Trouble aligning columns in css layout

**rob1984** · 22 Mar 2011, 04:35 PM

Hi, I am fairly new to html and css, I have been learning through designing my own basic layout, which has been going ok till now.

I managed to create a basic 2 column layout which was fine, but when i added a 3rd column things went wrong. Both sidebars are being pushed downwards. The tops of both sidebars are suppose to be in line with the top of the center content area.

I have searched for a solution but havnt had any luck.

This is really frustrating so any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

HTML

Code:

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
	<head>
		<meta name="keywords" content="" />
		<meta name="description" content="" />
		<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
		<title>Index</title>
		<link href="stylesheet.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="screen" />
	</head>
	<body>
	<div id="wrapper">
	<div id="header">
		<div id="logo">
			<h1><a href="url">Website Name</a></h1>
		</div>
	</div>
	<!-- end #header -->
	<div id="menu">
		<ul>
			<li><a href="url">Menu 1</a></li>
			<li><a href="url">Menu 2</a></li>
			<li><a href="url">Menu 3</a></li>
			<li><a href="url">Menu 4</a></li>
			<li><a href="url">Menu 5</a></li>
		</ul>
	</div>
	<!-- end #menu -->
	<div id="page">
		<div id="content">
			<div class="post">
				<h2 class="title"><a href="url">Post Title</a></h2>
				<div class="entry">
					<p>Paragraph 1</p>
					<p>Paragraph 2</p>
					<p>Paragraph 3</p>
					<p>Paragraph 4</p>
					<p>Paragraph 5</p>
				</div>
			</div>
		<div style="clear: both;">&nbsp;</div>
		</div>
		<!-- end #content -->
		<div id="left_sidebar">
			<ul>
				<li>
					<h2>Left Sidebar</h2>
					<ul>
						<li><a href="url">Link 1</a></li>
						<li><a href="url">Link 2</a></li>
						<li><a href="url">Link 3</a></li>
						<li><a href="url">Link 4</a></li>
						<li><a href="url">Link 5</a></li>
					</ul>
				</li>
			</ul>
		</div>
		<!-- end #left_sidebar -->
		<div id="right_sidebar">
			<ul>
				<li>
					<h2>Right Sidebar</h2>
					<ul>
						<li><a href="url">Link 1</a></li>
						<li><a href="url">Link 2</a></li>
						<li><a href="url">Link 3</a></li>
						<li><a href="url">Link 4</a></li>
						<li><a href="url">Link 5</a></li>
					</ul>
				</li>
			</ul>
		</div>
		<!-- end #right_sidebar -->
		<div style="clear: both;">&nbsp;</div>
		</div>
	</div>
	<!-- end #page -->
	<div id="footer">
		<p>Footer - (C) Copyright</p>
	</div>
	<!-- end #footer -->
</body>
</html>

CSS

Code:

body {
	margin: 0;
	padding: 0;
	background: #ffffff;
	font-family: Arial;
	font-size: 12px;
	color: #000000;
}

h1, h2, h3 {
	margin: 0;
	padding: 0;
	font-family: Arial;
	font-weight: normal;
	color: #000000;
}

h1 {
	font-size: 2em;
}

h2 {
	font-size: 1.8em;
}

h3 {
	font-size: 1.6em;
}

p, ul{
	margin-top: 0;
	line-height: 180%;
}

a {
	text-decoration: none;
	color: #000000;
}

a:hover {
}

#wrapper {
	width: 95%;
	margin: 0 auto;
	padding: 0;
}

/* Header */

#header {
	width: 95%;
	height: 110px;
	margin: 0 auto;
}

/* Logo */

#logo {
	float: left;
	height: 65px;
	margin: 0;
	padding-top: 20px;
	color: #000000;
}

#logo h1 {
	margin: 0;
	padding: 0;
	float: left;
	letter-spacing: -1px;
	font-size: 4.6em;
	color: #000000;
}

#logo a {
	border: none;
	background: none;
	text-decoration: none;
	color: #000000;
}

/* Menu */

#menu {
	width: 95%;
	height: 50px;
	margin: 0 auto;
	padding: 0;
	background: #000000;
}

#menu ul {
	margin: 0;
	padding: 0px 0px 0px 10px;
	list-style: none;
	line-height: normal;
}

