vertical lines with full height between divs

Question

I have three divs (left, mid and right) and these divs don't have an exact height, because it depends on how many rows text are inside the div. Now I want vertical lines (which seperate the three divs) through the whole height of the users monitor, no matter how high the divs are.

How can I do this? Because , as you can see in the css-code, border-right/border-left don't work for me.

Intention HTML

<div class="content">
    <div class="content_left"></div>
    <div class="content_mid"></div>
    <div class="content_right"></div>
</div>

CSS

.content {  
    line-height: 1.1;
    background-color: #FFF;
    color: #000; 
    position: absolute;
    top: 36px; /* because there is a top-menu which is 36px high */
    left: 70px; /* because there is a side-menu which is 70px wide */
    right: 0px;
    bottom: 0px;
    overflow-x: hidden;
    overflow-y: auto;
}
.content_left {
    position: absolute;
    width: 22.5%;
    left: 0px;
    top: 0px;
    border-right: 1px solid #ccc;
    padding: 10px;
    overflow-x: hidden;
    overflow-y:hidden;
}
.content_mid {
    position: relative;
    width: 50%;
    top: 10px;
    left: 25%;
    float: left;
    padding-left: 10px;
}
.content_right {
    position: absolute;
    width: 22.5%;
    right: 0px;
    top: 0px;
    border-left: 1px solid #ccc;
    padding: 10px;
    overflow-x: hidden;
    overflow-y: hidden;
}

Edit 1: I would like to have these seperate-lines 1px wide and I cannot set the height of content_left, content_mid, content_right to 100% because I have resizeable boxes in these divs.

Answer 1

You can achieve this without adding an extra HTML by using Pseudo selectors. I've also tidied up some of the code that works out widths :).

* {
  box-sizing:border-box;  
}
html, body {  
  height:100%;
  width:100%;
}
body {
  position:relative;  
  margin:0;
  padding:0;
}
.content {
  line-height: 1.1;
  background-color: #FFF;
  color: #000;
  position: absolute;
  top: 36px;
  /* because there is a top-menu which is 36px high */
  left: 70px;
  /* because there is a side-menu which is 70px wide */
  right: 0px;
  bottom: 0px;
  overflow-x: hidden;
  overflow-y: auto;
}
.content_left {
  position: absolute;
  width: calc(25% - 35px);
  left: 0px;
  top: 0px;
  padding: 10px;
  overflow-x: hidden;
  overflow-y: hidden;
}
.content_mid {
  position: relative;
  width: 50%;
  top: 10px;
  left: 25%;
  float: left;
  padding-left: 10px;
}
.content_right {
  position: absolute;
  width: calc(25% - 35px);
  right: 0px;
  top: 0px;
  padding: 10px;
  overflow-x: hidden;
  overflow-y: hidden;
}
.content:before {
  content: '';
  border-left:1px solid #ccc;
  width:0;
  position:absolute;
  top:0;
  left:25%;
  bottom:0;
}
.content:after {
  content: '';
  border-right:1px solid #ccc;
  width:0;
  position:absolute;
  top:0;
  right:25%;
  bottom:0;
}

<div class="content">
  <div class="content_left"></div>
  <div class="content_mid"></div>
  <div class="content_right"></div>
</div>

Answer 2

Just Created a fiddle using your code. See and let me know if this solves your issue.

http://jsfiddle.net/knxd0htm/

Add this part of code to make it work

**HTML:**

<div class="content">
    <div class="content_left">a</div>
    <div class="full-height one"></div>
    <div class="content_mid">b</div>
    <div class="full-height two"></div>
    <div class="content_right">c</div>
</div>

**CSS**

/**** CODE ****/
* {
-webkit-box-sizing: border-box;
   -moz-box-sizing: border-box;
        box-sizing: border-box;
    padding: 0;
    margin: 0;
}
.content {
    height: calc(100%-36px);
    min-height: calc(100%-36px);
}
.full-height {
    position: absolute;
    height: 100%;
    border-left: 1px solid red;
}

.full-height.one {
    left: 22.5%;
}
.full-height.two {
    right: 22.5%;
}
/**** CODE ****/

Answer 3

I think this does what you want.

JSFiddle example

The HTML structure is a bit more complicated than yours:

<div class="menu-top">Menu top</div>
<div class="wrapper">
    <div class="menu-left">Menu left</div>
    <div class="content">
        <div class="column">
            <div class="column-content">
                 <h1>Column 1</h1>
            </div>
        </div>
        <div class="column">
            <div class="column-content">
                 <h1>Column 2</h1>
            </div>
        </div>
        <div class="column">
            <div class="column-content">
                <h1>Column 3</h1>
            </div>
        </div>
    </div>
</div>

And here's the CSS:

body {
    padding: 0;
    margin: 0;
    box-sizing: border-box;
    height: 100%;
    width: 100%;
}
.menu-top {
    width: 100%;
    height: 36px;
    background-color: #3498DB;
}
.wrapper {
    display: flex;
}
.menu-left {
    height: calc(100vh - 36px);
    width: 70px;
    background-color: #59ABE3;
}
.content {
    width: calc(100vw - 70px);
    height: calc(100vh - 36px);
    background-color: #E4F1FE;
    display: flex;
}
.column {
    flex: 33;
    border-left: 1px solid hotpink;
}
.column:first-of-type {
    border-left: none;
}

Answer 4

You can actually fake it using background-color for the parent.

/* Start Praveen's Reset for Fiddle ;) */
* {font-family: 'Segoe UI'; margin: 0; padding: 0; list-style: none; -webkit-box-sizing: border-box; -moz-box-sizing: border-box; box-sizing: border-box;}
/* End Praveen's Reset for Fiddle ;) */

.parent {background-color: #f99; height: 100%; overflow: hidden; position: relative;}
.parent .col {float: left; background-color: #fff; height: 100%; margin: 0.5%; width: 32.25%; position: relative;}

<div class="parent">
  <div class="col">
    <p>I am one line!</p>
  </div>
  <div class="col">
    <p>I am three lines!</p>
    <p>I am three lines!</p>
    <p>I am three lines!</p>
  </div>
  <div class="col">
    <p>I am two lines!</p>
    <p>I am two lines!</p>
  </div>
</div>

Fiddle: http://output.jsbin.com/hefefawilu/1