How to make the main content div fill height of screen with css
JavascriptHtmlCssJavascript Problem Overview
So I have a webpage with a header, mainbody, and footer.
I want the mainbody to fill 100% of the page (fill 100% in between footer and header)
My footer is position absolute with bottom: 0. Everytime I try to set the mainbody to 100% height or change position or something it will also overflow the header. If if set the body to position absolute with top: 40 (cause my header is 40px high), it will just go 40px too far down, creating a scroll bar.
I created a simple html file since i cannot actually post the entire page/css from the actual project. With the sample code, even though the maincontent body fills the screen, it goes 40px too far down (cause of the header I assume).
html,
body {
margin: 0;
padding: 0;
}
header {
height: 40px;
width: 100%;
background-color: blue;
}
#maincontent {
background-color: green;
height: 100%;
width: 100%;
}
footer {
height: 40px;
width: 100%;
background-color: grey;
position: absolute;
bottom: 0;
}
<html>
<head>
<title>test</title>
<link href="style.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css">
</head>
<body>
<header></header>
<div id="maincontent">
</div>
<footer></footer>
</body>
</html>
Anyone knows the answer?
Javascript Solutions
Solution 1 - Javascript
These are not necessary
- remove height in %
- remove jQuery
Stretch div using bottom & top :
.mainbody{
position: absolute;
top: 40px; /* Header Height */
bottom: 20px; /* Footer Height */
width: 100%;
}
check my code : http://jsfiddle.net/aslancods/mW9WF/
or check here:
body {
margin:0;
}
.header {
height: 40px;
background-color: red;
}
.mainBody {
background-color: yellow;
position: absolute;
top: 40px;
bottom: 20px;
width:100%;
}
.content {
color:#fff;
}
.footer {
height: 20px;
background-color: blue;
position: absolute;
bottom: 0;
width:100%;
}
<div class="header" >
</div>
<div class="mainBody">
<div class="content" >Hello world</div>
</div>
<div class="footer">
</div>
Solution 2 - Javascript
No Javascript, no absolute positioning and no fixed heights are required for this one.
Here's an all CSS / CSS only method which doesn't require fixed heights or absolute positioning:
/* Reset */
html,
body {
height: 100%;
margin: 0;
padding: 0;
}
/* Essentials */
.container {
display: table;
}
.content {
display: table-row;
height: 100%;
}
.content-body {
display: table-cell;
}
/* Aesthetics */
.container {
width: 100%;
height: 100%;
}
.header,
.footer {
padding: 10px 20px;
background: #f7f7f7;
}
.content-body {
padding: 20px;
background: #e7e7e7;
}
<div class="container">
<header class="header">
<p>This is the header</p>
</header>
<section class="content">
<div class="content-body">
<p>This is the content.</p>
</div>
</section>
<footer class="footer">
<p>This is the footer.</p>
</footer>
</div>
The benefit of this method is that the footer and header can grow to match their content and the body will automatically adjust itself. You can also choose to limit their height with css.
Solution 3 - Javascript
There is a CSS unit called viewport height / viewport width.
Example
.mainbody{height: 100vh;} similarly html,body{width: 100vw;}
or 90vh = 90% of the viewport height.
**IE9+ and most modern browsers.
Solution 4 - Javascript
This allows for a centered content body with min-width for my forms to not collapse funny:
html {
overflow-y: scroll;
height: 100%;
margin: 0px auto;
padding: 0;
}
body {
height: 100%;
margin: 0px auto;
max-width: 960px;
min-width: 750px;
padding: 0;
}
div#footer {
width: 100%;
position: absolute;
bottom: 0;
left: 0;
height: 60px;
}
div#wrapper {
height: auto !important;
min-height: 100%;
height: 100%;
position: relative;
overflow: hidden;
}
div#pageContent {
padding-bottom: 60px;
}
div#header {
width: 100%;
}
And my layout page looks like:
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en">
<head>
<title></title>
</head>
<body>
<div id="wrapper">
<div id="header"></div>
<div id="pageContent"></div>
<div id="footer"></div>
</div>
</body>
</html>
Example here: http://data.nwtresearch.com/
One more note, if you want the full page background like the code you added looks like, remove the height: auto !important; from the wrapper div: http://jsfiddle.net/mdares/a8VVw/
Solution 5 - Javascript
Using top: 40px and bottom: 40px (assuming your footer is also 40px) with no defined height, you can get this to work.
.header {
width: 100%;
height: 40px;
position: absolute;
top: 0;
background-color:red;
}
.mainBody {
width: 100%;
top: 40px;
bottom: 40px;
position: absolute;
background-color: gray;
}
.footer {
width: 100%;
height: 40px;
position: absolute;
bottom: 0;
background-color: blue;
}
Solution 6 - Javascript
Well, there are different implementations for different browsers.
