Sorry am very new to HTML and CSS. I am trying to achieve a responsive lading page. I was able to display text on image by changing image style to relative and text style to absolute. However when I try to resize the site to mobile or tablet size the text goes under the second image.
Am not sure if I am doing anything wrong. Kindly advise.
Please advise what's the best approach to display text on image and make the site responsive?
<div class="container-fluid">
<div class="row">
<div class="col-lg-12">
<img class="bg_image" src="https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2015/04/23/22/00/tree-736885_960_720.jpg">
<h2 class="Lorem_Headding">Lorem ipsum </h2>
<p class="p-text"> Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Diam vulputate ut pharetra sit amet aliquam id diam. Tempor orci dapibus ultrices in iaculis nunc sed. Sit amet consectetur adipiscing elit pellentesque habitant morbi tristique.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="row">
<div class="col-lg-12">
<img class="bg_image" src="https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2015/04/23/22/00/tree-736885_960_720.jpg">
<h2 class="Lorem_Headding">Lorem ipsum </h2>
<p class="p-text"> Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Diam vulputate ut pharetra sit amet aliquam id diam. Tempor orci dapibus ultrices in iaculis nunc sed. Sit amet consectetur adipiscing elit pellentesque habitant morbi tristique.</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
.bg-image {
position: relative;
}
.Lorem_Headding{
position: absolute;
color: rgb(255, 255, 255);
top: 200px;
left: 50px;
width: 100%;
}
.p-text{
color: white;
position: absolute;
top: 250px;
left: 50px;
width: 660px;
}
.p-text does not need the width: 660px;. the div should wrap the text. you can give the margin, padding for the better UI. for the responsive issue you can try using media query for each screen width.
Related
I have figured out how to set two HTML elements side by side. I want to have a text paragraph on the left and an image on the right.
Currently, my code is:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<style>
</style>
<body>
<div style="width: 50%; height: 100px; float: left;" >
<h2> What We Do</h2>
<p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Morbi tincidunt ornare massa eget egestas. Vel eros donec ac odio tempor. Est velit egestas dui id ornare arcu odio ut sem. Urna porttitor rhoncus dolor purus non enim praesent elementum facilisis.</p>
</div>
<div style="margin-left:50%; "><img style=" max-width: 100%; height: auto;" src="https://images.designtrends.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/06094112/Beautiful-Mountain-HD-Backgrounds.jpg" >
</div>
</div>
</body>
</html>
This is results in an two column layout, but I want to know how to format.
I want to add padding to the text, but when I do so, the image is messed up completely. How can I padding padding to my text so that there is space around it? I tried to add padding:20px; to the <div> that has the text which doesn't work.
<div style="width: 50%; height: 100px; float: left; padding:20px;">
<h2> What We Do</h2>
<p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Morbi tincidunt ornare massa eget egestas. Vel eros donec ac odio tempor. Est velit egestas dui id ornare arcu odio ut sem. Urna porttitor rhoncus dolor purus non enim praesent elementum facilisis.</p>
</div>
Use Grid with a media query for smaller screens:
article {
display: grid;
}
div {
padding: 0.5em;
}
img {
width: 100%;
}
#media (min-width: 400px) {
article {
grid-template-columns: 50% 50%;
}
}
<article>
<div>
<h2> What We Do</h2>
<p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Morbi tincidunt ornare massa eget egestas. Vel eros donec ac odio tempor. Est velit egestas dui id ornare arcu odio ut sem.
Urna porttitor rhoncus dolor purus non enim praesent elementum facilisis.</p>
</div>
<img src="https://images.designtrends.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/06094112/Beautiful-Mountain-HD-Backgrounds.jpg">
</article>
use box-sizing:border-box, after applying padding, so the padding will be calculated within the width
For more info Reference
<div style="width: 50%; height: 100px; float: left; padding:20px;box-sizing:border-box" >
<h2> What We Do</h2>
<p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Morbi tincidunt ornare massa eget egestas. Vel eros donec ac odio tempor. Est velit egestas dui id ornare arcu odio ut sem. Urna porttitor rhoncus dolor purus non enim praesent elementum facilisis.</p>
</div>
<div style="margin-left:50%; "><img style=" max-width: 100%; height: auto;" src="https://images.designtrends.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/06094112/Beautiful-Mountain-HD-Backgrounds.jpg" >
</div>
</div>
The best way to do this is to wrap both <div> inside a flex-box. And adding border-box as value for box-sizing property. You can read more about box-sizing here: Box Sizing and about Flex Box here. Both are pretty useful to placing items side by side.
