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CSS Question: Fixed or "Flexible" DIVs?

by shipwrecked
1 replies
  • WEB DESIGN
    • |
Hi,

I'm in the middle of a dilemma... having coded most of my sites as "fixed" with DIVs with fixed widths and heights. In some cases I haven't fixed the height, but the width was always fixed... just because I calculated everything out and it seemed well-organized.

Then: some people have the opinion that it's not good to have "fixed elements" and I should rather use min-width, max-width and similar settings... nothing fixed, but "allow it to flow"

My questions:
(1) what's the disadvantage, downside of having "fixed elements"?
(2) what if I continue to use a site with "flexible, max/min settings" for the main DIVs, but occasionally I keep using a few fixed DIVs (e.g. for ad boxes, images)... so combining fixed with "flowing"...

Thanks in advance for the help!
#css #divs #fixed #flexible #question
  • Profile picture of the author Aryadne
    It depends on the layout of your site. Fixed width just means that the element will always be that size no matter the dimensions of the browser. So if you set a fixed width on say a banner or nav menu to 1024, then a person viewing the page width a browser width of 960 would need to scroll to the right/left to see the full banner.

    Min-width and max-width just tell the browser that the element's width must be within a certain range. So if you set the min to 800 and the max to 1024 then the browser is allowed to resize the element to a size within that range if a visitor changes the dimensions of the website.

    So it really depends on how you have your site laid out. If it's a typical non-full width type page, like this, then you should be fine with leaving the fixed width alone. But if you are creating a full-width page, like this, then you need to set the min and max width.
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