamic background.

  • Remove the z-index for non-background uses.
  • Remove left or right for a full height column.
  • Remove top or bottom for a full width row.

EDIT 1: CSS below has been edited because it did not show correctly in FF and Chrome. moved position:relative to be on the HTML and set the body to height:100% instead of min-height:100%.

EDIT 2: Added extra comments to CSS. Added some more instructions above.

The CSS:

html{
    min-height:100%;/* make sure it is at least as tall as the viewport */
    position:relative;
}
body{
    height:100%; /* force the BODY element to match the height of the HTML element */
}
#cloud-container{
    position:absolute;
    top:0;
    bottom:0;
    left:0;
    right:0;
    overflow:hidden;
    z-index:-1; /* Remove this line if it's not going to be a background! */
}

The html:

<!doctype html>
<html>
<body>
    <div id="cloud-container"></div>
</body>
</html>

Why?

html{min-height:100%;position:relative;}

Without this the cloud-container DIV is removed from the HTML's layout context. position: relative ensures that the DIV remains inside the HTML box when it is drawn so that bottom:0 refers to the bottom of the HTML box. You can also use height:100% on the cloud-container as it now refers to the height of the HTML tag and not the viewport.

Solution 2 - Css

With HTML5, the easiest way is simply to do height: 100vh. Where 'vh' stands for viewport height of the browser window. Responsive to resizing of browser and mobile devices.

Solution 3 - Css

I had a similar problem and the solution was to do this:

#cloud-container{
    position:absolute;
    top:0;
    bottom:0;
}

I wanted a page-centered div with height 100% of page height, so my total solution was:

#cloud-container{
    position:absolute;
    top:0;
    bottom:0;
    left:0;
    right:0; 
    width: XXXpx; /*otherwise div defaults to page width*/
    margin: 0 auto; /*horizontally centers div*/
}

You might need to make a parent element (or simply 'body') have position: relative;

Solution 4 - Css

You can cheat using Faux Columns Or you can use some CSS trickery

Solution 5 - Css

Use position absolute. Note that this isn't how we are generally used to using position absolute which requires manually laying things out or having floating dialogs. This will automatically stretch when you resize the window or the content. I believe that this requires standards mode but will work in IE6 and above.

Just replace the div with id 'thecontent' with your content (the specified height there is just for illustration, you don't have to specify a height on the actual content.

<div style="position: relative; width: 100%;">
      <div style="position: absolute; left: 0px; right: 33%; bottom: 0px; top: 0px; background-color: blue; width: 33%;" id="navbar">nav bar</div>
      <div style="position: relative; left: 33%; width: 66%; background-color: yellow;" id="content">
         <div style="height: 10000px;" id="thecontent"></div>
      </div>
</div>

The way that this works is that the outer div acts as a reference point for the nav bar. The outer div is stretched out by the content of the 'content' div. The nav bar uses absolute positioning to stretch itself out to the height of its parent. For the horizontal alignment we make the content div offset itself by the same width of the navbar.

This is made much easier with CSS3 flex box model, but that's not available in IE yet and has some of it's own quirks.

Solution 6 - Css

It's simple using a table:

<html>

<head>
    <title>100% Height test</title>
</head>

<body>
    <table style="float: left; height: 100%; width: 200px; border: 1px solid red">
        <tbody>
            <tr>
                <td>Nav area</td>
            </tr>
        </tbody>
    </table>
    <div style="border: 1px solid green;">Content blabla... text
        <br /> text
        <br /> text
        <br /> text
        <br />
    </div>
</body>

</html>

When DIV was introduced, people were so afraid of tables that the poor DIV became the metaphorical hammer.

Solution 7 - Css

I ran into the same problem as you. I wanted to make a DIV as background, why, because its easy to manipulate div through javascript. Anyways three things I did in the css for that div.

CSS:

{    
position:absolute; 
display:block; 
height:100%; 
width:100%; 
top:0px; 
left:0px; 
z-index:-1;    
}

Solution 8 - Css

I want to cover the whole web page before prompting a modal popup. I tried many methods using CSS and Javascript but none of them help until I figure out the following solution. It works for me, I hope it helps you too.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
	<head>
		<style>
			html, body {
			    margin: 0px 0px;
			    height 100%;
			}
          
            div.full-page {
                position: fixed;
                top: 0;
                bottom: 0;
                width: 100%;
                height: 100%;
                background-color: #000;
                opacity:0.8;
                overflow-y: hidden;
                overflow-x: hidden;
            }
          
            div.full-page div.avoid-content-highlight {
                position: relative;
                width: 100%;
                height: 100%;
            }
          
            div.modal-popup {
                position: fixed;
                top: 20%;
                bottom: 20%;
                left: 30%;
                right: 30%;
                background-color: #FFF;
                border: 1px solid #000;
            }
		</style>
		<script>
		
