CODEWITHSUNDEEP
csslayoutwhitespace
Tschallacka
Tschallacka

Reputation: 28722

How to remove whitespace that appears after relative positioning an element with CSS

The problem occurs is the following: After relative positioning an element with CSS I get a white-space of where the element was... I don't want the white-space!

    .thetext 
    {
        width:400px;
        background:yellow;
        border: 1px dashed red;
        margin:50px;
        padding:5px;
        font-weight:bold;
    }
    .whiteblob
    {
        position:relative;
        top:-140px;
        left:70px;
        width:200px;
        height:50px;
        border: 4px solid green;
        background:white;
        font-size:2.5em;
        color:red;
        
    }
    .footerallowedwhitespaceinblue
    {
        height:10px;
        background-color:blue;
    }
    .footer
    {
        background-color:grey;
        height:200px;
    }
<div class="thetext"><script type="text/javascript">for(c=0;c<50;c++){document.write("Lorem ipsum dolor est, ");}</script>
    </div>
    <div class="whiteblob">
        &nbsp;buy this!
    </div>
    <div class="footerallowedwhitespaceinblue">
    </div>
    <div class="footer">
        The whitespace above is way to big! The buy this still takes up space whilst it is moved.
    </div>

JSFiddle: http://jsfiddle.net/qqXQn/

As you can see in the example, the only whitespace I want is the whitespace caused by the thetext block by the margin of 50px; and the spacing by the footerallowedwhitespaceinblue(made blue so it's visible). The problem is... the whitespace is too big now because the "buy this" div still takes up space after it's been relatively positioned.

How do I solve this?

Upvotes: 45

Views: 60254

Answers (7)

Tschallacka
Tschallacka

Reputation: 28722

You can simply solve this by applying a negative margin that equals the width or height of the element.

For an element of 100px height that is positioned to the top you will apply margin-bottom:-100px;

For an element of 100px height that is positioned to the bottom you will apply margin-top:-100px;

For an element of 100px width that is positioned to the left you will apply margin-right:-100px;

For an element of 100px width that is positioned to the right you will apply margin-left:-100px;

cut & paste css snippets:

.top 
    {
    postion:relative;
    top:-100px;
    height:25px;
    margin-bottom:-25px;
    }
.bottom
    {
    postion:relative;
    top:100px;
    height:25px;
    margin-top:-25px;
    }
.left
    {
    postion:relative;
    left:-100px;
    width:25px;
    margin-right:-25px;
    }
.right
    {
    postion:relative;
    left:100px;
    width:25px;
    margin-left:-25px;
    }

And the reworked example code becomes then:

.thetext 
{
    width:400px;
    background:yellow;
    border: 1px dashed red;
    margin:50px;
    padding:5px;
    font-weight:bold;
}
.whiteblob
{
    position:relative;
    top:-140px;
    left:70px;
    width:200px;
    height:50px;
    margin-bottom:-50px;
    border: 4px solid green;
    background:white;
    font-size:2.5em;
    color:red;
    
}
.footerallowedwhitespaceinblue
{
    height:10px;
    background-color:blue;
}
.footer
{
    background-color:grey;
    height:200px;
}
<div class="thetext"><script type="text/javascript">for(c=0;c<50;c++){document.write("Lorem ipsum dolor est, ");}</script>
</div>
<div class="whiteblob">
    &nbsp;buy this!
</div>
<div class="footerallowedwhitespaceinblue">
</div>
<div class="footer">
</div>

http://jsfiddle.net/qqXQn/1/

Upvotes: 62

Iggy
Iggy

Reputation: 2121

If you are brave enough, you may put overflow:hidden; and a bottom negative margin on relatively positioned element, and it will remove the spacing leftover :) i.e. on responsive site.

But do check it doesn't hide a needed content.

Upvotes: 3

ibsenv
ibsenv

Reputation: 619

You can solve this problem by giving float:left before position:relative. Use margin-left, margin-top properties instead of top, left also.

Upvotes: 3

Ali mohammadi
Ali mohammadi

Reputation: 1899

set relative elememt top to parent font size like this code:

html in jade template:

div.dialog(id='login')
        div.dialog-header
            span.title login
            a.dialog-close(href="")  X
            hr
        div.dialog-body
            p hello this is body
            hr
        div.dialog-footer
            p this is footer

and css:

    .dialog
    {
        height: 100%;
        position: absolute;
        top: -100%;
        right: 50%;
        left: 50%;
        bottom: 100%;
        border: 2px solid rgba(255, 255, 255,1);
        border-radius: 3px;
        font-size: 14px;

    }   
.dialog-body{
        position: relative;
        background-color: #F99;
        height: 80%;
        top: -14px;
    }
    .dialog-header{
        position: relative;
        height: 10%;
        background-color: #F9F9F9;

    }
    .dialog-footer{
        position: relative;
        height: 10%;
        top: -28px;
        background-color: #F9fdf9;

    }

this worked for me!

Upvotes: 0

user3480581
user3480581

Reputation: 1

set height to 0: height:0px;.

Now this div can be placed anywhere.

Upvotes: -2

jnl
jnl

Reputation: 447

Set the outer div as "position: relative" the div you want to move as "position: absolute" and set the top and left values. this will position the item relative to the outer div (not the page). relative position leaves gaps. absolute does not.

Upvotes: -2

user734063
user734063

Reputation: 569

Here is an example. In this case, the object was moved to the right and then up using a negative top value. Eliminating its trailing margin space required adding an equal negative-margin value.

 position:relative;
 width:310px;
 height:260px;
 top:-332px;
 margin-bottom:-332px;
 left:538px;

Upvotes: 6

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