CSS - 2 Column Layout, Breaks In Ie

Hi all,

I'm brand new to this forum, with some intermediate CSS skills. I've trimmed down my website in order to solve a persistent issue plaguing my layout. This issue involves what happens when using browser zoom: columns widths are recalculated incorrectly, and the right background is marred with a vertical line. Additionally, the main nav buttons fluctuate in size too. Extra space is visible to the right of the nav bar.

I'm assuming this is happening because I've used exact pixel dimensions. I'm willing to change that, as long as the basic appearance of the layout can be achieved some other way.

My code is fairly long, and several key images are critical to layout. I think the best way to share this would be through a link...Any help is appreciated, and I'd be very grateful! Thanks in advance.

EDIT: Thanks to E-Oreo for the link tip.

stuartletizia.com SLASH skinned SLASH index.html

EDIT: I'm working in 1680 x 1050 on Windows 7, testing with Firefox 6.0.2, Chrome 13.0.782.220, IE 8, and Safari 5.1.

I am working on the new home page which is based on a template.

The left sideColumn is working fine, however I am having a few problems with the mainColumn layout.

Here is a static image to show what I want it to look like

Here are the problems I am having:

1) The #scroll box is place where I want it in IE but in foxfire it is right up against the left side of the #sideColumn partially hidden.

There will be text that scrolls into this box and stops. I haven't started on the part yet - in case that makes a difference. Not my choice, but that is what the bosses want.

2) I want the image centered horizontal within the #mainColumn. Here is what I have for the css:

#home img {
margin: 5px auto 5px auto;
}

which I thought would do the trick, but it's not.

3) I want the p text to have a 40px margin on the right and left side like the .large does.

Here is what I have for the css:

#home p, .large {
margin: auto 40px auto 40px;
}

It works for the .large (Welcome to Vitalograph), but not for the text below it. At one point I had it working, but after addtional changes fixing other problems, now it doesn't and I can't figure out why.

Here is the xhtml starting at the 2 column part (wrapper): Code:

  	<!--begin wrapper-->
  	<div id="wrapper">
  
  	<!--begin side column -->
  	<div id="sideColumn">
        <span class="category">Products</span>
    <ul>
		<li><a href="/products/spirometers.html">Spirometers</a></li>
		<li><a href="/products/clinical_trials.html">Clinical Trials</a></li>
		<li><a href="/products/asthma_copd.html">Asthma & COPD</a></li>
		<li><a href="/products/smoking_cessation.html">Smoking Cessation</a></li>
		<li><a href="/products/resuscitaion.html">Resuscitation</a></li>
	</ul>
	
	<span class="category">Resources</span> 
    <ul>
      <li><a href="/resources/contact_us.html">Customer Support</a></li>
	  <li><a href="/resources/training_services.html">Training & Services</a></li>
      <li><a href="/resources/exhibitions.html">Exhibitions</a></li>
      <li><a href="/resources/newsletters.html">Newsletters</a></li>
      <li><a href="/resources/downloads.html">Downloads</a></li>
      <li><a href="/resources/useful_links.html">Useful Links</a></li>
      <li><a href="/resources/industry_information.html">Industry Information</a></li>
	  <li><a href="/resources/industry_information.html">Sitemap</a></li>
	</ul>
  </div>
  <!--end of side column -->
  
  <!--begin main column -->  
  <div id="mainColumn">
  
  	<!-- InstanceBeginEditable name="Main_Section" -->
  
  
  
    <div id="home">	
        <div id="scroll"><span>scrolling news will go hear and stop</span></div>
		
        <img src="/images/boys_bubbles.gif" width="485" height="333" alt="boys and bubbles" />
	
		<span class="large">Welcome to Vitalograph</span>
		
		<p>Vitalgraph offers a wide range of spirometers along with other asthma 
          management equipment with over 40 years experience. From simple hand-held 
          units to sophisticated Windows based spirometry systems, we have it 
          all. Check out our full line of respiratory equipment under the product 
          category.</p>
		
		
      <p><a href="/about_us/about_us.html">more about us...</a></p>
		
		
	</div>
  
  
  <!-- InstanceEndEditable -->
  
  </div>
  <!--end of main column -->
  
  </div> 
  <!--end of wrapper--> 

Here is the vitalograph_master.css: Code:

body {
	font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
	font-size: 12px;
	text-align: center;
	background-color: #ffffff;
	color: #515151;
	margin:0px;
	padding:10px;
}