Here is a sample code.
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<style>
* {
box-sizing: border-box;
}
</style>
<body>
<div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; width: 100%;">
<div style="width: 50%; height: 100px; padding:20px;">
<h2> What We Do</h2>
<p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et
dolore
magna aliqua. Morbi tincidunt ornare massa eget egestas. Vel eros donec ac odio tempor. Est velit
egestas
dui id ornare arcu odio ut sem. Urna porttitor rhoncus dolor purus non enim praesent elementum
facilisis.
</p>
</div>
<div style="width: 50%; padding: 20px;">
<img style=" max-width: 100%; height: auto;"
src="https://images.designtrends.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/06094112/Beautiful-Mountain-HD-Backgrounds.jpg" />
</div>
</div>
</body>
</html>
The box-sizing will prevent your image from changing position when adding padding to the div. And flex-box is much better way to position things instead of float as it offers more functionality and can also position things vertically.
Here is another great article related to Flex Box - Must Read.
You can use this example for side by side
.flex-container {
display: flex;
}
.flex-child {
flex: 1;
border: 2px solid yellow;
}
.flex-child:first-child {
margin-right: 20px;
}
<div class="flex-container">
<div class="flex-child magenta">
Flex Column 1
</div>
<div class="flex-child green">
Flex Column 2
</div>
</div>
Using flex makes it really simple to control the layout.
.container {
display: flex;
height: max-content;
gap: 1rem;
}
.flex-item {
flex: 1;
width: 50%;
}
.info {
height: 100px;
padding: 20px;
}
.image {
display: inline-block;
height: 150px;
width: 250px;
padding: 20px;
}
<div class="container">
<div class="flex-item info">
<h2> What We Do</h2>
<p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Morbi tincidunt ornare massa eget egestas. Vel eros donec ac odio tempor. Est velit egestas dui id ornare arcu odio ut sem.
Urna porttitor rhoncus dolor purus non enim praesent elementum facilisis.</p>
</div>
<div class="flex-item">
<div><img class="image" src="https://images.designtrends.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/06094112/Beautiful-Mountain-HD-Backgrounds.jpg">
</div>
</div>
</div>
This question already has answers here:
Percentage Height HTML 5/CSS
(7 answers)
Closed 2 years ago.
I'm trying to make a hero style home page for my website but i set the height to a percentage the image disappears. When I use rem or px the image pops up. I want it to be responsive. Is there any way to go about it that im missing?
.main-content {
background: url(/pictures/picture1.jpg);
background-repeat: no-repeat;
background-size: cover;
height: 100%;
width: 100%;
}
<div class="main-content">
<p class="text">
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Adipiscing vitae proin sagittis nisl rhoncus. Mauris augue neque gravida in fermentum et sollicitudin ac orci. Volutpat lacus laoreet
non curabitur gravida arcu ac. Ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur adipiscing elit ut.
</p>
<button class="btn">Read More</button>
</div>
your div inherits it's height from parent.
.main-content {
background: url('https://via.placeholder.com/350');
background-repeat: no-repeat;
background-size: cover;
height:100%;
width: 100%;
}
html,body{
height:100%;}
<div class="main-content">
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Adipiscing vitae proin sagittis nisl rhoncus. Mauris augue neque gravida in fermentum et sollicitudin ac orci. Volutpat lacus laoreet
non curabitur gravida arcu ac. Ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur adipiscing elit ut.
<button class="btn">Read More</button>
</div>
When I set the .sidebar width to be 100%, it gets smaller than before.
However, when I remove the body's font-size: 1.3rem and toggle the .sidebar's width: 100%, it gets slightly larger.
I know that when we set the font-size to be 1.3rem, .primary-content's horizontal width (if it didn't wrap) should still be the same ratio as the .sidebar's width (if it didn't wrap).
