HTML can’t get the background image to wrap 100% height

backgroundcsshtml

Working URL:

http://69.24.73.172/demos/water/home.htm

I can't get the height of the background image to stretch 100% vertically, the demo url shows this.

HTML

<!DOCTYPE html>

<html lang="en">

<head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8" />
    <title>
        Buy Fair Water - From Charity Water
    </title>
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="default.css" />
    <meta name="description" content="Charity Water is a way of buying bottled water, the fair way.  Why buy from large corporations that hunt profits, when you can buy water in a way that benefits everyone." />
</head>



<body>

<div class="main-wrapper">
    <div class="main-content">

        <header>
            <a class="logo" href="home.htm" title="Homepage for Charity Water">
                <img src="images/logo.png" alt="Charity Water Logo" />
            </a>
        </header>

        <div class="content">
            <h1>Charity Water</h1>
            <h2>What we do</h2>
            <p>wfewefwef w wf wfe wef wef wef wef wefwfewefwef w wf wfe wef wef wef wef wefwfewefwef w wf wfe wef wef wef wef wefwfewefwef w wf wfe wef wef wef wef wefwfewefwef w wf wfe wef wef wef wef wefwfewefwef w wf wfe wef wef wef wef wefwfewefwef w wf wfe wef wef wef wef wefwfewefwef w wf wfe wef wef wef wef wefwfewefwef w wf wfe wef wef wef wef wefwfewefwef w wf wfe wef wef wef wef wefwfewefwef w wf wfe wef wef wef wef wefwfewefwef w wf wfe wef wef wef wef wefwfewefwef w wf wfe wef wef wef wef wefwfewefwef w wf wfe wef wef wef wef wef</p>
            <h2>What we do</h2>
            <p>wfewefwef w wf wfe wef wef wef wef wefwfewefwef w wf wfe wef wef wef wef wefwfewefwef w wf wfe wef wef wef wef wefwfewefwef w wf wfe wef wef wef wef wefwfewefwef w wf wfe wef wef wef wef wefwfewefwef w wf wfe wef wef wef wef wefwfewefwef w wf wfe wef wef wef wef wefwfewefwef w wf wfe wef wef wef wef wefwfewefwef w wf wfe wef wef wef wef wefwfewefwef w wf wfe wef wef wef wef wefwfewefwef w wf wfe wef wef wef wef wefwfewefwef w wf wfe wef wef wef wef wefwfewefwef w wf wfe wef wef wef wef wefwfewefwef w wf wfe wef wef wef wef wef</p>
            <h2>What we do</h2>
            <p>wfewefwef w wf wfe wef wef wef wef wefwfewefwef w wf wfe wef wef wef wef wefwfewefwef w wf wfe wef wef wef wef wefwfewefwef w wf wfe wef wef wef wef wefwfewefwef w wf wfe wef wef wef wef wefwfewefwef w wf wfe wef wef wef wef wefwfewefwef w wf wfe wef wef wef wef wefwfewefwef w wf wfe wef wef wef wef wefwfewefwef w wf wfe wef wef wef wef wefwfewefwef w wf wfe wef wef wef wef wefwfewefwef w wf wfe wef wef wef wef wefwfewefwef w wf wfe wef wef wef wef wefwfewefwef w wf wfe wef wef wef wef wefwfewefwef w wf wfe wef wef wef wef wef</p>
            <h2>What we do</h2>
            <p>wfewefwef w wf wfe wef wef wef wef wefwfewefwef w wf wfe wef wef wef wef wefwfewefwef w wf wfe wef wef wef wef wefwfewefwef w wf wfe wef wef wef wef wefwfewefwef w wf wfe wef wef wef wef wefwfewefwef w wf wfe wef wef wef wef wefwfewefwef w wf wfe wef wef wef wef wefwfewefwef w wf wfe wef wef wef wef wefwfewefwef w wf wfe wef wef wef wef wefwfewefwef w wf wfe wef wef wef wef wefwfewefwef w wf wfe wef wef wef wef wefwfewefwef w wf wfe wef wef wef wef wefwfewefwef w wf wfe wef wef wef wef wefwfewefwef w wf wfe wef wef wef wef wef</p>





        </div>

        <img src="images/footer.png" />
    </div>
</div>



<div class="menu">
    <nav>
        <ul>
            <li><a href="home.htm" title="Home of Charity Water">Home</a></li>
            <li class="selected"><a href="about.htm" title="Chairty Water is a way of buying bottled water fairly">About Us</a></li>
            <li><a href="products.htm" title="A wide selection of water based products">Products</a></li>
            <li><a href="faq.htm" title="What is Charity Water?  Where does the money go?">FAQ</a></li>
            <li><a href="contact.htm" title="Contact information for Charity Water">Contact</a></li>
        </ul>
    </nav>
</div>

<div class="drop" title="Plip!"></div>
<div class="drop" style="top:400px;" title="Plop!"></div>
</body>
</html>