/*page container settings*/

#page {
	width: 750px;
	height: 600px;
	border: 1px solid #5094F9;
	background-color: #FFFFFF;
	overflow: hidden;
	margin: auto;
	padding: 10px 10px 10px 10px;
	text-align: left;
}

/*logo header and tag settings*/
	
#header {	
	margin: 0;
	padding-bottom: 5px;
	width: 450px;
	height: 36px;
	font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
	color: #5094F9;
	text-align: left;
}

#header img {
    vertical-align: -7px;
    }

.tagline {
	color: #5094F9;
	font-size: 16;
	font-style: italic;
	font-weight: bold;
	display: inline;
	clear: both;
	line-height: 20px;
	margin-left: 10px;
}

/*top bar settings*/

#topbar {
	float: top;
	height: 20px;
	background-color: #5094f9;
	clear: both;
	padding-left: 10px;
	text-align: left;
	font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
	color: #FFFFFF;
	font-size: 12px;
	font-weight: bold;
}

#topbar a:link, #topbar a:visited {
	background-color: inherit;
	font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
	text-decoration: none;
	color: #FFFFFF;
	font-size: 12px;
	font-weight: bold;
}

#topbar a:hover, #topbar a:active {
	background-color: #FFFFFF;
	font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
	text-decoration: none;
	color: #5094F9;
	font-size: 12px;
	font-weight: bold;
}

#topbar ul {
	list-style: none;
	margin: 0;
	padding-top: 2px;
}

#topbar li {
	display: inline;
	margin-right: 160px;
}

/*Main Section two columns under top section*/

#wrapper{
	padding: 10px 10px 10px 0px;
	width: 100%;
	height: 100%;
}

#sideColumn {
	float:left;
	width:155px;
	height: 78%;
	background-color: #5094F9;
	padding-top: 50px;
	padding-left:10px; 
	padding-bottom:10px;
	pading-right: 10px;
	margin-right: 10px;
	text-align: left;
	font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
	color: #FFFFFF;
	font-weight: bold;
	line-height: 20px;
}

.category {
	font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
	color: #FFFFFF;
	font-size: 16px;
	font-weight: bold;
	letter-spacing: 5px;
}

#sideColumn a:link, #sideColumn a:visited {
	background-color: inherit;
	font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
	text-decoration: none;
	color: #FFFFFF;
	font-size: 12px;
	font-weight: bold;
}

#sideColumn a:hover, #sideColumn a:active {
	background-color: #FFFFFF;
	font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
	text-decoration: none;
	color: #5094F9;
	font-size: 12px;
	font-weight: bold;
}

#sideColumn ul {
	list-style: none;
	padding: 15px 0px 15px 10px;
	margin: 0px;
}

#mainColumn {
	padding: 0px;
}

/*footer*/

.footer {
	font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif;
	font-size: 9px;
	color: #999999;
}

/*text*/

.large {
	font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
	color: #5094F9;
	font-size: 18px;
	font-weight: bold;
	margin-bottom: 15px;
}

Here is the home.css: Code:

/*home page*/

#home {
	margin: auto;
}

#home img {
	margin: 5px auto 5px auto;
}

#home p, .large {
	margin: auto 40px auto 40px;
}

#home a:link, #home a:visited {
	background-color: inherit;
	font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
	text-decoration: none;
	color: #5094F9;
	font-size: 12px;
	font-weight: bold;
}

#home a:hover, #home a:active {
	background-color: inherit;
	font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
	text-decoration: none;
	color: #990099;
	font-size: 12px;
	font-weight: bold;
}

#scroll {
	width: 560px;
	padding: 5px;
	background-color: inherit;
	border: 1px solid #5094F9;
	margin-bottom: 5px;
}

Any help or suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Hi all,

I'm fairly new to CSS and this is one of my first attempts at a somewhat complicated layout. The page looks OK in FF, IE 7, Safari, and Opera, but if I zoom in or out while in FF or IE, it breaks the layout by increasing the width between some of the cube divs. Is there any way to fix this?

