I am trying to lay out a table-like page with two columns. I want the rightmost column to dock to the right of the page, and this column should have a distinct background color. The content in the right side is almost always going to be smaller than that on the left. I would like the div on the right to always be tall enough to reach the separator for the row below it. How can I make my background color fill that space?
.rightfloat {
color: red;
background-color: #BBBBBB;
float: right;
width: 200px;
}
.left {
font-size: 20pt;
}
.separator {
clear: both;
width: 100%;
border-top: 1px solid black;
}
<div class="separator">
<div class="rightfloat">
Some really short content.
</div>
<div class="left">
Some really really really really really really
really really really really big content
</div>
</div>
<div class="separator">
<div class="rightfloat">
Some more short content.
</div>
<div class="left">
Some really really really really really really
really really really really big content
</div>
</div>
Edit: I agree that this example is very table-like and an actual table would be a fine choice. But my "real" page will eventually be less table-like, and I'd just like to first master this task!
Also, for some reason, when I create/edit my posts in IE7, the code shows up correctly in the preview view, but when I actually post the message, the formatting gets removed. Editing my post in Firefox 2 seems to have worked, FWIW.
Another edit: Yeah, I unaccepted GateKiller's answer. It does indeed work nicely on my simple page, but not in my actual heavier page. I'll investigate some of the links y'all have pointed me to.
Ahem...
The short answer to your question is that you must set the height of 100% to the body and html tag, then set the height to 100% on each div element you want to make 100% the height of the page.
Actually, 100% height will not work in most design situations - this may be short but it is not a good answer. Google "any column longest" layouts. The best way is to put the left and right cols inside a wrapper div, float the left and right cols and then float the wrapper - this makes it stretch to the height of the inner containers - then set background image on the outer wrapper. But watch for any horizontal margins on the floated elements in case you get the IE "double margin float bug".
Give this a try:
html, body,
#left, #right {
height: 100%
}
#left {
float: left;
width: 25%;
}
#right {
width: 75%;
}
<html>
<body>
<div id="left">
Content
</div>
<div id="right">
Content
</div>
</body>
</html>
Some browsers support CSS tables, so you could create this kind of layout using the various CSS display: table-* values. There's more information on CSS tables in this article (and the book of the same name) by Rachel Andrew: Everything You Know About CSS is Wrong
If you need a consistent layout in older browsers that don't support CSS tables, you need to do two things:
Make your "table row" element clear its internal floated elements.
The simplest way of doing this is to set overflow: hidden which takes care of most browsers, and zoom: 1 to trigger the hasLayout property in older versions of IE.
There are many other ways of clearing floats, if this approach causes undesirable side effects you should check the question which method of 'clearfix' is best and the article on having layout for other methods.
Balance the height of the two "table cell" elements.
There are two ways you could approach this. Either you can create the appearance of equal heights by setting a background image on the "table row" element (the faux columns technique) or you can make the heights of the columns match by giving each a large padding and equally large negative margin.
Faux columns is the simpler approach and works very well when the width of one or both columns is fixed. The other technique copes better with variable width columns (based on percentage or em units) but can cause problems in some browsers if you link directly to content within your columns (e.g. if a column contained <div id="foo"></div> and you linked to #foo)
Here's an example using the padding/margin technique to balance the height of the columns.
html, body {
height: 100%;
}
.row {
zoom: 1; /* Clear internal floats in IE */
overflow: hidden; /* Clear internal floats */
}
.right-column,
.left-column {
padding-bottom: 1000em; /* Balance the heights of the columns */
margin-bottom: -1000em; /* */
}
.right-column {
width: 20%;
float: right;
}
.left-column {
width: 79%;
float: left;
}
<div class="row">
<div class="right-column">Right column content</div>
<div class="left-column">Left column content</div>
</div>
<div class="row">
<div class="right-column">Right column content</div>
<div class="left-column">Left column content</div>
</div>
This Barcamp demo by Natalie Downe may also be useful when figuring out how to add additional columns and nice spacing and padding: Equal Height Columns and other tricks (it's also where I first learnt about the margin/padding trick to balance column heights)
I gave up on strictly CSS and used a little jquery:
var leftcol = $("#leftcolumn");
var rightcol = $("#rightcolumn");
var leftcol_height = leftcol.height();
var rightcol_height = rightcol.height();
if (leftcol_height > rightcol_height)
rightcol.height(leftcol_height);
else
leftcol.height(rightcol_height);
Here's an example of equal-height columns - Equal Height Columns - revisited
You can also check out the idea of "Faux Columns" as well - Faux Columns
Don't go the table route. If it's not tabular data, don't treat it as such. It's bad for accessibility and flexibility.
