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Asked: 2026-05-11T14:38:23+00:00

I’m using 960 grid system to create a layout prototype. I would like to

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I’m using 960 grid system to create a layout prototype.

I would like to set the color between Navigation and Content to #000 (solid black), but I can’t figure out how. What I currently get is:

alt text

Using this code:

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC '-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN' 'http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd'> <html xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'> <head> <meta http-equiv='Content-type' content='text/html;charset=UTF-8' /> <link rel='stylesheet' type='text/css' media='all' href='css/reset.css' /> <link rel='stylesheet' type='text/css' media='all' href='css/text.css' /> <link rel='stylesheet' type='text/css' media='all' href='css/960.css' /> <link rel='stylesheet' type='text/css' media='all' href='css/custom.css' /> <title>The system</title> </head> <body>  <div class='container_16' id='base'>     <div class='grid_16' id='header'>Graphical banner</div>     <div class='grid_16' id='logoutrow'>Logout row</div>     <div class='grid_3' id='navigation'>Navigation</div>     <div class='grid_13' id='content'>Content</div>     <div class='grid_16' id='footer'>Footer</div> </div>  </body> </html>

My two questions:

  • How do I specify a color for all ‘in between’ space like the one between Navigation and Content?
  • My layout only looks like I want if if I don’t use clear like in this tutorial. Why?

For the in between color I’ve tried putting this in custom.css without success:

div#base {     background-color: #000; }

If you are unfamiliar with 960 grid system but still would like to try and help the whole 960.css can be found here.

Both questions solved:

  • My second question is solved below in a post by Jan Aagaard. I didn’t include the nbsp XML entity and had an empty div. It didn’t work, at least not in Firefox 3.x.

My current code looks like this:

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC '-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN' 'http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd'> <html xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'> <head> <meta http-equiv='Content-type' content='text/html;charset=UTF-8' /> <link rel='stylesheet' type='text/css' media='all' href='css/reset.css' /> <link rel='stylesheet' type='text/css' media='all' href='css/text.css' /> <link rel='stylesheet' type='text/css' media='all' href='css/960.css' /> <link rel='stylesheet' type='text/css' media='all' href='css/custom.css' /> <title>The system</title> </head> <body>  <div class='container_16' id='base'>     <div class='grid_16' id='header'>Graphical banner</div>     <div class='clear'>&nbsp;</div>     <div class='grid_16' id='logoutrow'>Logout row</div>     <div class='clear'>&nbsp;</div>     <div class='grid_16' id='navigation-content>         <div class='grid_3 alpha' id='navigation'>Navigation</div>         <div class='grid_13 omega' id='content'>Content</div>     </div>     <div class='clear'>&nbsp;</div>     <div class='grid_16' id='footer'>Footer</div>     <div class='clear'>&nbsp;</div> </div>  </body> </html>

The 960 grid system says grid child nodes should follow certain rules. The first child node should have the alpha class and the last one the omega class. Which is what I’m doing above. It’s the difference from the answer GateKiller gave below, which apart from that provided a solution.

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1 Answer

  1. The best way to do this would be to wrap #navigation and #contents inside a container div like so:

    <div class="container_16" id="base">     <div class="grid_16" id="header">Graphical banner</div>     <div class="grid_16" id="logoutrow">Logout row</div>     <div class="grid_16" id="navigation-content">         <div class="grid_3" id="navigation">Navigation</div>         <div class="grid_13" id="content">Content</div>     </div>     <div class="grid_16" id="footer">Footer</div> </div>

    You could then set the background as so:

    #navigation-content {     background: #000 }

    You only really need the clearing div if the you do not use the full 16 grids or if you using any float rules which need clearning. The author has the following to say on the clear:

    Lastly, I wanted to talk about the clearing methods included in the 960.css. First off is my personal preference, adding an innocuous bit of markup to clear all elements. I have already written about it extensively, so I won’t go over all that again. Basically, add class="clear" to a <span> or <div> that you want to disappear. The only effect it will have is to clear floats.

    The other method is for all you markup purists out there, who don’t want to dirty your HTML. Instead, you can insert markup via your CSS. This technique is well documented already as well. Essentially, add class="clearfix" to elements to clear what comes after them.

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