Link:
http://universalcorner.com/testsite/

Stylesheet:
Code:

body {
	font-family: Arial, "MS Trebuchet", sans-serif;
}

#maincontainer {
	width: 966px;
	height: 748px;
	border: 12px solid #000027;
	margin: 0 auto;
	padding: 0;
}

#header {
	border-bottom: 12px solid #000027;
	height: 140px;
	z-index: 100;
}

#logo {
	background: #fff;
	width: 480px;
	height: 100%;
	border-right: 12px solid #000027;
	display: inline;
	float: left;
	vertical-align: top;
}

#logo p { /* functions as image container */
	position: relative;
	top: 20px;
}

#slogan {
	position: relative;
	background: #78C0FF;
	width: 292px;
	height: 100%;
	border-right: 12px solid #000027;
	display: inline;
	float: left;
	vertical-align: top;
	padding: 0 10px 10px 10px;
	z-index: -100;
	zoom: 1;
}

#consultants {
	position: relative;
	background: red;
	left: 6px;
	width: 150px;
	/* width: 150px; */
	height: 100%;
	display: inline;
	float: left;
	text-align: center;
	margin: 0;
	padding: 0;
	z-index: -100;
}

ul.nav { /* navigation bar */ 
	position: relative;
	float: left;
	font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
	font-weight: bold;
	font-size: 1em;
	width: 126px;
	height: 586px;
	background: #4486C4;
	padding: 0 10px 10px 20px;
	margin: 0 0 10px 0;
	border: solid #000027;
	border-width: 0 12px 0 0;
	list-style: none;
}

ul.nav a {
	text-decoration:none;
	color:#000;
}

ul.nav a:hover {
	color:#fff;
}

ul.nav li { /* all list items */
	padding: 16px 0 0 0;
	list-style: none;
}

ul.squares {
	list-style: none;
	padding: 0;
	margin: 0;
}

ul.squares li {
	position: none;
	background: #000;
	width: 150px;
	height:140px;
	padding: 0;
	margin: 0;
	border: solid #000027;
	border-width: 0 12px 12px 0;
	display: inline;
	float: left;
}

ul.squares li.end {
	border-right-width: 0;
}

ul.squares li.bottom {
	border-bottom-width: 0;
}

#textbox {
	width: 636px;
	height: 292px;
	float: left;
	display: block;
	border: solid #000027;
	border-width: 0 12px 12px 0;
	background: #C1BDFF;
	margin: 0;
	padding: 0;
}

#textbox p {
	margin: 10px;
}

div.cube {
	width: 150px;
	height: 140px;
	border: solid #000027;
	margin: 0;
	padding: 0;
}

#consultation {
	color: #fff;
	font-size: 1em;
	font-weight: bold;
	position: relative;
	display: inline;
	float: left;
	width: 302px;
	height: 130px;
	border: solid #000027;
	border-width: 0 12px 0 0;
	background: #001E8A;
	padding: 10px 0 0 10px;
	margin: 0;
}

HTML:
Code:

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"
   "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">

<html lang="en">
<head>
	<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
	<title>Company Name, Inc.</title>
	<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="style.css">
</head>
<body>

<div id="maincontainer">
	
<div id="header">
	<div id="logo">
		<p align="center"><img src="images/logo.gif" alt="Company Name, Inc."></p>
	</div>
	<div id="slogan">
		<p><span style="font-size:.85em">Company Name, Inc.<br>
		Anytown, US<br>
		<a href="mailto:info@companyname.com">info@companyname.com</a><br>
		555-555-5555</span><br>
		<span style="font-size: 1.1em; font-weight:bold">Tagline Goes Here</span></p>
	</div>
	<div class="cube" style="float: left; border-width: 0 0 0 0">
		<p align="center"><img src="images/image.gif" alt="Placeholder Image"></p>
	</div>
</div>

<ul class="nav">
	<li><a href="index.php">Home</a></li>
	<li><a href="#">About</a></li>
	<li><a href="#">Services</a></li>
	<li><a href="#">Plans & Pricing</a></li>
	<li><a href="#">Our Clients</a></li>
	<li><a href="#">Press Room</a></li>
	<li><a href="#">Blog</a></li>
	<li><a href="#">Contact Us</a></li>
</ul>

	<div style="background: #001E8A; display:inline; float: left; border-width: 0 12px 12px 0" class="cube"></div>
	<div style="display:inline; float: left; border-width: 0 12px 12px 0" class="cube"></div>
	<div style="background: #002455; display:inline; float: left; border-width: 0 12px 12px 0" class="cube"></div>
	<div style="display:inline; float: left; border-width: 0 12px 12px 0" class="cube"></div>
	<div style="background: #4486C4; display:inline; float: left; border-width: 0 0 12px 0" class="cube"></div>
	
