<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en-GB"> <head> <title>The Perfect 2 Column Liquid Layout (left menu): No CSS hacks. SEO friendly. iPhone compatible.</title> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="application/xhtml+xml; charset=utf-8" /> <meta name="description" content="The Perfect 2 Column Liquid Layout (left menu): No CSS hacks. SEO friendly. iPhone compatible." /> <meta name="keywords" content="The Perfect 2 Column Liquid Layout (left menu): No CSS hacks. SEO friendly. iPhone compatible." /> <meta name="robots" content="index, follow" /> <link rel="shortcut icon" href="/favicon.ico" type="image/x-icon" /> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="screen.css" media="screen" /> </head> <body> <div id="header"> <p><a href="http://matthewjamestaylor.com/blog/perfect-multi-column-liquid-layouts" title="Perfect multi-column liquid layouts - iPhone compatible">« Back to the CSS article</a> by <a href="http://matthewjamestaylor.com">Matthew James Taylor</a></p> <h1>The Perfect 'Left Menu' 2 Column Liquid Layout (Percentage widths)</h1> <h2>No CSS hacks. SEO friendly. No Images. No JavaScript. Cross-browser & iPhone compatible.</h2> <ul> <li><a href="http://matthewjamestaylor.com/blog/perfect-3-column.htm">3 Column <span>Holy Grail</span></a></li> <li><a href="http://matthewjamestaylor.com/blog/perfect-3-column-blog-style.htm">3 Column <span>Blog Style</span></a></li> <li><a href="http://matthewjamestaylor.com/blog/perfect-2-column-left-menu.htm" class="active">2 Column <span>Left Menu</span></a></li> <li><a href="http://matthewjamestaylor.com/blog/perfect-2-column-right-menu.htm">2 Column <span>Right Menu</span></a></li> <li><a href="http://matthewjamestaylor.com/blog/perfect-2-column-double-page.htm">2 Column <span>Double Page</span></a></li> <li><a href="http://matthewjamestaylor.com/blog/perfect-full-page.htm">1 Column <span>Full Page</span></a></li> <li><a href="http://matthewjamestaylor.com/blog/perfect-stacked-columns.htm">Stacked <span>columns</span></a></li> </ul> <p id="layoutdims">Measure columns in: <a href="http://matthewjamestaylor.com/blog/ultimate-2-column-left-menu-pixels.htm">Pixel widths</a> | <a href="http://matthewjamestaylor.com/blog/ultimate-2-column-left-menu-ems.htm">Em widths</a> | <strong>Percentage widths</strong></p> </div> <div class="colmask leftmenu"> <div class="colleft"> <div class="col1"> <!-- Column 1 start --> <h2>Percentage dimensions of the left menu layout</h2> <img src="http://matthewjamestaylor.com/blog/perfect-2-column-left-menu-dimensions.gif" width="350" height="370" alt="Two column left menu layout dimensions" /> <p>All the dimensions are in percentage widths so the layout adjusts to any screen resolution. Vertical dimensions are not set so they stretch to the height of the content.</p> <h3>Maximum column content widths</h3> <p>To prevent wide content (like long URLs) from destroying the layout (long content can make the page scroll horizontally) the column content divs are set to overflow:hidden. This chops off any content that is wider than the div. Because of this, it's important to know the maximum widths allowable at common screen resolutions. For example, if you choose 800 x 600 pixels as your minimum compatible resolution what is the widest image that can be safely added to each column before it gets chopped off? Here are the figures:</p> <dl> <dt><strong>800 x 600</strong></dt> <dd>Left column: 162 pixels</dd> <dd>Main page: 550 pixels</dd> <dt><strong>1024 x 768</strong></dt> <dd>Left column: 210 pixels</dd> <dd>Main page: 709 pixels</dd> </dl> <h2>The nested div structure</h2> <p>I've colour coded each div so it's easy to see:</p> <img src="http://matthewjamestaylor.com/blog/perfect-2-column-left-menu-div-structure.gif" width="350" height="369" alt="Two column left menu layout nested div structure" /> <p>The header, colmask and footer divs are 100% wide and stacked vertically one after the other. Colleft is inside colmask. The two column content divs (col1 & col2) are inside colleft. Notice that the main content column (col1) comes before the side column.