Templatix Blog

Sometimes, as in the case of the graphically rich yet still editable buttons, you may need to use elements positioned ABSOLUTE in a context positioned RELATIVE.
We’re talking about the “position” CSS property, that can take one of 4 possible values: absolute / relative / fixed / static. I’ll leave aside fixed and static for now, and I’ll focus instead on those that interest us here: relative si absolute.

In this image I’m using as an example, the blue border represents the parent element (the context), the red border is an element positioned absolute, and the green border represents an element positioned relative. The red and green elements are included, code-wise, in the blue one, obiously.

Relative - using the position: relative; CSS property, we instruct the browser to position the element relative to its context, in a fluid mode. In other words, we force the relative element to depend, position-wise, on it’s parent, but also on the in-line flow of the other elements present in the same context. Put bluntly, we force the element to behave like a letter in a block of text.
Absolute - using the position: absolute; CSS property, we instruct the browser to position the element relative to its context, but independent of the in-line flow of the other elements in the context. In other words, we force the element to maintain fixed position coordinates, expressed in pixels or directions.

At least in theory. Continue reading ‘ABSOLUTE-positioned elements in RELATIVE context’

I googled this shit till I saw green… Why? Because I wanted to get a simple thing: a DIV horisontally centered in the page. IE, simple and retarded as it is, worked. FF instead, with it’s purist pretentious flavour, refused. That is, until I found out why.

Saner browsers (FF included) don’t take things “for granted”. They don’t work user-friendly, but mathematically. To position an element in relative terms, the browser needs to know exactly what are the parameters needed for the calculation of that particular relative position. Since, in this case, we’re talking horisontal positioning, the browser needs to know the div’s horisontal margins (left and right). In other words, if I want a DIV to be horisontally centered, I MUST tell it to have:

margin-left: auto;
margin-right: auto;

Without these simple settings, FF would stubbornly position any non-floating div to the left margin of it’s holder/parent, irrespective of that holder/parent’s text-align.

All said and done, the problem is solved. Too easy? Doesn’t matter, what matters is that it helps you.