Is it possible to have a web browser scroll to show CSS fixed position items that are outside the viewport of the web browser?

Question

I am trying to create a CSS layout where the page looks like it's in the middle of the forest. There is a left and right div with the background trees, some header divs that show the top of the page with various wildlife, and some footer divs that show the bottom with more wildlife that matches up with the left and right div background images, all of which is positioned using "position: fixed" in CSS.

Then there is content in the middle that is positioned normally and scrollable. That all works fine.

The problem I'm having is that the background forest layout is fixed at 1204x768 but of course some web browser windows may not be that large. Unfortunately while the content will scroll as intended, the fixed position elements will never be shown if they are outside the size of the browser window. Clearly not acceptable.

I've tried setting overflow: scroll and height: 768 on the .body and .html elements in the stylesheet but no luck.

Note that I am positioning everything with top: and left: values in the CSS. I know I could get around this by using bottom: and right: but the problem is that the footer images wouldn't line up.

This may just not be possible in which case I'll have to rework the graphic design, but if it is possible I'd love to know how!

Answer 1

You could have two pictures: 1) a right that contains the right trees and the bottom footer image and 2) and left image with the left trees. Make the bottom footer much wider than it needs to be and the trees (left and right) much taller than they need to be.

Then set the right picture to bottom: and right: and set the left picture to bottom: left:. This will force the pictures to always be on the outsides of the page, no matter the browser size. Then set the z-index of the right picture to be just behind the left picture. It will then always look like the page will be bordered. Or you can set a firm width and height on the parent container, and they will always be on the border of the container. You can also set a min-width and -height if you need to have a certain minimum sizes.

As for things not being visible at a certain resolution, you're really not going to get around this. You could have two sets of pictures, one for normal resolutions, and one for smaller resolutions. Then you can get the width and height of the browser with $(window).height() and $(window).width() with jQuery, and load the appropriate pictures.

EDIT: After looking at your site, i'm pretty sure the second part of that (setting a fixed width for a container, then putting a bottom right picture and bottom left picture) will work for what you want. That will force the page to be a certain width, and thus have the entire border visible.

Answer 2

of course some web browser windows may not be that large

Or indeed that small! The likelihood of the browser window actually being exactly the right size to put your decorations on the edges is quite small; that's always the problem with fixed layout.

I know I could get around this by using bottom: and right: but the problem is that the footer images wouldn't line up.

Yes, designing images that can alter their joins in response to page size changes is more work, but it's doable. You would have to export the ‘bird+foliage’ layer and the ‘squirrel+foliage’ layer as standalone transparent images, then lay them over the top of a longer side image.

To make the object edges nice and smooth would require PNG's 8-bit transparency, which would necessitate a PNG-rendering hack for IE6. Not the end of the world though.

Unfortunately while the content will scroll as intended, the fixed position elements will never be shown

Is that a problem? They are only decorational in nature.

I've tried setting overflow: scroll and height: 768 on the .body and .html elements

For this approach you would need to set ‘overflow: auto; height: 768px;’ on a wrapper <div> which holds both your #sidebar-left and your #content.