Do paragraph bottom margins overrule body margins?

Do paragraph bottom margins overrule body margins? (To explain what I mean,
http://www.xmission.com/~wake/computerrules.html has 5% margins, including the
bottom margin, in IE, but not in Firefox. I assume Firefox does it correctly.
Does this no-5%-bottom-margin happen because I have a specific paragraph bottom
margin listed in the stylesheet after I have listed the 5% body margin?)

In article <ek4q3i$j05$1 (AT) news (DOT) xmission.com>,
Paul Wake<wakeMYFINGER (AT) xmission (DOT) com> wrote:

Do paragraph bottom margins overrule body margins?

Yes. You may or may not know that there is a "hidden stylesheet"
that browsers use as default. In general, either through the
hidden one or your own (which overrides the hidden where there is
a clash), a child specification will push aside any
characteristic that would otherwise be inherited.

--
dorayme

..oO(Paul Wake)

Do paragraph bottom margins overrule body margins? (To explain what I mean,
http://www.xmission.com/~wake/computerrules.html has 5% margins, including the
bottom margin, in IE, but not in Firefox. I assume Firefox does it correctly.
Does this no-5%-bottom-margin happen because I have a specific paragraph bottom
margin listed in the stylesheet after I have listed the 5% body margin?)

No, it's a bit more complicated in this case. Both content boxes are
floated, hence taken out of the normal flow. If you apply a border to
the body element, you'll see its real size - it doesn't stretch down to
the end of the page.

Micha

I appreciate the replies. However, I think I'm confused, and must be missing a
basic concept somewhere. I think a little white space looks good, so I use 5%
margins in a body tag. I'd think that would put whatever is in the body (which
is everything) inside a nice 5% margin. But
http://www.xmission.com/~wake/computerrules.html uses float to make two columns
buy in doing so I don't get white space at the bottom of the page; the actual
body margin turns out to be pretty high up on the page and so effectively
invisible. If I switch to absolute positioning to do two columns (
http://www.xmission.com/~wake/computerrules.html ) I still lose my white space
on the bottom (this is in Firefox, not IE), so that would seem to mean that
something other than float taking things out of normal flow is causing me to
lose my white space. What is it?

In article <ekvsqp$g9k$1 (AT) news (DOT) xmission.com>,
Paul Wake<wakeMYFINGER (AT) xmission (DOT) com> wrote:

I appreciate the replies. However, I think I'm confused, and must be missing
a
basic concept somewhere. I think a little white space looks good, so I use
5%
margins in a body tag. I'd think that would put whatever is in the body
(which
is everything) inside a nice 5% margin.

Well, that is simple enough. It puts 5% margins all around
(rather a lot btw? why would someone on a small screen appreciate
that? Lose such big top and bottom margins.)

But
http://www.xmission.com/~wake/computerrules.html uses float to make two
columns
buy in doing so I don't get white space at the bottom of the page;

I get tons from your site?

the actual
body margin turns out to be pretty high up on the page and so effectively
invisible.

what are you talking about? Margins are on the left and right and
top and bottom.

If I switch to absolute positioning to do two columns (
http://www.xmission.com/~wake/computerrules.html ) I still lose my white
space

Not on my FF

--
dorayme

In article <ekvsqp$g9k$1 (AT) news (DOT) xmission.com>, Paul Wake says...

I appreciate the replies. However, I think I'm confused, and must be missing a
basic concept somewhere. I think a little white space looks good, so I use 5%
margins in a body tag. I'd think that would put whatever is in the body (which
is everything) inside a nice 5% margin. But
http://www.xmission.com/~wake/computerrules.html uses float to make two columns
buy in doing so I don't get white space at the bottom of the page; the actual
body margin turns out to be pretty high up on the page and so effectively
invisible. If I switch to absolute positioning to do two columns (
http://www.xmission.com/~wake/computerrules.html ) I still lose my white space
on the bottom (this is in Firefox, not IE), so that would seem to mean that
something other than float taking things out of normal flow is causing me to
lose my white space. What is it?

Oops--that second URL (switching from float to absolute positioning) should have
been http://www.xmission.com/~wake/computerrules2.html , and in my Firefox, I
get white space across the top and the sides of the page, but the lowest
reaching text on the bottom is right to the bottom of the viewport.

Paul Wake wrote:

I appreciate the replies. However, I think I'm confused, and must be missing a
basic concept somewhere. I think a little white space looks good, so I use 5%
margins in a body tag. I'd think that would put whatever is in the body (which
is everything) inside a nice 5% margin. But
http://www.xmission.com/~wake/computerrules.html uses float to make two columns
buy in doing so I don't get white space at the bottom of the page; the actual
body margin turns out to be pretty high up on the page and so effectively
invisible. If I switch to absolute positioning to do two columns (
http://www.xmission.com/~wake/computerrules.html ) I still lose my white space
on the bottom (this is in Firefox, not IE), so that would seem to mean that
something other than float taking things out of normal flow is causing me to
lose my white space. What is it?

Re: http://www.xmission.com/~wake/computerrules.html

Both 'float' and 'absolute' (as well as 'fixed') elements are out of the
normal flow and therefore present no height component to their container.

'Static' and 'relative' elements are in the normal flow.
Use this method:

div.right {
/*float: right; width: 45%; Removing this results in div.right
flowing to the right (and wrapping
around) of div.left for the remaining
available width. Giving it a margin-left
greater than the width of div.left
prevents the wrapping */
margin-left:55%; /* results in 45% width right column */
border-top:1px solid white; /* to cancel collapsing margins */
}

--
Gus