I had the same problem on my site (shameless plug).
I had the nav section "float: right" and the main body of the page has a background image about 250px across aligned to the right and "repeat-y". I then added something with "clear: both" to it. Here is the W3Schools and the CSS clear property.
I placed the clear at the bottom of the "page" classed div. My page source looks something like this.
body
-> header (big blue banner)
-> headerNav (green bar at the top)
-> breadcrumbs (invisible at the moment)
-> page
-> navigation (floats to the right)
-> content (main content)
-> clear (the quote at the bottom)
-> footerNav (the green bar at the bottom)
-> clear (empty but still does something)
-> footer (blue thing at the bottom)
I hope that helps :)
No need to write own css, there is an library called "Bootstrap css" by calling that in your HTML head section, we can achieve many stylings,Here is an example:
If you want to provide two column in a row, you can simply do the following:
<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/3.3.7/css/bootstrap.min.css">
<div class="row">
<div class="col-md-6">Content</div>
<div class="col-md-6">Content</div>
</div>
Here md stands for medium device,,you can use col-sm-6 for smaller devices and col-xs-6 for extra small devices
The short answer to your question is that you must set the height of 100% to the body and html tag, then set the height to 100% on each div element you want to make 100% the height of the page.
A 2 column layout is a little bit tough to get working in CSS (at least until CSS3 is practical.)
Floating left and right will work to a point, but it won't allow you to extend the background. To make backgrounds stay solid, you'll have to implement a technique known as "faux columns," which basically means your columns themselves won't have a background image. Your 2 columns will be contained inside of a parent tag. This parent tag is given a background image that contains the 2 column colors you want. Make this background only as big as you need it to (if it is a solid color, only make it 1 pixel high) and have it repeat-y. AListApart has a great walkthrough on what is needed to make it work.
http://www.alistapart.com/articles/fauxcolumns/
I can think of 2 options
Use javascript to resize the smaller column on page load.
Fake the equal heights by setting the background-color for the column on the container <div/> instead (<div class="separator"/>) with repeat-y
Just trying to help out here so the code is more readable.
Remember that you can insert code snippets by clicking on the button at the top with "101010". Just enter your code then highlight it and click the button.
Here is an example:
<html>
<body>
<style type="text/css">
.rightfloat {
color: red;
background-color: #BBBBBB;
float: right;
width: 200px;
}
.left {
font-size: 20pt;
}
.separator {
clear: both;
width: 100%;
border-top: 1px solid black;
}
</style>
This should work for you: Set the height to 100% in your css for the html and body elements. You can then adjust the height to your needs in the div.
html {
height: 100%;
}
body {
height: 100%;
}
div {
height: 100%; /* Set Div Height */
}
It's enough to just use the css property width to do so.
Here is an example:
<style type="text/css">;
td {
width:25%;
height:100%;
float:left;
}
</style>
.rightfloat {
color: red;
background-color: #BBBBBB;
float: right;
width: 200px;
}
.left {
font-size: 20pt;
}
.separator {
clear: both;
width: 100%;
border-top: 1px solid black;
}
<div class="separator">
<div class="rightfloat">
Some really short content.
</div>
<div class="left">
Some really really really really really really
really really really really big content
</div>
</div>
<div class="separator">
<div class="rightfloat">
Some more short content.
</div>
<div class="left">
Some really really really really really really
really really really really big content
</div>
</div>
Related
i have a header, which takes the whole width of the screen. in my header i want to place 3 divs, which should be aligned next to each other. the div's on the side being fixed-width, and the middle should take the other space available. so i don't know the width of the header, and i don't know the width of the middle container.
