Internet Explorer 7 Float Bug?

[williamfox4]

I am creating a site and I'm having trouble with x-browser support.
Currently I am only struggling with IE 7 as all other browsers that I have tested so far have been ok.

This is a link to one of my pages.

http://www.williamfox.net/Debug/IE7_Float.html

If you launch this site in IE 8 or 9 then hit F12, you can change the Document Mode to IE7 Standards... Then you will notice that the main body of text is falling past the footer.

I have tried so many online solutions to try and get to the bottom of this - It's driving me crazy!

Can anyone help me?

Kind regards,
-Will.

[aj_nsc]

Try changing .fixwrapper to this:

.fixwrapper {
background-image: url(../Images/bg_body_white.png) !important;
background-repeat: repeat !important;
background-position: top !important;
overflow: hidden; /* change this from visible to hidden */
position: relative;
/* height: 1px; - remove this */
}

This causes the fixwrapper to clear all of it's children thus pushing the footer down. Right now, the footer isn't clearing the right-floated content div - one reason is because fixwrapper has a height of 1px.

[williamfox4]

Hello,
Thank you for the reply - I did try what you have suggested before.
When you remove the height from the fixwrapper that stops the page flowing over the footer but I have been unsucessful at clearing the page now so that the menu appears back at the top and the bottom menu appears at the top of the blue.
(the white menu and the blue menu are different controls).

This is a link to the revised page following your suggestions
http://www.williamfox.net/Debug/IE7_Float_2.html

Kind regards,
-Will.

[Frank62]

I'm afraid I'm extremely busy, but if all else fails and you have to redo your layout, put this in the head:

<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=EmulateIE7" />

That will make IE7+ behave like IE7.

[Michael_G]

Now sure if this will be a help for you, but in web application development if you have several divs that are using float:left; or float:right you can sometimes run into issues.

If you have a div with float:left; next to a div that has no float. The div with no float will superimpose itself on top of your div with float:left; Also it will not lineup as you expect it to with the other divs.

float:left; is used very often in web development, especially when trying to align content without the use of HTML tables.

This problem will occur regardless of the web programming language you use, whether it is ASP.NET, ColdFusion, or PHP.

Michael G. Workman
michael.g.workman@gmail.com

[Frank62]

In addition to what Michael wrote, floats should either be sustained (:left or :right) or cleared (:left, :right or :both). There may never be an open end to a float. Use an empty div to clear the float, if necessary.

[williamfox4]

Thank you for your replies Michael & Frank,
I'm going to spend some more time on this today to try and figure out exactly what is causing the problem.
I had considered starting again and using "IE=EmulateIE7" but i'd rather keep the existing style and create something in javascript or C# to calculate the height of the page and use that to set a property height for the page container.... I'd rather not have to do that, but as this only affects IE7 I'm convinced there is no other way, when all standards compliant browsers are correct!

Kind regards,
-Will.