Question

Given the following style:

#myDiv{
  background:orange;
  width:250px;
}

and the following HTML code:

<div id="myDiv">
    <p>
        Vote Pirates!<br />
    </p>
</div>

Why exactly would it change the size of the div when I add a float:left property to the myDiv style?

Edit: Turns out this is a browser-issue, or even worse an operating system specific problem.

Answer 1

This seems like the likely answer: A floated box is taken out of the flow, so it doesn’t affect the block-level boxes around it.

Lifted from this page on sitepoint.

Also, you might be experiencing browser specific functionality (errors?). Are you using IE 6.0?