You can use a scrolling div for the whole content in a containing div. The disadvantage is that you will see two vertical scrollbars in IE, or to be more precise, the div scrollbar and the dummy one IE always provides. You will have to give a height for the div, so choose the smallest screen resolution you think people will have, then reduce the div height for the toolbars and system tray. The div will not have much height after that, it will fit a small resolution with the extra scrollbar but it will look much too small in a large screen resolution.
Using a browser sniffer to find out the screen resolution doesn't always work. It will tell you what the viewer has set as his screen resolution and you could provide a stylesheet for a div in that height, but many people with large screen resolutions always view pages in a minimised window and it won't tell you that. Many people with 1600*1200 resolution always split the screen into two 800px wide windows and you won't know that (in this case the heights will still be the same as the screen resolution but if they minimise the height as well as the width you won't know).
You can fix the containing div to the bottom of the screen with bottom: 0; but it doesn't work in IE6. You could use the Berea Street hack which works in IE6, IE7 and Firefox (and probably others). See item 2 here:-
http://www.wickham43.supanet.com/tut...footerfix.html and click the example
http://www.wickham43.supanet.com/tut...ixexample.html
and scroll it. The header and footer are fixed and the center content scrolls. It would probably do what you want.
Last edited by Wickham; 13 Dec 2006 at 06:57 AM.
Code downloaded to my PC will be deleted in due course.
WIN7; IE9, Firefox, Opera, Chrome and Safari for Windows; screen resolution usually 1366*768.
Also IE6 on W98 with 800*600 and IE8 on Vista 1440*900.