	<div id="textbox">
		<div style="background: #002455; position: relative; float: right; top: 130px; border-width: 12px 0 0 12px; margin-top: 10px; margin-left: 10px" class="cube"></div>
		<p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Morbi sapien urna, scelerisque nec, imperdiet vitae, luctus non, nisi. Duis et magna et tellus imperdiet tempor. Sed ipsum.</p></div>
	
	<div style="background: #002455; position: relative; top: 0; left: 0; display: inline; float: right; border-width: 0 0 12px 0" class="cube"></div>
	<div style="position: relative; top: 0; left: 0; display: block; float: right; border-width: 0 0 12px 0" class="cube"></div>
		<div style="position: relative; top: 0; left: 0; display: inline; float: left; border-width: 0 12px 0 0" class="cube"></div>
		<div style="background: #002455; position: relative; top: 0; left: 0; display: inline; float: left; border-width: 0 12px 0 0" class="cube"></div>
		<div id="consultation">Click here to get your FREE ONSITE CONSULTATION from Company Name</div>
		<div style="background: #78C0FF; position: relative; top: 0; left: 0; display: inline; float: left; border-width: 0 0 0 0" class="cube"></div>

</div>

</body>
</html>

Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

I am a HTML&CSS novice - I am trying to write a page using a three column layout but the column colour doesn't reach the footer.

I understand that this is a common problem and I've looked at a lot of examples on the web of how to work around this or create a better layout but I'm still not sure enough to know which would be the easiest and best to go within the page I have written.

I want to avoid images but other than that any help would be great!

I have validated the HTML & CSS and they are copied below (could any advice be really specific, as I said this is very new to me!).


Thanks

HTML:


<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
<title>Drivers Jonas Information Unit</title>
<meta name="keywords" content="1" />
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="djiucss.css" media="screen" />
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="djiuprintcss.css" media="print" />
</head>
<body>
<div id="top">
<div id="picture">
<img src="GIF.gif" alt="DJ" width="200" height="100" />
</div>
<div id="heading">
<div id="title"><h1>Drivers Jonas Information Unit</h1></div>
</div>

</div>
<div id="left">
<br/><p><a href="about.html">About us</a></p><br/>
<p><a href="company.html">Company Information</a></p><br/>
<p><a href="legal.html">Legal information</a></p><br/>
<p><a href="landreg.html">Land Registry</a></p><br/>
<p><a href="research.html">Research</a></p><br/>
</div>
<div id="right">
<div id="title"><h2> News
</h2></div>
<ul>
<li>The Information Unit has recently acquired a set of new APC guides</li>
<li>If you would like any training on databases</li>
<li>The Information Unit has created an economy timeline </li>
</ul>
</div>

<div id="main">
<div id="title"><h2>Main stuff</h2></div>
<p>Suspendisse adipiscing malesuada lectus. Cras vitae dolor. Donec consequat, lectus sed euismod consequat, ipsum mi mollis nunc, eget nonummy neque purus a tortor. Ut vel lorem. Curabitur mollis mauris id diam. Nam posuere. In placerat sapien ut nisl. Donec volutpat augue ut velit. Proin nec mi sit amet metus placerat egestas. Quisque porttitor massa eu lacus. Donec tristique, neque in sollicitudin euismod, enim tellus varius mauris, id vestibulum est massa id massa. Integer et purus. Vivamus condimentum tincidunt ipsum. Duis augue lorem, pretium vel, cursus at, vulputate sed, neque. Quisque justo. Nunc rhoncus. In ornare venenatis velit. </p>
<p>Donec facilisis ante sit amet mauris. Nunc fermentum orci eu quam. Donec vestibulum. Vestibulum ultricies nisl eu eros. Curabitur urna. Duis enim erat, lobortis nonummy, mollis non, porttitor nec, nisi. Phasellus pulvinar purus eu pede. In mollis. Duis sit amet dui et arcu rhoncus auctor. Integer est dui, pharetra vel, volutpat ac, luctus in, elit. </p>
<p>Suspendisse adipiscing malesuada lectus. Cras vitae dolor. Donec consequat, lectus sed euismod consequat, ipsum mi mollis nunc, eget nonummy neque purus a tortor. Ut vel lorem. Curabitur mollis mauris id diam. Nam posuere. In placerat sapien ut nisl. Donec volutpat augue ut velit. Proin ne</p>
</div>
<div id="bottom">
Drivers Jonas Information Unit
</div>
</body>
</html>