So I'm not sure how flexbox calculates width: 100%
body {
font-size: 1.3rem;
}
h1 {
margin-top: 0;
}
.container {
width: 80%;
max-width: 1100px;
margin: 0 auto;
}
.row {
display: flex;
}
.primary-content {
background-color: moccasin;
}
.sidebar {
/* width: 100%; */
padding: 1em;
text-align: center;
color: #fff;
background-color: #136c72;
}
<main class="main container row">
<section class="primary-content">
<h2>Quality designs made custom, on demand, just for you</h2>
<p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore
et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam.</p>
</section>
<aside class="sidebar">
<h2>Cheap</h2>
<p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam.</p>
</aside>
</main>
Here's the codepen.
https://codepen.io/Fullchee/pen/OJMBovq
It's all about the initial width here. To understand this let's take another simple example with less code:
.box {
display: flex;
width: 50%;
border: 2px solid red;
margin: auto;
}
.box>div {
border: 1px solid green;
}
<div class="box">
<div>
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Mauris nulla nisi, accumsan vel purus nec, pretium dictum ex. Suspendisse pellentesque velit eget turpis porttitor efficitur
</div>
<div>
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Mauris nulla nisi, accumsan vel purus nec, pretium dictum ex. Suspendisse pellentesque velit eget turpis porttitor efficitur
</div>
</div>
<div class="box">
<div>
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Mauris nulla nisi, accumsan vel purus nec, pretium dictum ex. Suspendisse pellentesque velit eget turpis porttitor efficitur
</div>
<div style="width:100%;">
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Mauris nulla nisi, accumsan vel purus nec, pretium dictum ex. Suspendisse pellentesque velit eget turpis porttitor efficitur
</div>
</div>
It's trivial, that the second case seems a bit strange because the width is reduced but this is logical.
First, you should notice that both elements have the same content and the content need to wrap inside each one because there is not enough space.
If we reduce the content it will be different:
.box {
display: flex;
width: 50%;
border: 2px solid red;
margin: auto;
}
.box>div {
border: 1px solid green;
}
<div class="box">
<div>
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet,
</div>
<div>
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet,
</div>
</div>
<div class="box">
<div>
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet,
</div>
<div style="width:100%;">
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet,
</div>
</div>
To understand both cases, you need to understand the flexbox algorithm that I will summarize in 3 points:
We first set the initial width of each element
If the total width is bigger that the container width, we shrink both elements
The shrink factor consider the negative free space (total width - container width) and the width of each element.
The trick is in the (1).
Without width:100% we will have the following in (1)
$('.box div').each(function() {
console.log($(this).width());
})
.box {
display: flex;
width: 50%;
border: 2px solid red;
margin: auto;
}
.box>div {
border: 1px solid green;
flex-shrink:0;
}
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/jquery/3.3.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<div class="box">
<div>
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Mauris nulla nisi, accumsan vel purus nec, pretium dictum ex. Suspendisse pellentesque velit eget turpis porttitor efficitur
</div>
<div>
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Mauris nulla nisi, accumsan vel purus nec, pretium dictum ex. Suspendisse pellentesque velit eget turpis porttitor efficitur
</div>
</div>
Both elements have the same width so both will shrink the same way to get the following:
$('.box div').each(function() {
console.log($(this).width());
})
.box {
display: flex;
width: 50%;
border: 2px solid red;
margin: auto;
}
.box>div {
border: 1px solid green;
flex-shrink:1;
}
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/jquery/3.3.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<div class="box">
<div>
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Mauris nulla nisi, accumsan vel purus nec, pretium dictum ex. Suspendisse pellentesque velit eget turpis porttitor efficitur
</div>
<div>
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Mauris nulla nisi, accumsan vel purus nec, pretium dictum ex. Suspendisse pellentesque velit eget turpis porttitor efficitur
</div>
</div>
Now if you make the second element width:100% it will have a smaller initial width
$('.box div').each(function() {
console.log($(this).width());
})
.box {
display: flex;
width: 50%;
border: 2px solid red;
margin: auto;
}
.box>div {
border: 1px solid green;
flex-shrink:0;
}
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/jquery/3.3.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<div class="box">
<div>
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Mauris nulla nisi, accumsan vel purus nec, pretium dictum ex. Suspendisse pellentesque velit eget turpis porttitor efficitur
</div>
<div style="width:100%">
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Mauris nulla nisi, accumsan vel purus nec, pretium dictum ex. Suspendisse pellentesque velit eget turpis porttitor efficitur
</div>
</div>
The first one is almost 3 times bigger than the second one thus they will not shrink the same way and at the end the second will remain smaller (it will be kept at almost 3 times smaller)
$('.box div').each(function() {
console.log($(this).width());
})
.box {
display: flex;
width: 50%;
border: 2px solid red;
margin: auto;
}
.box>div {
border: 1px solid green;
flex-shrink:1;
}
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/jquery/3.3.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<div class="box">
<div>
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Mauris nulla nisi, accumsan vel purus nec, pretium dictum ex. Suspendisse pellentesque velit eget turpis porttitor efficitur
</div>
<div style="width:100%">
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Mauris nulla nisi, accumsan vel purus nec, pretium dictum ex. Suspendisse pellentesque velit eget turpis porttitor efficitur
</div>
</div>
Same logic apply to your code!
