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">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" />
<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!
| DISCLAIMER: The content provided in this article is not warranted or guaranteed by Developer Shed, Inc. The content provided is intended for entertainment and/or educational purposes in order to introduce to the reader key ideas, concepts, and/or product reviews. As such it is incumbent upon the reader to employ real-world tactics for security and implementation of best practices. We are not liable for any negative consequences that may result from implementing any information covered in our articles or tutorials. If this is a hardware review, it is not recommended to open and/or modify your hardware. |
