Question

I want to put a scrollable box inside of a fieldset, but I’ve run into a quirk and I can’t figure out my way around it. When you put your scrollable div inside of a fieldset, the fieldset expands instead of making the scrollable element scroll.

Here’s a test case. The following expands indefinitely (boo):

<div style="width: 300px; overflow: hidden;">
   <fieldset>
      <div style="overflow: scroll; white-space: nowrap;">
        Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Sed lorem arcu, sodales non gravida eget, vehicula vitae nulla. Quisque turpis justo, consectetur ut egestas at, pulvinar nec diam. Donec porttitor lobortis elit quis scelerisque. Proin at mollis nibh. Nulla nisi dolor, rutrum nec rhoncus congue, cursus at urna. Curabitur adipiscing euismod nisl nec consequat. Aliquam justo justo, bibendum id molestie eget, dignissim sit amet sapien. Phasellus non erat nulla, quis auctor eros. Proin pellentesque turpis eu ipsum venenatis egestas non eget lacus. Vestibulum ante diam, posuere ut fringilla nec, pretium ac metus. Integer laoreet fringilla ipsum, vel interdum urna pellentesque a. Donec lobortis tincidunt nisi, ac tristique massa pretium ac. Ut vel magna erat, et hendrerit sem. Curabitur vulputate, tellus quis pellentesque pretium, felis odio aliquam sapien, sit amet hendrerit arcu orci ut nulla. Vestibulum suscipit rhoncus arcu, ut aliquam eros sagittis a. Suspendisse eros elit, bibendum venenatis pulvinar at, scelerisque vel quam. 
      </div>
   </fieldset>
</div>

But if you use a div, it works as expected (hurray!):

<div style="width: 300px; overflow: hidden;">
   <div>
      <div style="overflow: scroll; white-space: nowrap;">
        Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Sed lorem arcu, sodales non gravida eget, vehicula vitae nulla. Quisque turpis justo, consectetur ut egestas at, pulvinar nec diam. Donec porttitor lobortis elit quis scelerisque. Proin at mollis nibh. Nulla nisi dolor, rutrum nec rhoncus congue, cursus at urna. Curabitur adipiscing euismod nisl nec consequat. Aliquam justo justo, bibendum id molestie eget, dignissim sit amet sapien. Phasellus non erat nulla, quis auctor eros. Proin pellentesque turpis eu ipsum venenatis egestas non eget lacus. Vestibulum ante diam, posuere ut fringilla nec, pretium ac metus. Integer laoreet fringilla ipsum, vel interdum urna pellentesque a. Donec lobortis tincidunt nisi, ac tristique massa pretium ac. Ut vel magna erat, et hendrerit sem. Curabitur vulputate, tellus quis pellentesque pretium, felis odio aliquam sapien, sit amet hendrerit arcu orci ut nulla. Vestibulum suscipit rhoncus arcu, ut aliquam eros sagittis a. Suspendisse eros elit, bibendum venenatis pulvinar at, scelerisque vel quam. 
      </div>
   </div>
</div>

How can I get the fieldset to behave like the div?

Answer 1

There appears to be no viable solution to this problem. If you really want a fieldset you can use a div and then style it to look like a fieldset but you’ll run into tons of cross-browser issues and headaches. Best solution: refactor the form so that you’re not using fieldsets anymore.