The same logic also apply when smaller content is used but in this case width:100% can make the initial width of the second item bigger so we end having a bigger element (like in the second snippet above)
Some related questions where you will get more details around the calculation and the flexbox algorithm:
How flexbox calculates flex-item's width if no flex-basis or width are set?
Why is a flex item limited to parent size?
The unpredictable wrapping habits of CSS
In case you want to increase the width of your element you can make the first element to shrink more:
body {
font-size: 1.3rem;
}
h1 {
margin-top: 0;
}
.container {
width: 80%;
max-width: 1100px;
margin: 0 auto;
}
.row {
display: flex;
}
.primary-content {
background-color: moccasin;
}
.sidebar {
padding: 1em;
text-align: center;
color: #fff;
background-color: #136c72;
}
<main class="main container row">
<section class="primary-content">
<h2>Quality designs made custom, on demand, just for you</h2>
<p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore
et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam.</p>
</section>
<aside class="sidebar">
<h2>Cheap</h2>
<p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam.</p>
</aside>
</main>
<main class="main container row">
<section class="primary-content" style="flex-shrink:1.2;">
<h2>Quality designs made custom, on demand, just for you</h2>
<p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore
et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam.</p>
</section>
<aside class="sidebar">
<h2>Cheap</h2>
<p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam.</p>
</aside>
</main>
You can also define flex-shrink for both and make sure it's bigger for the first element:
I have set the overflow to scroll but still i am unable to scroll my web page.
the overflow is reset to hidden automatically once i build and view my web page in visual studio. i also tried adding height in my css but did not work.
Below is my CSS Code :
body
{
margin: 0;
padding: 0;
font-family: "Open Sans";
font-size: 14px;
font-weight: 400;
overflow: scroll;
background-color: #ececec;
color: #102c58;
}
If you add height in your CSS then your scroll will work, without height scroll is not working.
Try: height:500px;
Height is missing in CSS. Add height in CSS
div.ex1 {
background-color: lightblue;
width: 300px;
height: 110px;
overflow-y: scroll;
}
<div class="ex1">Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat.Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat.Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat.Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat.</div>
update: at bottom
I am trying to get a layout working where the body background image is also the background for the first 123px of the main content div. I then want to put a background on the main content div (starting at 123px) and then fill down.
However repeat-y obviously fills both up and down and therefore repeats over the top of the body background.
----------------------
| |
| HEADER DIV + NAV |
BODY WITH | | BODY WITH
BACKGROUND IMAGE|--------------------| BACKGROUND IMAGE
| ^ |
| CONTENT DIV | |
| 123px|
| | |
| v |
|--NEW CONTENT IMAGE-|
BODY WITH | | BODY WITH
BACKGROUND IMAGE | | BACKGROUND IMAGE
| |
| |
|<--------------------100 % Width------------------->|
Something like this works great for a no-repeat:
#content {
background: transparent url(images/content.gif) no-repeat center 123px;
width: 970px;
margin: 0 auto;
padding: 0 0 0;
position:relative;
}
but as soon as i add the repeat-y its going to fill the content div both up and down and overlay the first 123px of the background that i want from the body bg image.
I was thinking of adding a div inside the #content div which i set the repeating image on but then all my content would have to start 123pixels down and i want it to start at the top of the content div.
any ideas how i can overcome this?
UPDATE:
Thanks for the reponses. I only just foud this site and i am quite new to html/css but i love the idea of the site. Hopefully i can help with some XSLT for others :)
Ok Erik's post has got me very close to what i need. I think i am not doing things the best way by trying to use the body background image in the top of the content div. I am going to slice the relavent part out of the background image and use it as a separate image in the top of the content div and use the z-index to put it on top of my main content repeat-y (shown in my example below by the dashed border).
my only remaiing problem with this is getting the content wrapper to scale vertically according to the content within. I have tred lots of things but i cant get it to work!
here's basically what i have now (sorry i cant host the example, but it should show the height problem).