In my mind, the simplest and most elegant solution is using CSS calc(). Unfortunately, this method is unavailable in ie8 and less, and also not available in android browsers and mobile opera. If you're using separate methods for that, however, you can try this: http://jsfiddle.net/uRskD/
The markup:
<div id="header"></div>
<div id="body"></div>
<div id="footer"></div>
And the CSS:
html, body {
height: 100%;
margin: 0;
}
#header {
background: #f0f;
height: 20px;
}
#footer {
background: #f0f;
height: 20px;
}
#body {
background: #0f0;
min-height: calc(100% - 40px);
}
My secondary solution involves the sticky footer method and box-sizing. This basically allows for the body element to fill 100% height of its parent, and includes the padding in that 100% with box-sizing: border-box;. http://jsfiddle.net/uRskD/1/
html, body {
height: 100%;
margin: 0;
}
#header {
background: #f0f;
height: 20px;
position: absolute;
top: 0;
left: 0;
right: 0;
}
#footer {
background: #f0f;
height: 20px;
position: absolute;
bottom: 0;
left: 0;
right: 0;
}
#body {
background: #0f0;
min-height: 100%;
box-sizing: border-box;
padding-top: 20px;
padding-bottom: 20px;
}
My third method would be to use jQuery to set the min-height of the main content area. http://jsfiddle.net/uRskD/2/
html, body {
height: 100%;
margin: 0;
}
#header {
background: #f0f;
height: 20px;
}
#footer {
background: #f0f;
height: 20px;
}
#body {
background: #0f0;
}
And the JS:
$(function() {
headerHeight = $('#header').height();
footerHeight = $('#footer').height();
windowHeight = $(window).height();
$('#body').css('min-height', windowHeight - headerHeight - footerHeight);
});
Solution 7 - Javascript
Not sure exactly what your after, but I think I get it.
A header - stays at the top of the screen? A footer - stays at the bottom of the screen? Content area -> fits the space between the footer and the header?
You can do this by absolute positioning or with fixed positioning.
Here is an example with absolute positioning: http://jsfiddle.net/FMYXY/1/
Markup:
<div class="header">Header</div>
<div class="mainbody">Main Body</div>
<div class="footer">Footer</div>
CSS:
.header {outline:1px solid red; height: 40px; position:absolute; top:0px; width:100%;}
.mainbody {outline:1px solid green; min-height:200px; position:absolute; top:40px; width:100%; height:90%;}
.footer {outline:1px solid blue; height:20px; position:absolute; height:25px;bottom:0; width:100%; }
To make it work best, I'd suggest using % instead of pixels, as you will run into problems with different screen/device sizes.
Solution 8 - Javascript
Relative values like: height:100% will use the parent element in HTML like a reference, to use relative values in height you will need to make your html and body tags had 100% height like that:
HTML
<body>
<div class='content'></div>
</body>
CSS
html, body
{
height: 100%;
}
.content
{
background: red;
width: 100%;
height: 100%;
}
Solution 9 - Javascript
Although this might sounds like an easy issue, but it's actually not!
I've tried many things to achieve what you're trying to do with pure CSS, and all my tries were failure. But.. there's a possible solution if you use javascript or jquery!
Assuming you have this CSS:
#myheader {
width: 100%;
}
#mybody {
width: 100%;
}
#myfooter {
width: 100%;
}
Assuming you have this HTML:
<div id="myheader">HEADER</div>
<div id="mybody">BODY</div>
<div id="myfooter">FOOTER</div>
Try this with jquery:
<script>
$(document).ready(function() {
var windowHeight = $(window).height();/* get the browser visible height on screen */
var headerHeight = $('#myheader').height();/* get the header visible height on screen */
var bodyHeight = $('#mybody').height();/* get the body visible height on screen */
var footerHeight = $('#myfooter').height();/* get the footer visible height on screen */
var newBodyHeight = windowHeight - headerHeight - footerHeight;
if(newBodyHeight > 0 && newBodyHeight > bodyHeight) {
$('#mybody').height(newBodyHeight);
}
});
</script>
Note: I'm not using absolute positioning in this solution, as it might look ugly in mobile browsers
Solution 10 - Javascript
This question is a duplicate of https://stackoverflow.com/questions/90178/make-a-div-fill-the-height-of-the-remaining-screen-space and the correct answer is to use the flexbox model.
All major browsers and IE11+ support Flexbox. For IE 10 or older, or Android 4.3 and older, you can use the FlexieJS shim.
Note how simple the markup and the CSS are. No table hacks or anything.
html, body {
height: 100%;
margin: 0; padding: 0; /* to avoid scrollbars */
}
#wrapper {
display: flex; /* use the flex model */
min-height: 100%;
flex-direction: column; /* learn more: http://philipwalton.github.io/solved-by-flexbox/demos/sticky-footer/ */
}
#header {
background: yellow;
height: 100px; /* can be variable as well */
}
#body {
flex: 1;
border: 1px solid orange;
}
#footer{
background: lime;
}
<div id="wrapper">
<div id="header">Title</div>
<div id="body">Body</div>
<div id="footer">
Footer<br/>
of<br/>
variable<br/>
height<br/>
</div>
</div>
In the CSS above, the flex property shorthands the flex-grow, flex-shrink, and flex-basis properties to establish the flexibility of the flex items. Mozilla has a good introduction to the flexible boxes model.