leftcontent

#leftcontent {
position: absolute;
left:10px;
top:50px;
width:200px;
background:#fff;
border:1px solid #000;
	}

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat. Ut wisi enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ulliam corper suscipit lobortis nisl ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis autem veleum iriure dolor in hendrerit in vulputate velit esse molestie consequat, vel willum lunombro dolore eu feugiat nulla facilisis at vero eros et accumsan et iusto odio dignissim qui blandit praesent luptatum zzril delenit augue duis dolore te feugait nulla facilisi.

centercontent

#centercontent {
background:#fff;
margin-left: 199px;
margin-right:199px;
border:1px solid #000;
voice-family: "\"}\"";
voice-family: inherit;
margin-left: 201px;
margin-right:201px;
	}
html>body #centercontent {
margin-left: 201px;
margin-right:201px;
	}

This is the most elegant technique and perhaps the most sought after layout: a 3 column page with a fluid center column. Easy to understand, easy to implement. I first saw this layout at dynamic ribbon device and have since learned that the sweet CSS came from Rob Chandanais of BlueRobot. Owen also made a very nice tutorial using this layout technique.

Read about the IE5x PC workaround in use on this page here.

Scroll down for the source.

Li Europan lingues es membres del sam familie. Lor separat existentie es un myth. Por scientie, musica, sport etc., li tot Europa usa li sam vocabularium. Li lingues differe solmen in li grammatica, li pronunciation e li plu commun vocabules. Omnicos directe al desirabilit‡ de un nov lingua franca: on refusa continuar payar custosi traductores. It solmen va esser necessi far uniform grammatica, pronunciation e plu sommun paroles.

rightcontent

#rightcontent {
position: absolute;
right:10px;
top:50px;
width:200px;
background:#fff;
border:1px solid #000;
	}

This page is part of CSS Layout Techniques, a resource for web developers and designers.

Other Layout Techniques:
3 columns, the holy grail
2 columns, ALA style
4 columns, all fluid
3 columns, all fluid
static width and centered
nested float

Does it validate?

LAYOUT TECHNIQUES: 3 columns, the holy grail

leftcontent

centercontent

rightcontent