</p> <!-- Column 1 end --> </div> <div class="col2"> <!-- Column 2 start --> <div id="ads"> <a href="http://matthewjamestaylor.com"> <img src="mjt-125x125.gif" width="125" border="0" height="125" alt="Art and Design by Matthew James Taylor" /> </a> </div> <h2>No CSS hacks</h2> <p>The CSS used for this layout is 100% valid and hack free. To overcome Internet Explorer's broken box model, no horizontal padding or margins are used. Instead, this design uses percentage widths and clever relative positioning.</p> <h2>SEO friendly 2-1 column ordering</h2> <p>The higher up content is in your page code, the more important it is considered by search engine algorithms (see my article on <a href="http://matthewjamestaylor.com/blog/link-source-ordering-seo">link source ordering</a> for more details on how this affects links). To make your website as optimised as possible your main page content must come before the side columns. This layout does exactly that: The the right-hand main page comes first, then the left column (see the nested div structure diagram for more info). The columns can also be configured in the opposite order if required.</p> <h2>Full length column background colours</h2> <p>In this layout the background colours of each column will always stretch to the length of the longest column. This feature was traditionally only available with table based layouts but now with a little CSS trickery we can do exactly the same with divs. Say goodbye to annoying short columns! You can read my article on <a href="http://matthewjamestaylor.com/blog/equal-height-columns-cross-browser-css-no-hacks">equal height columns</a> if you want to see how this is done.</p> <h2>No Images</h2> <p>This layout requires no images. Many CSS website designs need images to colour in the column backgrounds but that is not necessary with this design. Why waste bandwidth and precious HTTP requests when you can do everything in pure CSS and XHTML?</p> <h2>No JavaScript</h2> <p>JavaScript is not required. Some website layouts rely on JavaScript hacks to resize divs and force elements into place but you won't see any of that nonsense here.</p> <h2>Resizable text compatible</h2> <p>This layout is fully compatible with resizable text. Resizable text is important for web accessibility. People who are vision impaired can make the text larger so it's easier for them to read. It is becoming increasingly more important to make your website resizable text compatible because people are expecting higher levels of web accessibility. Apple have made resizing the text on a website simple with the pinch gesture on their multi-touch trackpad. So far this trackpad is only available on the MacBook Air but it will soon be rolled out to all of their systems. Is your website text-resizing compatible?</p> <h2>No Quirks Mode</h2> <p>This liquid layout does not require the XML declaration for it to display correctly in older versions of Internet Explorer. This version works without it and is thus never in quirks mode.</p> <h2>No IE Conditional Comments</h2> <p>Only one stylesheet is used with this layout This means that IE conditional comments are not needed to set extra CSS rules for older versions of Internet Explorer.</p> <h2>Browser Compatibility</h2> <p>This left menu liquid Layout has been tested on the following browsers:</p> <h3>iPhone & iPod Touch</h3> <ul> <li>Safari</li> </ul> <h3>Mac</h3> <ul> <li>Safari</li> <li>Firefox</li> <li>Opera 9.25</li> <li>Netscape 9.0.0.5 & 7.1</li> </ul> <h3>Windows</h3> <ul> <li>Firefox 1.5, 2 & 3</li> <li>Safari</li> <li>Opera 8.1 & 9</li> <li>Google Chrome</li> <li>Explorer 5.5, 6 & 7</li> <li>Netscape 8</li> </ul> <h2>Valid XHTML strict markup</h2> <p>The HTML in this layout validates as XHTML 1.0 strict.