Creating Three-Column Web Page Layous with Negative Margins
Undoubtedly, one of most interesting aspects of building DIV-based web page layouts is that they can be created by means of different approaches, ranging from floating these containing elements to the left and right sides of a web document via the useful “float” CSS property, to implementing more complex techniques, such as using negative margins to accommodate the DIVs in question. In this third article in a four-part series, you will learn how to create the popular three-column web page layout using negative margins.
Creating Three-Column Web Page Layous with Negative Margins - Listing the full source code of the three-column web page design (Page 4 of 4 )
As I stated in the section that you just read, below I listed the complete source code required for building a basic three-column web page layout, including the group of CSS styles that were explained before, along with the corresponding (X)HTML markup:
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
<title>Example on building three-column web page layout using negative margins</title>
<style type="text/css">
body{
padding: 0;
margin: 0;
background: #fff;
}
h1{
font: bold 12pt Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
color: #000;
margin: 0;
}
p{
font: normal 10pt Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
color: #000;
margin: 0;
}
/* style header section */
#header{
background: #ffc;
}
/* style navigation bar */
#navbar{
float: left;
width: 300px;
background: #ccc;
}
/* wraps up the main column */
#wrapper{
float: left;
width: 100%;
margin-left: -300px;
margin-right: -300px;
}
/* style main column */
#maincol{
margin-right: 300px;
margin-left: 300px;
}
/* style side column */
#sidecol{
float: right;
width: 300px;
background: #ccc;
}
/* style footer section */
#footer{
clear: both;
background: #ffc;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<div id="header">
<h1>Header Section</h1>
<p>This is the content of the header section. This is the content of the header section. This is the content of the header section. This is the content of the header section. This is the content of the header section. This is the content of the header section. This is the content of the header section. This is the content of the header section. This is the content of the header section. This is the content of the header section. This is the content of the header section. This is the content of the header section.</p></div>
<div id="navbar">
<h1>Nav Bar</h1>
<p>This is the content of the side column. This is the content of the side column. This is the content of the side column. This is the content of the side column. This is the content of the side column. This is the content of the side column. This is the content of the side column. This is the content of the side column. This is the content of the side column. This is the content of the side column.</p></div>
<div id="wrapper">
<div id="maincol">
<h1>Main Column</h1>
<p>This is the content of the main column. This is the content of the main column. This is the content of the main column. This is the content of the main column. This is the content of the main column. This is the content of the main column. This is the content of the main column. This is the content of the main column. This is the content of the main column. This is the content of the main column.</p></div>
</div>
<div id="sidecol">
<h1>Right Column</h1>
<p>This is the content of the side column. This is the content of the side column. This is the content of the side column. This is the content of the side column. This is the content of the side column. This is the content of the side column. This is the content of the side column. This is the content of the side column. This is the content of the side column. This is the content of the side column.</p></div>
<div id="footer">
<h1>Footer Section</h1>
<p>This is the content of the footer section. This is the content of the footer section. This is the content of the footer section. This is the content of the footer section. This is the content of the footer section. This is the content of the footer section. This is the content of the footer section. This is the content of the footer section. This is the content of the footer section. This is the content of the footer section.</p></div>
</body>
</html>
Here you have it. Now, by using the previous code sample, you'll be able to use CSS negative margins to start building solid web page layouts that will be rendered consistently by most modern browsers.
In addition to studying in detail the practical example developed a few lines above, you may want to take a look at the following image, which shows the web document layout built previously. Here it is:
And finally, feel free to use all of the code samples included in this tutorial to acquire a solid background in constructing consistent web page layouts using CSS negative margins. It's going to be an instructive experience!
Final thoughts
In this third installment of the series, things definitely got much more interesting, since you learned how to use a couple of CSS negative margins to construct a basic three-column web page layout, which will be displayed consistently across most modern browsers.
In the last part of this series, I'll be teaching you how to use this helpful CSS approach to construct a web page layout whose primary columns will be centered in the document using a fixed design.
Now that you've been warned about the topics that will be discussed in the upcoming tutorial, you won't want to miss it!
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