How to keep bootstrap columns of same size so that they snap correctly?

Question

I\'m building a simple site with bootstrap columns, but I would like for them to stay with the same height, since as of right now, if the last column in the row is short in

Answer 1

From the question and your comments on previous replies, it sounds as if you do not actually want/need equal sizes columns (which would include stuff such as backgrounds, borders extending to the same height for all, which would be rather easy to achieve with flexbox - maybe as nice-to-have in supporting browsers), at least not as the main goal; but you rather just want the "boxes" that flow onto a second (, third, ...) "row" or rather line to all have the y-position of their top edge match that of the bottom edge of the highest column in the previous row.

That is quite easy to achieve, if you forgo bootstrap's floating, and use display:inline-block on the columns instead.

Then of course you will have to eliminate the space between the columns that inline-block brings with it - but that is a well known issue with several possible fixes, see https://css-tricks.com/fighting-the-space-between-inline-block-elements/ - I chose the font-size 0 on the parent element here, but if you need to satisfy older IE you might need to use an absolute font-size for the "re-set" on the columns rather than the rem I used in the example.

.row {
  font-size: 0; /* fight white space */
}
.col-md-3,
.col-sm-6 { /* add selectors for more of the col-variants if needed */
  border: 1px solid red;

  float: none; /* disable floating */
  display: inline-block; /* make inline-block instead */
  vertical-align: top; /* have top edges of elements on one line align */

  font-size: 1.5rem; /* reset font-size */
}

http://codepen.io/anon/pen/ezJQLM

IMHO this solution has a nice benefit/advantage in that you don't need to alter anything regarding bootstrap's column width definitions or wrestle floats into shape using adventurously placed clearfixes.