right now i have this code:
html:
<div id="header">
<div id="menu-container">
menu goes here
</div>
<div id="logo-container">
logo goes here
</div>
<div id="music-player-container">
music player comes here
</div>
</div>
and css:
#header {
height: 200px;
margin: 0;
padding: 0;
border: 0;
}
#menu-container {
width: 400px;
height: inherit;
float: left;
}
#logo-container {
height: 100%;
background-image: url('../images/logo.png');
background-repeat: no-repeat;
background-position: center;
float: left;
width: auto;
}
#music-player-container {
width: 400px;
height: inherit;
float: left;
}
which should be working according to other problems with the float.... it doesn't
You can use floated divs with negative margins:
http://jsfiddle.net/cy5E7/1/
In your case:
http://jsfiddle.net/AjVHy/
Negative margins are better then just left/right float fixed divs. We don't get messed layout if user have very small window. Look at this bad example (resize browser window to small width): http://jsfiddle.net/surendraVsingh/qZLHb/1/ (thanks to #SVS). In normal float layout, all floated divs are on place only if parent container is wide enough.
Another disadvantage of standard float layout is when we want column layout but we don't know height of middle content, look like it can look
float layout, dynamic content height
negative margins layout, dynamic content height
Switch the order of your second and third divs then use this CSS.
#menu-container, #music-player-container {
float:left;
width: 400px;
}
#music-player-container {
float:right;
}
#logo-container {
margin:0 400px;
}
jsfiddle example
I'm not exactly sure of what you are planning to code up, but in my perspective, I see it like this: "You want to have 3 columns, column 1 being of a fixed with, column 2 a fluid width and column 3 yet again of fixed width."
What I fail to understand here is that, in the case of a really small width monitor (like a 1024x768 resolution, for instance), having a 400px column on both sides would leave you with just 224px of logo space. It would look un-natural.
Anyways, if you would still like to continue, I suggest you enclose all the three divs [menu-container, logo-container & music-player-container] inside another element called header (If you're using HTML5) or another div with any name you like (If you're using <= HTML 4.01) and then fix it's width to 100%; and a fixed height of 200px;.
Then let the menu-container, float: left; and the music-player-container float: right;. This will give space to the logo-container. Let the logo-container have a width: auto;. Having done this will give you a basic semi-fluid header layout, if I'm right.
Cheers, hope your question gets solved quick :)
I understand what you're trying to do, and I am sorry to say that I have yet to find a solution for this issue without using some ugly form of JavaScript/jQuery.
Essentially, the problem is that CSS does not have any properties (not even when fiddling with display properties) that will allow you to have two elements, one with fixed width and the other taking up the remainder of the space in the div. There are some options with float that can allow you to very closely simulate this, but I can tell you that they are unlikely to give you what you really want.
There is a resource out there, a project called Bootstrap, that you can install like any other jQuery plugin (or you can actually use it like a "CSS" plugin - you'll see what I mean - if you don't want the JavaScript), that will enable you to do what you want.
Here is the link: http://twitter.github.com/bootstrap/download.html
I strongly recommend that you review the documentation first to make sure you are aware of any caveats/limitations.
Good Luck!
EDIT: I like rogal's answer, but before using it you should bear in mind that doing so removes your ability to add a left border and makes it very difficult to apply background images to the div with the negative margin.
another option:
#header {
display: table;
height: 200px;
margin: 0;
padding: 0;
border: none;
}
#header > div {
display: table-cell;
height: inherit;
}
#menu-container, #music-player-container {
width: 400px;
}
#logo-container {
background-image: url('../images/logo.png');
background-repeat: no-repeat;
background-position: center;
}
HTH
You could of course use a table..
-hides-
Something like this inside the header div:
<table width=100%>
<tr>
<td width=200>
menu
</td>
<td>
logo
</td>
<td width=400>
music
</td>
</tr>
</table>
(too lazy for CSS atm)
Can't think of a very good way to do this. Not an ideal solution, but you could turn this into a table.
<table>
<tr>
<td>
<div></div>
</td>
<td>
<div></div>
</td>
<td>
<div></div>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
Then you can just set the dimensions of the div and the td that contains it to be the same.
I have a couple of list elements and in there I have 2 div's floating left. I want that when the sencond div gets more content that the div left to it automaticly gets the same height.
I have both divs in a different bg color so when 1 has less content then the other, the div gets higher and the bg dont match horizontaly.
Maby you could take a quick peek at the website, then you know exactly what I mean,
http://newsbreak.vazcreations.nl (top middle container is the problem).
Thanks in advance
This problem can be solved reasonably easily without javascript. It's recommended that you don't use javascript to achieve something if it's avoidable as not all users have javascript enabled.