CSS:

#top
/*DJ logo and page title - includes h1*/
{
color: black;
font-family: arial, sans-serif;
font-size: 20px;
background: #d31145;
padding-bottom: 15px;
}

body
{
color: black;
font-family: arial, sans-serif;
font-size:14px
}

img /*DJ logo*/
{
padding: 20px;
float:left;
}

#heading
{
text-align: center;
padding:20px;
}

/*main page title*/
/*should change all reds to DJ red: #d31145*/

#left, #right, #main
{
color: white;
background: black;
}

#left
{
float: left;
width:140px;
border-right:2px solid #d31145;
text-align:left;
padding-left: 1em;
}

#right
{
float:right;
width:140px;
border-left:2px solid #d31145;
text-align:left;
padding-right: 1em;
}

#main
{
margin-left: 150px;
margin-right: 150px;
border-left: 1px solid;
border-right: 1px solid;
padding: 1em;
}

#bottom
{
clear:both;
margin: 0;
color:black;
background: #d31145;
font-size: 16px;
font-family: Arial, sans-serif;
text-align: center;
}

#title
{
text-align:center;
}

a:link {color:white}
a:visited {color:silver}
a:hover {color:#d31145}
a:active {color:#d31145}

Hello!

I'm new to CSS, so any help would be greatly appreciated!

I'm working on this page:
sugarhooker[dot]com/testing/index2.html
*The CSS is included in the head

The right column is suppose to start where it says 'Are you hooked...'
It should be right underneath the navigation bar. Anyone know what I'm doing wrong?

Thanks in advance!

Hi,

http://www.dudley.nhs.uk/search.asp has a two column effect. The CSS for it is he http://www.dudley.nhs.uk/css/screen.css I was wondering why if there is a table in the right hand column with a width percentage over 77% there is some horizontal scrolling? This happens in IE.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Janusz Jasinski

Dear all

I would like to be able to create a design with a text column and an image column. The text would be continuous in the left-hand column, and images would be displayed in the right-hand column. In other words, I would like to be able to use the following HTML:

Code:

<p>blah blah blah blah blah
blah blah blah blah blah blah blah
blah blah blah blah blah blah blah
<img src="test.jpg" />
blah2 blah2 blah2 blah2 blah2 blah2
blah2 blah2 blah2 blah2 blah2 blah2
blah2.</p>

I would like the text to appear continuously in the left-hand column, while the image appears at the correct point, but in the right-hand column. In other words, I would like the left-hand column (assuming I fixed its width) to contain the output:

Code:

blah blah blah blah blah
blah blah blah blah blah blah blah
blah blah blah blah blah blah blah
blah2 blah2 blah2 blah2 blah2 blah2
blah2 blah2 blah2 blah2 blah2 blah2
blah2.

While the right-hand column will have the image, its top lining up with where the text changes to 'blah2'.

Any ideas? I realize the most difficult thing about asking this question is describing the visual layout I want to achieve. I shall try to draw a mock-up, and post a link to it in this thread.

Many thanks in advance,

Tom

Hi,

I'm trying to write a reasonably complex (I think) layout using CSS but I can't get it working.

here is a mockup of what it should look like: http://andrew.estyles.com.au/site/sitelayout.gif

I basically want the main content area to stretch to fit the content being displayed, and have the right column (in blue) to stretch the whole height of the page. The other three areas are a fixed width/height, although the bottom bar's position must change depending on how long the blue bar is (ie the bottom bar should always be inline with the bottom of the blue bar).

Here's my attempt so far: http://andrew.estyles.com.au/site/test.html

I can't get the bottom (red) bar to line up with the bottom of the blue bar. If I change the height of the content area, the blue bar does not move but the red bar does. This is the main problem.

And also, the website does not display correctly in IE


If someone could help me out with these issues I'd be grateful, thanks

Well i am trying to have my directory script have 3 items per row. Currently using a horizontal list but as you can see from the below link it isn't work right.

Wandering what the best way to do it would be?

link -> http://www.gamingonlinux.info/category.php?cid=8

I am creating a website for a synagouge and I am having trouble aligning the third column to the right of the other two.

