Question

I have a content div, that has a header div, which contains two other divs, and then a final div that is not in the header, but is in the content. However, it looks like the last child div of content is not actually contained in the content.

Here is the CSS:

div.outline {border: 1px solid red;}
#content{background-color:tan;}
#container{width:680px;overflow:hidden;}
#header{margin-bottom:10px; background-color:yellow;}
#title{float:left;}
#link{float:right;}
.clear_it{clear:both;}
#chooser{float:left; margin-right:20px}
#renamer{padding-left:20px;}
#img{width:170px;height:130px;border:1px solid rgb(192,192,192);float:left;margin-left:20px;margin-top:20px;}

Here is the HTML:

<div id="container">
    <div id="header">
        <div id="title">Header Title</div>
        <div id="link" style="float:right;">
            <a href="http://www.apple.com" target="_blank">Link</a>
        </div>
        <div class="clear_it"></div>
    </div>

    <div id="content">
        <div id="content_header">
            <div id="chooser">
                <select>
                    <option value="1">This is a fairly long option</option>
                    <option value="2">short</option>
                </select>
            </div>
            <div id="renamer">
                <a href="http://apple.com" target="_blank">Link</a>
            </div>
        </div>
        <div class="clear_it"></div>
        <div id="img"></div>
    </div>
</div>

Here is the result:

Answer 1

I’d recommend a different method to clear your floats that doesn’t involve any clearing divs (thus removing clear_it altogether). Just add overflow: auto or overflow: hidden to your containers that contain the floated elements:

#content { overflow: auto; }
#container { overflow: auto; }
#content-header { overflow: auto; }

New HTML:

<div id="container">
    <div id="header">
        <div id="title">Header Title</div>
        <div id="link" style="float:right;">
            <a href="http://www.apple.com" target="_blank">Link</a>
        </div>
    </div>

    <div id="content">
        <div id="content_header">
            <div id="chooser">
                <select>
                    <option value="1">This is a fairly long option</option>
                    <option value="2">short</option>
                </select>
            </div>
            <div id="renamer">
                <a href="http://apple.com" target="_blank">Link</a>
            </div>
        </div>
        <div id="img"></div>
    </div>
</div>

New CSS:

div.outline {border: 1px solid red;}
#content{background-color:tan; overflow: auto;}
#container{width:680px;overflow:auto;}
#header{margin-bottom:10px; background-color:yellow; overflow: auto;}
#title{float:left;}
#link{float:right;}
#content_header { overflow: auto; }
#chooser{float:left; margin-right:20px}
#renamer{padding-left:20px;}
#img{width:170px;height:130px;border:1px solid rgb(192,192,192);float:left;margin-left:20px;margin-top:20px;}

See: http://jsfiddle.net/Wexcode/g7MkN/