Title: Left Menu Layout Problems
Last modified: August 18, 2016
---
# Left Menu Layout Problems
* [Valerie](https://wordpress.org/support/users/valerie/)
* (@valerie)
* [21 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/left-menu-layout-problems/)
* I am working with WP’s default layout and have created a left-hand column to
hold some of my menu items.
* My left-hand column insists on remaining below the content – what looks like
100px below the end of the content block (also below the “credit” block & body
borders, but that appears to be coincidental), which is what I set for the column“
margin-top”, even though it’s position is set for absolute.
* I made the content div position relative (which contains everything but “header”,“
credit”, and “menu” [the original right-hand menu]). I even made the “header”
and “credit” positions relative (only after the first try didn’t work). I even
went so far as to make the “body” “position: absolute” in an attempt to make
that menu move up to where it’s supposed to be.
* I have also set content width to auto, but still no go.
* The order in my html is header, content, left menu, right menu, then credit –
which is the way I would like to keep them.
* I’ve worked with 3 columns before (in same order as above), but just can’t see
why this isn’t working.
* It would be great to get some help for this. 🙂
* As for a link to my site, I would prefer not to “advertise it”, so if you have
suggestions of things for me to check, I would appreciate it. But if someone
is quite certain they could definitely find the problem by looking at my site
and css, please let me know and we can work something out privately.
* Thank you very much!
Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)
* [DianeV](https://wordpress.org/support/users/dianev/)
* (@dianev)
* [21 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/left-menu-layout-problems/#post-124973)
* Here’s what may be a solution for your layout:
[http://developedtraffic.com/resources/wordpress-notes.php#fallingmenu](http://developedtraffic.com/resources/wordpress-notes.php#fallingmenu)
* Thread Starter [Valerie](https://wordpress.org/support/users/valerie/)
* (@valerie)
* [21 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/left-menu-layout-problems/#post-124980)
* Diane,
* I thank you kindly for the suggestion. And, although I had before carefully checked
that the width and margins of all three columns had left room for one another,
after reading the link, I just went back and changed all widths to pixels (whereas
before I left the original ems of the right side of the content div and width
of the right Menu) and, still, my right menu continues to sit perfectly happily
right next to the content while my left menu sits defiantly underneath everything(
although otherwise perfectly lined up along the left side), and a perfectly defined
empty space next to my content waits to be filled.
* I am mainly working with Mozilla Firefox as my browser, although I occasionally
check to see what my site will do in IE, and so far, the difference is nearly
undetectable.
* Any other thoughts?
* BTW: I’ve checked my html and css over and over for missing closing tags, semi-
colons, and brackets, and have so far come up empty. (Even running them through
programs which are supposed to check for those kinds of things.) I just went
ahead and checked with W3 – both validate.
* [NuclearMoose](https://wordpress.org/support/users/nuclearmoose/)
* (@nuclearmoose)
* [21 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/left-menu-layout-problems/#post-125017)
* Hard to see without a link to the site. Have you tried using the Webdeveloper
toolbar extension for Firefox? It has a lot of visual and other aids to help
you see what is going on. My guess would be that it’s divs that have conflicting
widths or perhaps the order in which something appears in your `index.php` file.
* craig at nuclearmoose d0t c0m
* [DianeV](https://wordpress.org/support/users/dianev/)
* (@dianev)
* [21 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/left-menu-layout-problems/#post-125025)
* NuclearMoose’s suggestion is good. I’d also suggest adding a border to your divs
so that you can see what’s happening.
* Beyond that, it’s a little hard to guess what’s happening.
* Thread Starter [Valerie](https://wordpress.org/support/users/valerie/)
* (@valerie)
* [21 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/left-menu-layout-problems/#post-125037)
* And I almost wrote in again last night to mention that I have checked it with
Web Developer (which is pretty awesome), but I was tired and the kids were needing
me.
* Yes, I even removed the top margin for my left menu div to see things more clearly.
The top of that div sits squarely lined up with the bottom of the content div–
with enough space for the two to play nice side by side.
* Craig, I will go ahead and email you the link.
* Diane, thanks for sticking with me! 🙂
* [mat](https://wordpress.org/support/users/mat/)
* (@mat)
* [21 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/left-menu-layout-problems/#post-125121)
* Valerie – I wrestled with the same thing you are describing in trying to use
both a left and right menu. Having never figured it out I used position:absolute
and nudged the left one into place with margins.
* If a proper solution should arise please let me know.
* Matt
* [orangeguru](https://wordpress.org/support/users/orangeguru/)
* (@orangeguru)
* [21 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/left-menu-layout-problems/#post-125151)
* Good starting point:
* [http://www.thenoodleincident.com/tutorials/box_lesson/boxes.html](http://www.thenoodleincident.com/tutorials/box_lesson/boxes.html)
* I prefer to have a short of DIV wrapper around my layout to keep elements together:
*
* Blabla ...
*
*
*
* Make sure that the WIDTH of all section WITHIN the wrapper are NOT BIGGER then
the wrapper itself. Sometimes – especially in IE – big pictures, text or links
can break the wrapper and push the sidebar below the main content.
Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)
The topic ‘Left Menu Layout Problems’ is closed to new replies.
* 7 replies
* 5 participants
* Last reply from: [orangeguru](https://wordpress.org/support/users/orangeguru/)
* Last activity: [21 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/left-menu-layout-problems/#post-125151)
* Status: not resolved
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