Title: CSS parsing problem Last modified: August 19, 2016 --- # CSS parsing problem * Resolved [Jonas Grumby](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ss_minnow/) * (@ss_minnow) * [16 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/css-parsing-problem/) * Hi everyone. I’m sure this is what we used to call a ID-10T error, but what I am trying to do is create a theme that has a white border around the entire thing, a header area across the top, and a sidebar and content area below that. What is happening is that the text starts inside the white border, but then breaks out of it and continues down the page instead of staying contained within the border. My code works fine as static HTML but not in WP. * Here is the simple code that I wrote into index.php to test this: * ```
this is the header this is the header this is the header this is the header this is the header this is the header this is the header this is the header this is the header this is the header this is the header this is the header this is the header this is the header this is the header this is the header
this is the the content area this is the the content area this is the the content area this is the the content area this is the the content area this is the the content area this is the the content area this is the the content area this is the the content area this is the the content area this is the the content area this is the the content area this is the the content area this is the the content area
``` * Here is the stylesheet info: * ``` body { font-size: 62.5%; /* Resets 1em to 10px */ font-family: 'Lucida Grande', Verdana, Arial, Sans-Serif; background: #000000; color: #FFFFFF; } #container { width: 900px; background: #000000; border-width: 4px; border-color: #FFFFFF; border-style: solid; margin: auto; } #wrapper { padding: 10px; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; } #content { float: right; width: 600px; } #sidebar { font: 1em 'Lucida Grande', Verdana, Arial, Sans-Serif; float: left; width: 210px; } ``` * Note that testheader is not defined in the stylesheet. I changed it from header to testheader so the header background graphic would not be called in. * Here is how it displays: [http://johnnasta.com/blog/?theme=VNF](http://johnnasta.com/blog/?theme=VNF) * I did originally try to code it all out with loop, sidebar, and header code but had the same results. I stripped all of that out and replaced it with dummy text to simplify the example and eliminate possible causes. * It seems like this should be simple. Can someone tell me what I’m doing wrong? * Thanks! Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total) * Thread Starter [Jonas Grumby](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ss_minnow/) * (@ss_minnow) * [16 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/css-parsing-problem/#post-1392001) * p.s. I have tried adding `height: auto;` as well as `min-height: 100%;` to the container style but neither of those made any difference 🙁 * Thread Starter [Jonas Grumby](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ss_minnow/) * (@ss_minnow) * [16 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/css-parsing-problem/#post-1392005) * p.p.s. adding `display: inline-block;` to the container CSS fixed the problem of the floated elements breaking out of the container but now it’s no longer centered. I guess I could wrap the whole thing in another div. * Other things that did not work: - [The clearfix example shown here](http://www.webtoolkit.info/css-clearfix.html) made the white border go away entirely and made the width go to 100% - Using `
` or `
` after the nested divs did nothing. - Adding float: none; or float: center; to the container style * As Paul McCartney once said “I’m getting closer, my salamander”. * [Rev. Voodoo](https://wordpress.org/support/users/rvoodoo/) * (@rvoodoo) * [16 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/css-parsing-problem/#post-1392006) * there is no such thing as float center… * it’s usually done with margins… like margin:0 auto; * Thread Starter [Jonas Grumby](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ss_minnow/) * (@ss_minnow) * [16 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/css-parsing-problem/#post-1392007) * Thanks [@rvoodoo](https://wordpress.org/support/users/rvoodoo/). Setting either the container or a new parent div to `margin:0 auto;` did not work. Wrapping the whole thing in a new parent div with `text-align: center;` and then setting the container div to `text-align:left;` worked. It’s displaying the way I want it to now, and no errors reported from W3C Markup Validation. * `float: center;` was wishful thinking on my part. * I always appreciate your help. * [Rev. Voodoo](https://wordpress.org/support/users/rvoodoo/) * (@rvoodoo) * [16 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/css-parsing-problem/#post-1392008) * yeah…float:center would be very nice! * glad you got things set up! * Thread Starter [Jonas Grumby](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ss_minnow/) * (@ss_minnow) * [16 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/css-parsing-problem/#post-1392013) * Yeah, thanks. I found some [good info here](http://www.brainjar.com/css/positioning/default.asp) about inline boxes and other CSS elements. * Thread Starter [Jonas Grumby](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ss_minnow/) * (@ss_minnow) * [16 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/css-parsing-problem/#post-1392016) * For anyone who doesn’t want to read the whole page, here is the key text: * “There are two basic types of boxes, block and inline. Block boxes are generated by elements such as P, DIV or TABLE. **Inline boxes are generated by tags** such as B, I or SPAN **and actual content like text and images**.” Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total) The topic ‘CSS parsing problem’ is closed to new replies. ## Tags * [code](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/code/) * [css](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/css/) * [custom](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/custom/) * [html](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/html/) * [Parsing](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/parsing/) * [template](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/template/) * [Themes](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/themes/) * 7 replies * 2 participants * Last reply from: [Jonas Grumby](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ss_minnow/) * Last activity: [16 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/css-parsing-problem/#post-1392016) * Status: resolved ## Topics ### Topics with no replies ### Non-support topics ### Resolved topics ### Unresolved topics ### All topics