Swapping Column Positions in Web Page Layouts with Negative Margins
In this second part of a four-part series on using negative margins to create DIV-based web page layouts, we're going to expand on what we learned in the first article by actually switching the positions of the columns of our sample web page. Keep reading to learn how.
Swapping Column Positions in Web Page Layouts with Negative Margins - The complete source code for the previous two-column liquid design (Page 4 of 4 )
In accordance with the concepts deployed in the prior section, here’s the full source code required to build a two-column web page layout, where the respective positions of the side and main columns have been inverted by using negative margins.
The corresponding code sample is as follows:
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
<title>Example on two-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 side column */
#sidecol{
float: left;
width: 300px;
background: #eee;
}
/* wraps up the main column */
#wrapper{
width: 100%;
float: right;
margin-left: -300px;
}
/* style main column */
#maincol{
margin-left: 300px;
}
/* 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="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>Side 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>
Finally, to complete the earlier hands-on example, here’s an screen capture that shows the visual appearance of this sample two-column web page:
Final thoughts
For now, that covers the use of CSS negative margins to build basic two-column web page layouts. As you saw for yourself, it’s quite easy to swap the main columns of a web document by means of this useful technique, so I suggest that you play with the code samples shown here to give yourself a solid background on this topic.
In the next part of the series, I’ll be teaching you how to create three-column web page layouts by utilizing negative margins. You don’t have any excuses to miss it!
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Style Sheets 
Creating Web Page Layouts with Negative Margins