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd"
>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<style>
* {margin: 0; padding: 0; }
body {
font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;
width:100%;
background:red url(images/bg.jpg) no-repeat scroll center top;
display:table;
}
#top_bar{
height:17px;
background: green url(images/top_bar.jpg) no-repeat scroll center top;
padding:0;
margin:0 auto;
}
#header{
height:221px;
width: 970px;
background:pink;
position:relative;
margin: 0px auto;
}
#wrapper{
position: relative;
margin: 0 auto;
height: 300px;
width: 970px;
}
#content {
color:white;
height:100%;
width: 970px;
margin: 0 auto;
padding: 0 0 0;
position:absolute;
top:0;
left:0px;
z-index: 3;
}
#top-background{
height:123px;
width: 970px;
position:absolute;
background:red;
top:0;
left:0px;
z-index: 2;
border:dashed 3px #000;
}
#bottom-background{
height:100%;
width: 970px;
background: blue url(images/content.gif) repeat-y center top;
position:absolute;
top:0px;
left:0px;
z-index: 1;
}
#wrapper-foot{
height:50px;
width:970px;
position:relative;
margin: 0 auto 50px;
background:orange;
z-index: 1;
}
</style>
<title>Hi there</title>
</head>
<body>
<div id="top_bar" ></div>
<div id="header">
<!-- some nav etc -->
</div>
<div id="wrapper">
<div id="top-background"></div>
<div id="bottom-background"></div>
<div id="content">
<p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat.</p>
<p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat.</p>
<p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat.</p>
<p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat.</p>
<p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat.</p>
<p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat.</p>
<p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat.</p>
<p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat.</p>
<p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat.</p>
<p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat.</p>
<p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat.</p>
<p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat.</p>
<p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat.</p>
<p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat.</p>
<p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat.</p>
<p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat.</p>
<p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat.</p>
<p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat.</p>
<p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat.</p>
<p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat.</p>
<p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div id="wrapper-foot"></div>
</body>
</html>
You can get what you want with some z-index fun. Its not terribly semantic, but it works. Here's an example:
http://www.pixeloution.com/bg_test.html
You can view source for the code.
Basically, I've put the column in a wrapper, and positioned the wrapper where I want the column. Then I've given the column an absolute position and a zindex of 3. Next, I create a div to hold the top half background, and give that a zindex of 2. Finally, the background that will repeat all the way down the page, and give that a zindex of 1. The entire page is here:
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd"
>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<style>
#wrapper {
position: relative;
margin: 0 auto;
width: 300px;
height: 600px;
}
#column {
position: absolute;
margin: 0 auto;
height: 600px;
z-index: 3;
}
#top_background {
width: 300px;
height: 150px;
position: absolute;
top: 0px;
left: 0px;
background: pink;
z-index: 2;
}
#bottom_background {
width: 300px;
height: 100%;
position: absolute;
top: 0px;
left: 0px;
background: orange;
z-index: 1;
}
</style>
<title>Hi there</title>
</head>
<body>
<div id="wrapper">
<div id="top_background"></div>
<div id="bottom_background"></div>
<div id="column">
<p>This is my content. There are just lines and lines of it. They
go on and on but really don't say very much. Or anything at all.
They really just talk about themselves. Very meta.</p>
<p>This is my content. There are just lines and lines of it. They
go on and on but really don't say very much. Or anything at all.
They really just talk about themselves. Very meta.</p>
<p>This is my content. There are just lines and lines of it. They
go on and on but really don't say very much. Or anything at all.
They really just talk about themselves. Very meta.</p>
<p>This is my content. There are just lines and lines of it. They
go on and on but really don't say very much. Or anything at all.
They really just talk about themselves. Very meta.</p>
<p>This is my content. There are just lines and lines of it. They
go on and on but really don't say very much. Or anything at all.
They really just talk about themselves. Very meta.</p>
</div>
</div>
</body>
</html>
I suggest using this structure of html:
<html>
<body>
<div id='header'>stuff</div>
<div id='content'>stuff</div>
<!--footer optionally -->
</body>
</html>
suggested css:
body { text-align: center; }
body div { text-align: left; } /* centering for ie6 */
#header { height: 123px }
#content { background:transparent url(images/content.gif) repeat-y; }
I hope this helps.
I can help better if I see what the current structure of your html is.
Cheers,
jrh