What I have now is he
http://www.getabb.com/help/index.htm

I want the Blue box on the bottom of the text to be displayed to the right of the text in the Pinkish area.

If somebody could show me how to do this, I would appreciate it.
Right now the site is only displayed correctly in IE but I will fix that later.

Thanks in advance

Okay, trying to use CSS to set up a simple three column layout.

Here's what I would like:

- An fixed, 800px wide column always centered horitontally, relative to browser window size
- A collapsable left column and collapsable right column that fill out the page (these need to be seperate columns, technically, because I want to apply a different background image to each)

I've done something like this before with "broken" code by doing something like...

Code:

<table width=100%>
<tr>
   <td width=99%>&nbsp;</td>
   <td width=800>&nbsp;</td>
   <td width=99%>&nbsp;</td>
</tr>
</table>

I know, this is really bad code. But hopefully it explains what I'm trying to do. Maybe someone can help me out using some simple CSS?

Thanks!

Hello,

I'm not new to the web, but a newbie in terms of CSS. Could someone check out the following page and css and let me know why the text is not being wrapped in the overall layout. In other words, why is it running over top of the page footer and not contained.

http://www.brainfuelmedia.com/postscript/temp.html

and the css is

http://www.brainfuelmedia.com/postscript/ps_main.css

Thanks for all help. This is driving me nuts.

Hi all,
I would like to create a 3 column layout with the left menu, right menu & the content to have the same height always independently which is the longest like this example below.
Also I have attached the HTML & CSS for your reference.
How can I do this in CSS please?
Thanks in advance

ziffa27

Example: http://www.pixy.cz/blogg/clanky/css-3col-layout/

Code:

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
<title>Untitled Document</title>
<style type="text/css">
<!--
html, body {
	margin: 0;
	padding: 0;
}

body {
	background: silver;
	color: #000000;
	font-family: 'Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif';
	font-size:11px;
	font-weight:normal;
	line-height:16px;
	text-align:left;
}

#container {
	background: yellow;
	margin: auto;
	padding: 0;
	width: 1000px;
}

#header {
	background: orange;
	margin: 0;
	padding: 0;
	height: 200px;
}

#left_menu {
	background: red;
	margin: 0;
	padding: 0;
	width: 200px;
	float: left;
}

#right_menu {
	background: blue;
	margin: 0;
	padding: 0;
	width: 300px;
	float: right;
}

#content {
	background: green;
	margin: 0;
	padding: 0;
	margin-left: 200px;
	width: 500px;
}

#footer {
	background: aqua;
	margin: 0;
	padding: 0;
	clear: both;
	height: 30px;
}
-->
</style>
</head>
</head>
<body>
	<div id="container">
	  <div id="header">Header</div>
        <div id="left_menu">Left menu</div>
        <div id="right_menu">Right menu</div>
        <div id="content">Content<br />Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, est vitae ut. Risus amet illo mollitia magna erat voluptatem, adipiscing arcu eget cras eu nulla, quam eu nec orci, magna quisque nullam adipiscing integer suspendisse, vulputate hac id vivamus at sed mi. Pede magnis fringilla etiam, tempus vel vitae elementum sed nunc omnis. Praesent condimentum aliquam in eros et, pharetra nam imperdiet corrupti posuere, per suspendisse diam turpis parturient turpis, suscipit semper augue nulla, curabitur ac nisl. Iaculis tempor quam id morbi, sodales nullam nulla, ullamcorper tortor illum hendrerit, wisi fringilla ornare fames in, at ornare luctus eu officia platea.</div>
        <div id="footer">Footer</div>
    </div>
</body>
</html>

I've seen a lot of guides that demonstrate how to make a pure CSS two column layout so that if you have two different background colors, the columns will be the same height no matter which column is taller.

However, I'm trying to create a border around the columns and found that these tricks don't work for that. The border only shows up around the content itself. How can I make it so that the border around both columns is as tall as the tallest column?

I already have a site up and in progress here, but on the utilities page there I want project descriptions on the right and screenshots/links in the left. I want the code in logical order an not use absolute positioning since that will ruin the automatic vertical pagestretch and require fetching exact coordinates. Ultimately there will be self-managed divs. The text needs to be aligned left to the buttons and the left content centered in its 'area' If this doesn't make sense I can try to explain it better or answer questions here.

Oh hey, no URLs allowed for me. Ha.
Okay...
members.allegro.cc/felix-the-ghost/Utilities.html
^site^