Why is CSS height:100% not working in IE6?

Question

I have an IE6 absolute position div that I want to be full screen (100% width and height). It's being used as a "loading, please wait" message while the data loads on the page.

It appears that ie6 does not recognize the css of "height:100%".

Any work arounds?

Answer 1

Height 100% on a div needs it's parent to also have a height defined in IE6. Try this:

body{
  height:100%;
}

Answer 2

Also, in some older browsers you need to set the height of the html tag as well:

body, html {
    height: 100%;
}

Answer 3

Also, and this might have flaws of its own, you could do the following:

#fullScreenDiv {position: absolute;
                top: 0;
                bottom: 0;
                left: 0;
                right: 0;
}

It'll maybe screw with nested components and their floats and so forth, but it would definitely, with a doctype, make the div full screen.