Uniform Width for Left Column inside Forum vs Forum index?

[gregmlb]

I could use a bit more input. What I've found is that, structurally, the following additional.css seems to work the best:

#forumFill{
background-image: none;
background-repeat: repeat-x;
width: 100%;
margin-right: auto;
margin-left: auto;
}

#forumL{
background-image: none;
background-repeat: no-repeat;
width: 0px;
float: left;
}

#forumC {
background-image: none;
background-repeat: no-repeat;
margin-left:175px;
float: left;
}

***Using the above, the left-side margin / column stays at 175px no matter how wide the browser, etc. … which is exactly what I want.***

HOWEVER, after I insert my HTML/javascript into the navbar template, what I see is the following:



and



So the google ads look fine, but the addthis.com widget, RSS, and even the "Testing 123" text are compressed into a narrow display that is far less than the 175px margin-left in forumC.

Now you might say to just increase the forumL width to 175px (from 0px) … and I've done that, and it does allow the addthis.com, RSS link, and "Testing 123" text to stretch to the right BUT all sorts of odd things happen, such as:
- if the browser window is too narrow when looking at the index.php page, it pushes the forum way down beneath the ads (out of immediate user view)
- if the browser window is wide when looking at index.php, then it doubles the 175px left side column
- when looking inside the forum itself (/forumdisplay.php?2-Midlife-Forum), no matter the browser width, it ALWAYS displays the threads way down beneath the ads (out of immediate user view)

I've also tried all permutations of forumL width and forumC margin-left values of 175px, 0px ... and all have some sort of major display flaw ... EXCEPT for that shown in the code window at the top.

If I using increasingly larger values for forumL width (going from 0px to say, 50px, then 100px, etc.), then I can see that the addthis.com widget, and RSS start to expand to the right ... but then the forum display (looking at index.php) falls beneath the ads (out of view) as the window narrows (as described above). And the forum itself will then ALWAYS show up beneath the ads. For example, if I change the forumL width to 175px (from 0px), then look at the forum (/forumdisplay.php?2-Midlife-Forum) here is what you see:



Any idea how to remedy this? Your input is appreciated greatly/hugely/massively - thanks!

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I think I solved this myself using the following in additional.css. I switched to absolute positioning in forumC - do you see anything wrong or unadvisable here ... ??? It does appear to work in all cases, and in all widths of the browser ...

#forumFill{
background-image: none;
background-repeat: repeat-x;
width: 100%;
margin-right: auto;
margin-left: auto;
}

#forumL{
background-image: none;
background-repeat: no-repeat;
width: 175px;
float: left;
}

#forumC {
background-image: none;
background-repeat: no-repeat;
min-width:600px;
float: left;
position:absolute;
left:195px;
width:auto;
}

--------------- Added [DATE]1292806296[/DATE] at [TIME]1292806296[/TIME] ---------------

Okay - so I've discovered that using absolute positioning does have one unintended side effect ... one which I'm currently stuck on.

For some reason, the Footer always appears at the end of the left-side column ... right after the second of the two google 160x600 wide skyscraper ads ... regardless of whether that is where the end of the center section is, or not. [It should appear at the VERY BOTTOM of the page (after the end of the center section) ... or that is where I would like it to appear.] Here is what I mean:





So close - yet so far away. Any ideas???