The technique that is employed to solve your problem, without using javascript, is called Faux Columns (this article goes one step further and uses images, but you don't need to.
Essentially you place the div on the right inside the left div. Set the width of the left div to the ideal total width of both divs, and then float the right div to the right. You may need to apply a clearfix to the left div so that is properly wraps around the second div.
Edit: I've just come across an article which proposes a few other solutions which seem to be worth looking into.
I think something like this should work:
EDIT: This is probably a better solution
<style type="text/css">
#container {
display:table;
border-collapse:collapse;
}
#layout {
display:table-row;
}
#left-sidebar, #right-sidebar, #content {
text-align:left;
display:table-cell;
}
</style>
<div id="container">
<div id="layout">
<div id="left-sidebar">
<!-- left sidebar-->
</div>
<div id="content">
<!-- content -->
</div>
<div id="right-sidebar">
<!-- right sidebar -->
</div>
</div>
</div>
See this jsFiddle for a demonstration: http://jsfiddle.net/Qhk7R/
You could fake it with changing this:
.recent-item {
height: 50px;
list-style: none;
float: left;
}
to
.recent-item {
height: 50px;
list-style: none;
float: left;
background-color: #CDCDCD;
margin-top: 5px;
}
and removing the top margin for .main-date and .recent-bericht
Use jQuery:
var div_1_height = $('.div-1').height();
$('.div-2).height(div_1_height);
I want a container with two columns. Details:
The container
Width should adjust to 100% of its parent element (easily accomplished).
Height must adjust to contain both columns (i.e. its height should be exactly equal to the larger height of the two columns, so there is no overflow and scrollbars never show)
Should have a minimum size equal to double the width of the left column.
The columns in general
Should be of variable height, adjusting to the height of their content.
Should be side-by-side, such that their top edges are in line.
Should not break the layout or wrap under each other if even a single pixel of border, padding, or margin is applied to either one, because that would be extremely unstable and unfortunate.
The left column specifically
Must have a fixed, absolute width in pixel units.
The right column specifically
Width must fill the remaining space in the container. In other words...
Width must equal the container width minus the width of the left column, such that if I place a DIV block element inside this column, set its width to 100%, give it a height of something like 10px, and give it a background color, I will see a 10px high colored strip that goes from the right edge of the left column to the right edge of the container (i.e. it fills the right column's width).
Required stability
The container should be able to resize (by resizing the browser window) down to its minimum width (specified earlier) or to a much larger width without breaking the layout. "Breaking" would include the left column changing size at all (remember it's supposed to have a fixed pixel width), the right column wrapping under the left one, scrollbars appearing, block elements in the right column failing to take up the entire column width, and in general any of the aforementioned specifications failing to remain true.
Background
If floating elements are used, there should be no chance that the right column will wrap under the left one, that the container will fail to contain both columns (by clipping any part of the column or allowing any part of the columns to overflow its boundary), or that scrollbars will appear (so I'd be weary of suggesting the use of anything other than overflow:hidden to trigger floating-element containment). Applying borders to the columns should not break the layout. The content of the columns, especially of the right column, should not break the layout.
There seems to be a simple table-based solution to this, but under every circumstance it fails miserably. For example, in Safari, my fixed-width left column will shrink if the container gets too small, rather than maintaining the width I specified. It also seems to be the case that CSS width, when applied to a TD element refers to a minimum width, such that if something larger is placed inside it, it will expand. I've tried using table-layout:fixed; doesn't help. I've also seen the case where the TD element representing the right column will not expand to fill the remaining area, or it will appear to (for example a third column 1px wide will be pushed all the way to the right side), but putting a border around the right column will show that it's only as wide as its inline content, and block-level elements with their width set to 100% do not fill the width of the column, but rather match the width of the inline-content (i.e. the width of the TD seems to be completely dependent on the content).
One potential solution I have seen is too complex; the solution needs to work in IE8, Firefox 4, and Safari 5.
Here you go:
<html>
<head>
<title>Cols</title>
<style>
#left {
width: 200px;
float: left;
}
#right {
margin-left: 200px;
/* Change this to whatever the width of your left column is*/
}
.clear {
clear: both;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<div id="container">
<div id="left">
Hello
</div>
<div id="right">
<div style="background-color: red; height: 10px;">Hello</div>
</div>
<div class="clear"></div>
</div>
</body>
</html>
See it in action here: http://jsfiddle.net/FVLMX/
Try this: Live Demo
display: table is surprisingly good. Once you don't care about IE7, you're free to use it. It doesn't really have any of the usual downsides of <table>.