#menu li {
	float: left;
}

#menu a {
	display: block;
	margin-right: 3px;
	height: 35px;
	padding: 15px 30px 7px 12px;
	text-decoration: none;
	font-family: Arial;
	font-size: 13px;
	font-weight: bold;
	color: #FFFFFF;
	border: none;
}

#menu a:hover {
	text-decoration: underline;
}

/* Page */

#page {
	width: 95%;
	margin: 0 auto;
	padding: 20px 0px 0px 0px;
}

/* Content */

#content {
	margin-left: auto;
	margin-right: auto;
	width: 670px;
	padding: 0;
}

.post {
	margin-bottom: 25px;
	padding: 0px;
	background: #FFFFFF;
}

.post .title {
	height: 38px;
	background: #000000;
	padding: 12px 0 0 20px;
	letter-spacing: -.5px;
	color: #FFFFFF;
}

.post .title a {
	border: none;
	color: #FFFFFF;
}

.post .entry {
	border-left: 1px solid #000000;
	border-right: 1px solid #000000;
	border-bottom: 1px solid #000000;
	padding: 10px 20px 20px 20px;
	padding-bottom: 20px;
	text-align: justify;
}

/* Left Sidebar */

#left_sidebar {
	float: left;
	width: 240px;
	padding: 0px;
	color: #000000;
}

#left_sidebar ul {
	padding: 0;
	list-style: none;
}

#left_sidebar li {
	margin: 0;
	padding: 0;
}

#left_sidebar li ul {
	margin-bottom: 30px;
	padding: 0px 20px 20px 20px;
	background: #FFFFFF;
	border-left: 1px solid #000000;
	border-right: 1px solid #000000;
	border-bottom: 1px solid #000000;
}

#left_sidebar li li {
	line-height: 35px;
	border-bottom: 1px dashed #000000;
	padding-left: 3px;
}

#left_sidebar li li span {
	display: block;
	margin-top: -20px;
	padding: 0;
	font-size: 11px;
	font-style: italic;
}

#left_sidebar h2 {
	height: 38px;
	padding: 12px 0 0 20px;
	background: #000000;
	letter-spacing: -.5px;
	color: #FFFFFF;
}

#left_sidebar p {
	margin: 0px 0px 20px 0px;
	padding: 10px 20px 20px 20px;
	background: #FFFFFF;
	text-align: justify;
}

#left_sidebar a {
	border: none;
}

#left_sidebar a:hover {
	text-decoration: underline;
}

/* Right Sidebar */

#right_sidebar {
	float: right;
	width: 240px;
	padding: 0px;
	color: #000000;
}

#right_sidebar ul {
	padding: 0;
	list-style: none;
}

#right_sidebar li {
	margin: 0;
	padding: 0;
}

#right_sidebar li ul {
	margin-bottom: 30px;
	padding: 0px 20px 20px 20px;
	background: #FFFFFF;
	border-left: 1px solid #000000;
	border-right: 1px solid #000000;
	border-bottom: 1px solid #000000;
}

#right_sidebar li li {
	line-height: 35px;
	border-bottom: 1px dashed #000000;
	padding-left: 3px;
}

#right_sidebar li li span {
	display: block;
	margin-top: -20px;
	padding: 0;
	font-size: 11px;
	font-style: italic;
}

#right_sidebar h2 {
	height: 38px;
	padding: 12px 0 0 20px;
	background: #000000;
	letter-spacing: -.5px;
	color: #FFFFFF;
}

#right_sidebar p {
	margin: 0px 0px 20px 0px;
	padding: 10px 20px 20px 20px;
	background: #FFFFFF;
	text-align: justify;
}

#right_sidebar a {
	border: none;
}

#right_sidebar a:hover {
	text-decoration: underline;
}

/* Footer */

#footer {
	width: 960px;
	height: 64px;
	margin: 0 auto;
	padding: 0px 0 15px 0;
	font-family: Arial;
}

#footer p {
	margin: 0;
	padding-top: 26px;
	line-height: normal;
	font-size: 12px;
	text-align: center;
	color: #000000;
}

#footer a {
	font-weight: bold;
	color: #000000;
}

**Wickham** · 23 Mar 2011, 03:40 AM

Your main containers are width: 95%; but your divs inside are in px so they won't fit unless the window resolution is wide enough.

If you want a fluid width, all elements must have % width including side margins and side padding and images, all totaling 100% (100% of the 95% containers). If you have side borders, these can't be sized in % so you have to make the other items total 97% or 98% to allow for the side borders in px.

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