CSS

body 
{
    background:#E0E4CC;
    background-image: url(images/background.png);
    background-repeat:repeat-x;
    margin:0;
    padding:0;
    font-family:Arial, Verdana;
    height: 100%;
}
html
{
    height:100%;
}
img
{
    border:0;
}
.main-wrapper
{
    width:818px;
    margin:0 auto;
    background-image: url(images/mainbox.png);
    height: 100%;
}
.main-content
{
    width:750px;
    margin:0 auto;
    background:white;
    text-align:center;
    height: 100%;
}
.content
{
    position:relative;
    top:130px;
    padding:0 20px 20px 20px;
    text-align:left;
    margin-bottom:50px;
}
.menu
{
    background:url(images/menu.png);
    width:781px;
    height:61px;
    position:absolute;
    left:50%;
    margin-left:-391px;
    top:160px;
}
.menu ul
{
    list-style:none;
    margin-left:20px;
}
.menu ul li
{
    float:left;
    font-size:22px;
    position:relative;
    top:-12px;
    margin-right:40px;
}
.menu ul li a
{
    color:White;
    text-decoration:none;
    text-shadow: 1px 1px #5EBCCF;    
    position:relative;
    top:19px;
}
.selected
{
    text-align:center;
    width:120px;
    height:77px;
    background-image:url(images/bubble.png);
    position:absolute;
    background-position: 0 0px;
    background-repeat:no-repeat;
}
.selected a
{
    text-shadow: 1px 1px #E05E00 !important;     
}
h1
{
    color:#5EBCCF;
    font-size:43px;
    font-weight:normal;
    text-shadow: 1px 1px #C9CCB7;    
}
h2
{
    color:#5EBCCF;
    font-size:23px;
    font-weight:normal;
    text-shadow: 1px 1px #C9CCB7;
    padding-left:20px;
}
p
{
    width:550px;
    font-size:17px;
    margin: 0 auto;
}
.drop
{
    width:33px;
    height:68px;
    background-image: url(images/drop.png);
    position:absolute;
    left:50%;
    margin-left:320px;
    top:200px;
}
.logo
{
    position:relative;
    top:30px;
}

Any help appreciated!

Best Answer

I recommend abandoning trying to make it work as a body background image, and instead create an image and use position:fixed and the z-index property to fake it, like this gentleman recommends: http://webdesign.about.com/od/css3/f/blfaqbgsize.htm

Related Solutions

Html – What are valid values for the id attribute in HTML

For HTML 4, the answer is technically:

ID and NAME tokens must begin with a letter ([A-Za-z]) and may be followed by any number of letters, digits ([0-9]), hyphens ("-"), underscores ("_"), colons (":"), and periods (".").

HTML 5 is even more permissive, saying only that an id must contain at least one character and may not contain any space characters.

The id attribute is case sensitive in XHTML.

As a purely practical matter, you may want to avoid certain characters. Periods, colons and '#' have special meaning in CSS selectors, so you will have to escape those characters using a backslash in CSS or a double backslash in a selector string passed to jQuery. Think about how often you will have to escape a character in your stylesheets or code before you go crazy with periods and colons in ids.

For example, the HTML declaration <div id="first.name"></div> is valid. You can select that element in CSS as #first\.name and in jQuery like so: $('#first\\.name'). But if you forget the backslash, $('#first.name'), you will have a perfectly valid selector looking for an element with id first and also having class name. This is a bug that is easy to overlook. You might be happier in the long run choosing the id first-name (a hyphen rather than a period), instead.

You can simplify your development tasks by strictly sticking to a naming convention. For example, if you limit yourself entirely to lower-case characters and always separate words with either hyphens or underscores (but not both, pick one and never use the other), then you have an easy-to-remember pattern. You will never wonder "was it firstName or FirstName?" because you will always know that you should type first_name. Prefer camel case? Then limit yourself to that, no hyphens or underscores, and always, consistently use either upper-case or lower-case for the first character, don't mix them.

A now very obscure problem was that at least one browser, Netscape 6, incorrectly treated id attribute values as case-sensitive. That meant that if you had typed id="firstName" in your HTML (lower-case 'f') and #FirstName { color: red } in your CSS (upper-case 'F'), that buggy browser would have failed to set the element's color to red. At the time of this edit, April 2015, I hope you aren't being asked to support Netscape 6. Consider this a historical footnote.

Html – Make a div fill the height of the remaining screen space

2015 update: the flexbox approach

There are two other answers briefly mentioning flexbox; however, that was more than two years ago, and they don't provide any examples. The specification for flexbox has definitely settled now.

Note: Though CSS Flexible Boxes Layout specification is at the Candidate Recommendation stage, not all browsers have implemented it. WebKit implementation must be prefixed with -webkit-; Internet Explorer implements an old version of the spec, prefixed with -ms-; Opera 12.10 implements the latest version of the spec, unprefixed. See the compatibility table on each property for an up-to-date compatibility status.

(taken from https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Guide/CSS/Flexible_boxes)

All major browsers and IE11+ support Flexbox. For IE 10 or older, you can use the FlexieJS shim.

To check current support you can also see here: http://caniuse.com/#feat=flexbox

Working example

With flexbox you can easily switch between any of your rows or columns either having fixed dimensions, content-sized dimensions or remaining-space dimensions. In my example I have set the header to snap to its content (as per the OPs question), I've added a footer to show how to add a fixed-height region and then set the content area to fill up the remaining space.

html,
body {
  height: 100%;
  margin: 0;
}

.box {
  display: flex;
  flex-flow: column;
  height: 100%;
}

.box .row {
  border: 1px dotted grey;
}

.box .row.header {
  flex: 0 1 auto;
  /* The above is shorthand for:
  flex-grow: 0,
  flex-shrink: 1,
  flex-basis: auto
  */
}

.box .row.content {
  flex: 1 1 auto;
}

.box .row.footer {
  flex: 0 1 40px;
}

<!-- Obviously, you could use HTML5 tags like `header`, `footer` and `section` -->

<div class="box">
  <div class="row header">
    <p><b>header</b>
      <br />
      <br />(sized to content)</p>
  </div>
  <div class="row content">
    <p>
      <b>content</b>
      (fills remaining space)
    </p>
  </div>
  <div class="row footer">
    <p><b>footer</b> (fixed height)</p>
  </div>
</div>

In the CSS above, the flex property shorthands the flex-grow, flex-shrink, and flex-basis properties to establish the flexibility of the flex items. Mozilla has a good introduction to the flexible boxes model.