Question

I’d like to use a div within my page that does not take up the whole screen use the scroll bars on the edge of the screen when its content overflows. I know that sounds confusing, so here’s an example: http://www.csszengarden.com/?cssfile=/202/202.css&page=1

I would have posted code, but I’m not sure where to start on that. Could someone point me in the right direction with the HTML & CSS?

Answer 1

One trick is to overlay one or more static images or boxes and fix their position, then resize the scrollable area of your entire page, your inner <div>, such that its width fits in the “viewable area” exposed (i.e. not covered) by your overlaid area (you could use padding to achieve this).

I’ve made a demo page to illustrate this. It does involve extra markup per my suggestion though; I’d wager that more sophisticated CSS is used to achieve the same effect with the same base markup provided by CSS Zen Garden, but my answer is just another simpler way of going about it.

The source code is provided below. The snippet is runnable but as the dimensions are unmodified from the original you will want to view it in full screen to see anything meaningful in action.

body {
    margin: 0;
}

h1 {
    text-align: center;
}

#overlay div {
    position: fixed;
    width: 100%;
    height: 100%;
    background-color: gray;
}

/* The top and bottom "borders". */
#overlay .vert {
    height: 150px;
}

/* The left and right "borders". */
#overlay .hor {
    width: 300px;
}

/* Anchor the parts of your overlay boxes to the respective edges of the page. */
#overlay-top { top: 0; }
#overlay-bottom { bottom: 0; }
#overlay-left { left: 0; }
#overlay-right { right: 0; }

/* Your content has padding equal to the sizes of your overlay "borders". */
#content {
    padding: 150px 300px;
}

<!-- This acts as the overlay, or mask, of your content. -->
<div id="overlay">
    <div id="overlay-top" class="vert"></div>
    <div id="overlay-bottom" class="vert"></div>
    <div id="overlay-left" class="hor"></div>
    <div id="overlay-right" class="hor"></div>
</div>

<!-- The entire content of your page would go here. -->
<div id="content">
    <h1>Top of content</h1>
    <hr>
    <p>This is a demonstration of the effect of scrolling a small content area in a page using the window's scrollbars.</p>
    <p>It was created as an illustration of <a href="http://stackoverflow.com/a/5383466/106224">this CSS answer on Stack Overflow</a>.</p>
    <hr>
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    <p>No alii aeque facilisis mea, his novum dissentias id. Ne his exerci feugait, mei te suas graeci iracundia. Ad paulo soluta vim, discere qualisque his eu. Ius ut fuisset offendit inciderint, mel putant impetus appellantur no. Sit ad integre officiis euripidis, libris necessitatibus at per. Tamquam insolens an duo, sed exerci electram ad, qui at doming inciderint adversarium.</p>
    <p>Cum ex ornatus accusam, vocent dolorem definiebas sit et, ut illud takimata mei. Eos ex sale brute, bonorum mediocrem an nam. Ei alienum quaestio maiestatis has, iriure vivendo cu est, pri harum periculis ex. Per ad idque populo omnesque, novum reformidans definitionem eu nec. Mel reque evertitur voluptatum ea, inani iuvaret sententiae et has.</p>
    <hr>
    <h1>Bottom of content</h1>
</div>