Both the left and right panels have a height of 100%, but since the Header div takes up X amount of space, there is some vertical scrolling in the window th
You could use overflow: hidden;
to protect the body
to be scrollable.
according to your comment: http://jsfiddle.net/G7unG/9/
You can use absolute positioning if you want to have it 100% height always. And then use scroll bars if required inside the leftpanel or the rightpanel.
Example: http://jsfiddle.net/G7unG/2/
html, body{
height: 100%;
margin: 0;
}
.header{
background: #333;
padding: 15px;
text-align:center;
font-size: 18px;
font-family: sans-serif;
color: #FFF;
height: 22px;
}
.leftpanel, .rightpanel{
top: 52px;
bottom: 0;
position: absolute;
}
.leftpanel{
width: 70%;
left: 0;
background: #CCC;
}
.rightpanel{
width: 30%;
right: 0;
background: #666;
}
Solution 2 - use fixed percentages for height: http://jsfiddle.net/G7unG/4/
html, body{
height: 100%;
margin: 0;
}
.header{
background: #333;
padding: 15px;
text-align:center;
font-size: 18px;
font-family: sans-serif;
color: #FFF;
height: 30%;
box-sizing: border-box;
}
.leftpanel, .rightpanel{
height: 70%;
float: left;
}
.leftpanel{
width: 70%;
left: 0;
background: #CCC;
}
.rightpanel{
width: 30%;
float: right;
background: #666;
}
Here's a modern solution using flexbox. Regardless of the height of the header the rest of the elements will stretch vertically to fill the remaining space. Here's the fiddle: http://jsfiddle.net/mggLY/1/.
HTML:
<div id = "wrapper">
<div class="header">Header</div>
<div>
<div class="leftpanel">Left Panel</div>
<div class="rightpanel">Right Panel</div>
</div>
</div>
CSS:
* {
margin: 0;
padding: 0;
border: 0;
}
html, body {
height: 100%;
}
.header{
background: #333;
padding: 15px;
text-align:center;
font-size: 18px;
font-family: sans-serif;
color: #fff;
}
.leftpanel{
background: #CCC;
}
.rightpanel{
background: #666;
}
#wrapper {
height: 100%;
display: -webkit-flex;
display: flex;
-webkit-flex-direction: column;
flex-direction: column;
outline: 1px solid red;
}
#wrapper > .header {
-webkit-flex: 0 0 auto;
flex: 0 0 auto;
}
#wrapper > .header + div {
-webkit-flex: 1 1 auto;
flex: 1 1 auto;
display: -webkit-flex;
display: flex;
-webkit-flex-direction: row;
flex-direction: row;
}
#wrapper > .header + div > div:first-of-type {
-webkit-flex: 7 0 0;
flex: 7 0 0;
}
#wrapper > .header + div > div:last-of-type {
-webkit-flex: 3 0 0;
flex: 3 0 0;
}
Use viewports. Browsers now support giving height a percentage of page height. Drop the 100 down to 80 if you've got a header taking up space.
div {
height:100vh;
}
You could use a "faux columns" type of structure -- adding the background color of your columns as "fixed" elements (they wont scroll with the page) behind your real columns.
<div id="left_faux"></div>
<div id="right_faux"></div>
div#left_faux {
position: fixed;
top:0;
left:0;
right:30%;
bottom:0;
background-color:#CCC;
}
div#right_faux {
position: fixed;
top:0;
left:70%;
right:0;
bottom:0;
background-color:#666;
}
.leftpanel{
float: left;
width: 70%;
}
.rightpanel{
float: left;
width: 30%;
}
This quick example is perhaps overly verbose, for demonstration purposes. I'm sure you can streamline the CSS so there aren't so many redundant definitions.
WORKING EXAMPLE
Like this: http://jsfiddle.net/G7unG/3/
html, body{
height: 100%;
margin: 0;
overflow:hidden;
}