ABSOLUTE div not expanding parent RELATIVE div

[blondie]

i have a similar problem to a post back in APR ( [webmasterworld.com...] ) however my situation is a bit different.

i have a div (CONTENT) that houses 3 seperate divs (LEFT,MIDDLE,RIGHT). below CONTENT is my FOOTER div. when the content in MIDDLE exceeds the height of CONTENT, it does not push down the CONTENT div. my result is now that all the content is overlapping FOOTER.

i have set inner divs as absolute because that is the only way i could get the site to work on IE.

my original setup was 3 inner divs positioned with margins and floats. everything looked fine in safari, ff but not ie.

any suggestions on fixing my current situation or how to perfect my original setup?

thanks in advance!

[edited by: swa66 at 8:21 am (utc) on Sep. 25, 2009]
[edit reason] made link active [/edit]

[swa66]

If you don't know the size of your columns, absolute positioning for this isn't the right tool.

The most traditional solution is to float your columns and then make the wrapper stretch to encompass the floated elements

You should find literally hundreds of working 3 column examples that have a footer and use floated columns. f not come back and I'm sure we can write up one if you specify what you want to be dynamic in regard of viewport sizes.