			// Polling for the sake of my intern tests
			var interval = setInterval(function() {
				if(document.readyState === 'complete') {
					clearInterval(interval);
					isReady();
				}    
			}, 1000);
			
			function isReady() {
				document.getElementById('btn1').disabled = false;
				document.getElementById('btn2').disabled = false;
				
				// disable scrolling
                document.getElementsByTagName('body')[0].style.overflow = 'hidden';
			}
			
			function promptModalPopup() {
                document.getElementById("div1").style.visibility = 'visible';
                document.getElementById("div2").style.visibility = 'visible';
				
				// disable scrolling
                document.getElementsByTagName('body')[0].style.overflow = 'hidden';
            }
          
            function closeModalPopup() {
                document.getElementById("div2").style.visibility = 'hidden';  
                document.getElementById("div1").style.visibility = 'hidden';
				
				// enable scrolling
                document.getElementsByTagName('body')[0].style.overflow = 'scroll';
            }
		</script>
		
	</head>
	<body id="body">
		<div id="div1" class="full-page">
			<div class="avoid-content-highlight">
                
            </div>
		</div>
        <button id="btn1" onclick="promptModalPopup()" disabled>Prompt Modal Popup</button>
		<div id="demo">
			<h2>Original content</h2>
			<h2>Original content</h2>
			<h2>Original content</h2>
			<h2>Original content</h2>
			<h2>Original content</h2>
			<h2>Original content</h2>
			<h2>Original content</h2>
			<h2>Original content</h2>
			<h2>Original content</h2>
			<h2>Original content</h2>
			<h2>Original content</h2>
			<h2>Original content</h2>
			<h2>Original content</h2>
			<h2>Original content</h2>
			<h2>Original content</h2>
			<h2>Original content</h2>
			<h2>Original content</h2>
			<h2>Original content</h2>
			<h2>Original content</h2>
			<h2>Original content</h2>
			<h2>Original content</h2>
			<h2>Original content</h2>
			<h2>Original content</h2>
		</div>
        <div id="div2" class="modal-popup">
            I am on top of all other containers
            <button id="btn2" onclick="closeModalPopup()" disabled>Close</button>
        <div>
	</body>
</html>

Good luck ;-)

Solution 9 - Css

If you are targeting more modern browsers, life can be very simple. try:

.elem{    
    height: 100vh;
 }

if you need it at 50% of the page, replace 100 with 50.

Solution 10 - Css

* {
margin: 0;
}
html, body {
height: 90%;
}
.content {
min-height: 100%;
height: auto !important;
height: 100%;
margin: 0 auto ;
}

Solution 11 - Css

           document.body.onload = function () {
                var textcontrol = document.getElementById("page");
                textcontrol.style.height = (window.innerHeight) + 'px';
            }


<html>
<head><title></title></head>
<body>

<div id="page" style="background:green;">
</div>
</body>
</html>

Solution 12 - Css

This is how you can make your side nav as tall as the page content, without having to change the body to be flex or table.

Don't set html or body to height 100%, because that will make it only as tall as the browser viewport, and the page will be overflowing that, and your nav will only be as tall as the viewport.

Just set your nav to height:100% position:absolute with the html tag position:relative.

The reason this works is because height 100% only works if its container is fixed height, with the exception (for some reason) the html tag. 

<html style='position:relative'>
	<body style='margin:0'>
		<div style='height:100%; position:absolute; top:0; background:linear-gradient(to bottom,red,green); border:2px solid blue'>
			nav
		</div>
		<div style='font-size:99px;padding:33px'>
			I want my side div to be as tall as the page content.<br />
			I want my side div to be as tall as the page content.<br />
			I want my side div to be as tall as the page content.<br />
			I want my side div to be as tall as the page content.<br />
			I want my side div to be as tall as the page content.<br />
			I want my side div to be as tall as the page content.<br />
			I want my side div to be as tall as the page content.<br />
			I want my side div to be as tall as the page content.<br />
			I want my side div to be as tall as the page content.<br />
			I want my side div to be as tall as the page content.<br />
			I want my side div to be as tall as the page content.<br />
		</div>
	</body>
</html>

Solution 13 - Css

Simple, just wrap it up in a table div...

The HTML:

<div class="fake-table">
   <div class="left-side">
     some text
   </div>
   <div class="right-side">
     My Navigation or something
   </div>
</div>

The CSS:

<style>

 .fake-table{display:table;width:100%;height:100%;}
 .left-size{width:30%;height:100%;}
 .left-size{width:70%;height:100%;}

</style>

Solution 14 - Css

I succeeded with

min-height: 100vh

for both, the menu and content div.

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