Force sidebar height 100% using CSS (with a sticky bottom image)?

Jon picture Jon · Apr 26, 2009 · Viewed 205.3k times · Source

I've been banging my head against the wall for hours trying to figure out this issue and think it must be something small I'm missing. I've searched online, but nothing I have found seems to work. The HTML is:

<body>
  <div id="header">
    <div id="bannerleft">
    </div>

    <div id="bannerright">
      <div id="WebLinks">
        <span>Web Links:</span>
        <ul>
          <li><a href="#"><img src="../../Content/images/MySpace_32x32.png" alt="MySpace"/></a></li>
          <li><a href="#"><img src="../../Content/images/FaceBook_32x32.png" alt="Facebook"/></a></li>
          <li><a href="#"><img src="../../Content/images/Youtube_32x32.png" alt="YouTube"/></a></li>
        </ul>
      </div>
    </div>
  </div>
  <div id="Sidebar">
    <div id="SidebarBottom">
    </div>
  </div>
  <div id="NavigationContainer">
    <ul id="Navigation">
      <li><a href="#">Nav</a></li>
      <li><a href="#">Nav</a></li>
      <li><a href="#">Nav</a></li>
      <li><a href="#">Nav</a></li>
      <li><a href="#">Nav</a></li>
      <li><a href="#">Nav</a></li>
    </ul>
  </div>
  <div id="Main">
    <!-- content -->
  </div>
</body>

My full CSS is:

* {
  margin: 0px;
  padding: 0px;
}

body {
  font-family: Calibri, Sans-Serif;
  height: 100%;
}

#header {
  width: 100%;
  z-index: 1;
  height: 340px;
  background-image: url("../../Content/images/bannercenter.gif");
  background-repeat: repeat-x;
}

#header #bannerleft {
  float: left;
  background-image: url("../../Content/images/bannerleft.gif");
  background-repeat: no-repeat;
  height: 340px;
  width: 439px;
  z-index: 2;
}

#bannerright {
  float: right;
  background-image: url("../../Content/images/bannerright.gif");
  background-repeat: no-repeat;
  width: 382px;
  height: 340px;
  background-color: White;
  z-index: 2;
}

#Sidebar {
  width: 180px;
  background: url("../../Content/images/Sidebar.png") repeat-y;
  z-index: 2;
  height: 100%;
  position: absolute;
}

#SidebarBottom {
  margin-left: 33px;
  height: 100%;
  background: url("../../Content/images/SidebarImage.png") no-repeat bottom;
}

#NavigationContainer {
  position: absolute;
  top: 350px;
  width: 100%;
  background-color: #bbc4c3;
  height: 29px;
  z-index: 1;
  left: 0px;
}

#Navigation {
  margin-left: 190px;
  font-family: Calibri, Sans-Serif;
}

#Navigation li {
  float: left;
  list-style: none;
  padding-right: 3%;
  padding-top: 6px;
  font-size: 100%;
}

#Navigation a:link, a:active, a:visited {
  color: #012235;
  text-decoration: none;
  font-weight: 500;
}

#Navigation a:hover {
  color: White;
}

#WebLinks {
  float: right;
  color: #00324b;
  margin-top: 50px;
  width: 375px;
}

#WebLinks span {
  float: left;
  margin-right: 7px;
  margin-left: 21px;
  font-size: 10pt;
  margin-top: 8px;
  font-family: Helvetica;
}

#WebLinks ul li {
  float: left;
  padding-right: 7px;
  list-style: none;
}

#WebLinks ul li a {
  text-decoration: none;
  font-size: 8pt;
  color: #00324b;
  font-weight: normal;
}

#WebLinks ul li a img {
  border-style: none;
}

#WebLinks ul li a:hover {
  color: #bcc5c4;
}

I'd like the sidebar to stretch in height with the content of my page and leave the sidebar bottom image always at the bottom of the sidebar.

Answer

montrealmike picture montrealmike · Dec 9, 2011

This worked for me

.container { 
  overflow: hidden; 
  .... 
} 

#sidebar { 
  margin-bottom: -5000px; /* any large number will do */
  padding-bottom: 5000px; 
  .... 
}