CSS:
#container {
background: #ccc;
display: table
}
#left, #right {
display: table-cell
}
#left {
width: 150px;
background: #f0f;
border: 5px dotted blue;
}
#right {
background: #aaa;
border: 3px solid #000
}
Piece of cake.
Use 960Grids Go to the automatic layout builder and make a two column, fluid design. Build a left column to the width of grids that works....this is the only challenge using grids and it's very easy once you read a tutorial. In a nutshell, each column in a grid is a certain width, and you set the amount of columns you want to use. To get a column that's exactly a certain width, you have to adjust your math so that your column width is exact. Not too tough.
No chance of wrapping because others have already fought that battle for you. Compatibility back as far as you likely will ever need to go. Quick and easy....Now, download, customize and deploy.
Voila. Grids FTW.
Over 11 years later. Apply display:grid to the container and divide the available space by grid-template-columns: 100px 1fr. Where 1fr represents a fraction of 100% of the remaining space.
<html>
<head>
<title>Cols</title>
<style>
#container {
display: grid;
grid-template-columns: 100px 1fr;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<div id="container">
<div id="left">
Hello
</div>
<div id="right">
<div style="background-color: red; height: 10px;">Hello</div>
</div>
</div>
</body>
</html>
As suggested by mtmurdock it is possible to remove the .clear rule and move it to the pseudo-element #container::after.
<html>
<head>
<title>Cols</title>
<style>
#left {
width: 200px;
float: left;
}
#right {
margin-left: 200px;
/* Change this to whatever the width of your left column is*/
}
#container::after {
clear : left;
display: block;
content: '';
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<div id="container">
<div id="left">
Hello
</div>
<div id="right">
<div style="background-color: red; height: 10px;">Hello</div>
</div>
</div>
</body>
</html>
Another idea is to include the left div in the right div,
which in turn coincides with the line container:
[right][left] ... [/left] ..... [/right]
x { border: thick solid navy; padding: 2px; }
.lineContainer, .container > p {
padding-left: 100px;
margin: 0;
line-height: 1.5;
}
.left, em {
margin-left: -100px;
display:inline-block; box-sizing: border-box; width: 100px;
vertical-align: top;
}
.div-in-div {
display:inline-block; box-sizing: border-box; width: 100%;
vertical-align: top;
}
<h3>Layout: div-left is contained within the right-div / lineContainer</h3>
<pre>
[right][left] … [/left] … [/right]
</pre>
<div class="lineContainer" style="background:floralwhite; "><div class="left">Hello</div>Hello there</div>
<p>Using the above scheme,
we can make old-fashioned typewriter tab stops as shown here.</p>
<h3>The Capital Cities of the UK</h3>
<div class="container" style="background-color: floralwhite; ">
<p><em>England</em> - The capital is London.</p>
<p><em>Scotland</em> - The capital is Edinburgh.</p>
<p><em>Wales</em> - The capital is Cardiff.</p>
<p><em>Northern Ireland</em> - The capital is Belfast.</p>
<p><em>The capital of the UK is</em> - London.</p>
<p><em>Source</em>- Project Britain, capitals.</p>
</div>
<h3>Div in div</h3>
<div class="lineContainer" style="background:floralwhite; ">
<div class="left">Div in container</div><!--No white space here
--><p class="div-in-div" style="background: red; font-size: x-large; margin: auto 0; ">Hello there</p>
</div>
I have a problem with my HTML/CSS webpage. I want to have this layout:
http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/9978/layoutw.png
But all what I get is a layout in which the areas are only as high as the content is.
Here you can see my website: http://ud05_188.ud05.udmedia.de/spotlight/jquery.html I tried several work-arounds, but it does not work.
What's the best way to solve this?
you can use the following code
html
<div id="wrapper">
<div id="left"></div>
<div class="right">start of top</div>
<div class="right">start of bottom</div>
</div>
css
html, body {
height:100%;
}
#wrapper {
height:100%;
overflow:hidden;
}
#left {
height:100%;
width:50%;
background:#09F;
float:left;
}
.right {
height:50%;
width:50%;
float:left;
background:#69a;
}
live example: http://jsbin.com/idozi4
What you're looking for is an adaptation of the Holy Grail method. In this case, #list1 is the 'left' column (as described in that article) and the rest goes into the 'center' column, so that means you can leave out the 'right' column altogether.
