3

I have three <div> elements:

<div class="foo">A</div>
<div class="foo">B</div>
<div class="foo">C</div>

Desired behavior

I'd like to write some CSS to create the following effect as the screen size changes:

enter image description here

Undesired behavior

I know how to implement the following (undesired) behavior:

enter image description here

div.foo {
   display: inline-block;
   vertical-align: top;
   width: 300px;
}

Is there a simple way (pref. without any Javascript library) to achieve my desired behavior that will work on major browsers (Chrome, Safari, Firefox, IE9+)?

ᴇʟᴇvᴀтᴇ
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  • Hmm... so you want a vertical layout on smaller screens and a horizontal layout on wider screens? Are there an arbitrary amount of divs? If not, you could do some manual placement with media queries and CSS transforms. – Jason Aug 07 '14 at 19:53
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    Ooo, what about CSS columns? I don't think it would work on – Jason Aug 07 '14 at 19:56
  • Just those three divs. Yes, I was thinking media queries. Do I need to surround A and B with a `
    ` do you think so I can control their combined layout?
     – ᴇʟᴇvᴀтᴇ Aug 07 '14 at 19:57
  • Well CSS columns would be the "cleanest" way to do it, but seeing as you want as much support as possible, placing A and B in a parent div would be the best bet. Keep in mind, though, that media queries are not supported by – Jason Aug 07 '14 at 20:00
  • All depends on what your definitions of Medium and Small are, here's a super barebones version http://codepen.io/evanrbriggs/pen/cpwoj with media queries. – Evan Aug 07 '14 at 20:10

2 Answers2

2

I don't think this is possible without an extra wrapper div and a media query.

HTML:

<div class="box-wrap">
  <div class="box">a</div>
  <div class="box">b</div>
</div>
<div class="box">c</div>

CSS:

.box {
  border: 1px solid #000;
  float: left;
  height: 300px;
  width: 300px;
}

.box-wrap {
  float: left;
  width: 300px;
}

@media (min-width: 900px) {
  .box-wrap {
    width: auto;
  }
}

Demo: http://codepen.io/sdsanders/pen/zLFJj

Steve Sanders
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  • Thanks! Actually because of the border you put on the boxes if you hover +/- a pixel or two around the 900px mark the top row shows AB instead of AC. Is there a way to make that require less exactness? E.g. could we use `max-width` instead? – ᴇʟᴇvᴀтᴇ Aug 07 '14 at 20:10
1

Wrap the A and B into it's own container.

<div class="foo-wrap">
    <div class="foo">A</div>
    <div class="foo">B</div>
</div>
<div class="foo">C</div>

Then use a media query to control the display of the A/B column on smaller screens:

.foo-wrap {
    display: inline-block;
}

div.foo {
   display: inline-block;
   vertical-align: top;
   width: 300px;
}

@media all and (max-width: 925px) {
    .foo-wrap {
        width: 300px;
    }
}

Demo: http://jsfiddle.net/axertion/j48da85n/1/

Axel
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  • Thank you! That's just what I was after. – ᴇʟᴇvᴀтᴇ Aug 07 '14 at 20:12
  • By the way, I used `max-width: 925px` on the max-width to account for the additional space between the blocks. Since you are using `display: inline-block;`, there will be some additional space between the blocks. – Axel Aug 07 '14 at 20:17