</p> <h2>This layout is FREE for anyone to use</h2> <p>That's right, you don't have to pay anything. If you are feeling generous however, link back to my demo page so other people can find and use this layout too.</p> <h2>Centered menus compatible</h2> <p>This layout is fully compatible with my <a href="http://matthewjamestaylor.com/blog/beautiful-css-centered-menus-no-hacks-full-cross-browser-support">cross-browser compatible centered menus</a>.</p> <!-- Column 2 end --> </div> </div> </div> <div id="footer"> <p>This page uses the <a href="http://matthewjamestaylor.com/blog/perfect-2-column-left-menu.htm">Perfect 'Left Menu' 2 Column Liquid Layout</a> by <a href="http://matthewjamestaylor.com">Matthew James Taylor</a>. View more <a href="http://matthewjamestaylor.com/blog/-website-layouts">website layouts</a> and <a href="http://matthewjamestaylor.com/blog/-web-design">web design articles</a>.</p> </div> </body> </html>
body {
margin:0;
padding:0;
border:0; /* This removes the border around the viewport in old versions of IE */
width:100%;
background:#fff;
min-width:600px; /* Minimum width of layout - remove line if not required */
/* The min-width property does not work in old versions of Internet Explorer */
font-size:90%;
}
a {
color:#369;
}
a:hover {
color:#fff;
background:#369;
text-decoration:none;
}
h1, h2, h3 {
margin:.8em 0 .2em 0;
padding:0;
}
p {
margin:.4em 0 .8em 0;
padding:0;
}
img {
margin:10px 0 5px;
}
#ads img {
display:block;
padding-top:10px;
}
/* Header styles */
#header {
clear:both;
float:left;
width:100%;
}
#header {
border-bottom:1px solid #000;
}
#header p,
#header h1,
#header h2 {
padding:.4em 15px 0 15px;
margin:0;
}
#header ul {
clear:left;
float:left;
width:100%;
list-style:none;
margin:10px 0 0 0;
padding:0;
}
#header ul li {
display:inline;
list-style:none;
margin:0;
padding:0;
}
#header ul li a {
display:block;
float:left;
margin:0 0 0 1px;
padding:3px 10px;
text-align:center;
background:#eee;
color:#000;
text-decoration:none;
position:relative;
left:15px;
line-height:1.3em;
}
#header ul li a:hover {
background:#369;
color:#fff;
}
#header ul li a.active,
#header ul li a.active:hover {
color:#fff;
background:#000;
font-weight:bold;
}
#header ul li a span {
display:block;
}
/* 'widths' sub menu */
#layoutdims {
clear:both;
background:#eee;
border-top:4px solid #000;
margin:0;
padding:6px 15px !important;
text-align:right;
}
/* column container */
.colmask {
position:relative; /* This fixes the IE7 overflow hidden bug */
clear:both;
float:left;
width:100%; /* width of whole page */
overflow:hidden; /* This chops off any overhanging divs */
}
/* common column settings */
.colright,
.colmid,
.colleft {
float:left;
width:100%;
position:relative;
}
.col1,
.col2,
.col3 {
float:left;
position:relative;
padding:0 0 1em 0;
overflow:hidden;
}
/* 2 Column (left menu) settings */
.leftmenu {
background:#fff; /* right column background colour */
}
.leftmenu .colleft {
right:75%; /* right column width */
background:#f4f4f4; /* left column background colour */
}
.leftmenu .col1 {
width:71%; /* right column content width */
left:102%; /* 100% plus left column left padding */
}
.leftmenu .col2 {
width:21%; /* left column content width (column width minus left and right padding) */
left:6%; /* (right column left and right padding) plus (left column left padding) */
}
/* Footer styles */
#footer {
clear:both;
float:left;
width:100%;
border-top:1px solid #000;
}
#footer p {
padding:10px;
margin:0;
}<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="screen.css" media="screen" />
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="assets/templates/css/screen_l2c.css" media="screen" />