liquid layout vs. absolute positioning

is both possible in one page?

[matthias]

I'm a little confused. Everybody on WW keeps telling that liquid layout is the way to go. I understand this and have to agree BUT on the other side people say how great CSS and absolute positioning is. They post examples like this: [webmasterworld.com ]

If I do absolute positioning, nothing is liquid.

Probably I understand absolute positioning wrong, so can someone explain this to me?

[Purple Martin]

You can use % instead of px to make DIV positioning liquid.

There's been a long-running debate about liquid 3 column CSS layout, the latest installment is here [webmasterworld.com].

[papabaer]

Matthias, look at CSS positioning like a good buffet line... you can take a little of this and a little of that: mix n' match to your heart's content! Just don't try to much at one time or you'll end up with indigestion!

Remember this: when you assign position:absolute to an element, you have effectively removed it from the normal page flow. You can very easily have designs that use both position:absolute as well as "liquid" elements.

You might want to use position:absolute for menus or images and then allow the text to flow with the page resize. The possibilities are endless. Just wait until you try position:fixed! IE doesn't supprt it yet, but that does not mean it cannot be used creatively.

[Nick_W]

Yes, Papabaer's talking about the now classic glish 3 col layout.

I love it! Fluid center, column fixed width outer columns but all with fluid text sizing.

I've experimented with it a bit and can tell you that it's not so tough to use percentages on the outer cols and adding header and footer is a snap ;)

Nick

[Eric_Jarvis]

matthias: "If I do absolute positioning, nothing is liquid."

no...if you use absolute positioning something is fixed...everything else can still be liquid

even in the most liquid design there are effectively fixed points...usually the top left corner

[papabaer]

I did an "artsy" design layout once where everything was liquid except for a few "fixed" images that were meant to stay in place and allow the background to flow with window size.

I used gifs and png images with tranparencies. It turned out very cool. Yes.. the possibilities are there.

[matthias]

Many thanks to all of you.

Can someone mail me some cool example sites (xhtml & pure css). I looked at the page in your profile papabaer. I really would like to see more such sites. You learn programming best by studying good code - I think the same is true for html. :-)

[rogerd]

I always wondered what this liquid layout stuff was about. I assumed it had something to do with the Favorite Beer [webmasterworld.com] thread. ;)