Basically something like:
<div id="container">
<div id="left">
#list 1 contents
</div>
<div id="center">
<div>
#list2
</div>
<div>
#data
</div>
</div>
</div>
#container {
padding-left: 200px; /* LC width */
}
#container > div {
position: relative;
float: left;
}
#center {
width: 100%;
}
#left {
width: 200px; /* LC width */
right: 200px; /* LC width */
margin-left: -100%;
}
Heights will always be tricky... some solutions call for using explicit heights, but then if your content ever gets bigger, it'll overflow and look nasty, or worse, overflow and be inaccessible to the user.
You can use min-heights to display a best-case scenario, in which if the content needs to be taller, the minimum requirement will allow the div to stretch. You can use absolute positioning to get the layout that you want, but then the divs wont be flexible enough to accommodate content. You can use overflow: scroll to allow the divs to act like frames, but that is usually more annoying and messy-looking for the user.
I'd say use the above holy grail method to lay the containers out, and then use min-height for a best case scenario layout.
If none of those solutions are good enough, then there are also plenty of blog posts out there from experts about how to get equal height columns more consistently.
By default, giving something height: 100% will make the item as big as the item that contains it. This works for, say, divs within divs, but not for divs directly within the body tag. For this to work you need to set the height of the body element. Like so.
html, body{
height: 100%;
}
Hope this helps.
Update:
I think you are having trouble because you are trying to do two things which are tricky with CSS: fixed-to-bottom-of-page footers and 100% height. I think you will have to change the way that your footer works in order to get the 100% height working.
I haven't got a complete solution but I have made an example page:
http://deviouschimp.co.uk/misc/stackoverflow/columntest.html
That should sort out your 100% height issues. The footer doesn't always match the bottom of the content (#wrap height:94% gets it close, but it's not perfect).
This sticky footer technique should sort the rest out: http://www.cssstickyfooter.com/
Good luck!
In the body of my site, I am trying to create two columns - one on the far right with a fixed width (300px) for advertisements etc, and one on the left which will take up the remaining space on the page. How can this be accomplished in CSS?
CSS :
.column-right {
float: left;
width: 100%;
height: 200px;
background-color: red;
}
.column-right .column-content {
margin-left: 250px;
}
.column-left {
float: left;
margin-left: -100%;
width: 250px;
height: 200px;
background-color: green;
}
HTML :
<div class="column-right">
<div class="column-content">
<strong>Right Column:</strong><em>Liquid</em>
</div>
</div>
<div class="column-left">
<strong>Left Column:</strong><em>250px</em>
</div>
Here is a tool to generate fixed liquid columns for placing adsense ads.
CSS:
#right-column{
width:300px;
float:right;
}
#other-column{
float:left;
width:100%;
padding-right:20px; /*to prevent text overlap as suggested in the comment*/
}
In HTML:
<div id='right-column'>
<!-- ads here -->
</div>
<div id='other-column'>
<!-- content here -->
</div>
You might also want to check out the YUI: CSS Grid Builder. It is a simple web interface where you specify what grid layout you are looking for, and they will provide you the html code you can use in combination with the YUI Grids CSS framework to get your desired layout. One nice thing about the YUI Grids CSS framework is it has good cross browser support which saves you time getting it to work across different browsers. You can also reverse engineer the code that you are provided from the grid builder to get some ideas on how you can do it on your own. The settings you will want to use with the YUI: CSS Grid Builder to get your desired layout is as follows:
Body Size: 100%
Body Columns: Sidebar right 300px
One solution I've found for this is to float the right column to the right and give the left column an absolute position with left:0 and right:300px. This will make it fluid as if you gave it a width:80%, but it will be relative to the parent container in a different way.
Here's an example:
http://jsfiddle.net/tkane2000/dp9GZ/
One issue you might find with this is that since it's absolute, it won't naturally push down the elements below it.
Another possible solution would be to give the left column
width:100%
padding-right: 300px;
and the right (fixed width) column:
position: absolute:
top:0;
right:0;
You might need to set box-sizing:border-box on the left column.
This also as some limitations. One that comes to mind, is that if you wanted the left column to have a border-right to separate each, the border would be on the wrong side of the right column.