All language subtitles for 7. CSS Static and Relative Positioning

Now in the last lesson we looked at how we could change the display property using CSS in order to
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change the way that our elements stacked against each other.
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Now in this lesson we're going to explore CSS positioning in more detail.
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But before we do so, the first thing we have to realize is that even without CSS, your HTML element
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already has predefined rules for how it should be displayed on your web page even if you don't have
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any CSS.
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And we have to understand how things get positioned by default before we can go on to change it, to bend
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it to our will, without getting confused and getting stuck.
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So let's take a look at these rules.
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So let's go through those rules quickly.
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The first rule is that content is everything.
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Now we know that inline elements only take up as much width and as much height as the content.
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So if you have a span that contains a long word then it has a large width, if you have a span that contains
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a short word then it has a short width. And with block elements, even though they take up 100 percent of
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the width, the height is still determined by the content.
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So if you have a really super large font for your h1 or for your paragraph, then that box model is going
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to take up a lot more height than if it was a smaller font.
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So your content is the first thing that determines how large things gets displayed and what the height
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and the width will be.
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And this is despite any CSS.
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The next thing to remember is that the order of the elements on screen comes from your HTML code.
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So in this case we have an h1, three paragraphs, then an image.
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This is how we've written our code in our HTML file and this is how it gets rendered, in that order.
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Now if we change the order and put the image at the top of our code file, then our web site is going to
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display in a corresponding way.
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So the default layout order is determined by your code.
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The third thing we need to know is that children sit on top of parents.
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What do I mean by that?
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So here on the left I've got a div that's colored in red.
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Now if inside this div I add an h1 with some text, then that h1 is going to be on top of the
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div.
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So it's more towards the viewer and away from the screen.
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So this kind of introduces the concept of the Z index.
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We know that on screen we have an X and a Y axis.
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But there's also a Z axis, and that determines which element will be displayed on the other one, because
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if in this case the div was in front of the h1, then we wouldn't see the h1 at all.
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So by default our HTML elements that are children, they will sit on top of the parent element.
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So if we modify this code even further, and we add a span nested inside that h1, then the word inside
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the span is going to be on top of the h1.
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So we have three elements here on screen so far, a div an h1 and a span, and going from the screen towards
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the viewer, we first have the div, then the h1, then the span. From top to the bottom of the hierarchy,
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it comes closer and closer towards the viewer.
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So these three are the default rules for how things get rendered on screen just based on your HTML code.
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Now you can also set a CSS property which is the position property in order to position elements on
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screen the way that you want it to
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instead of just going along with the default layout, and in most cases you're going to want to make changes
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to the default layout.
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So let's look at some of the ways in which we can change this position property.
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Now these are the four that I'm going to talk about.
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And the first one, the static position, we've actually already talked about it. All HTML elements are static
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in their position by default, and static just means go along with the HTML rules and keep to the default
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HTML flow, and that is what we see when we just have HTML without any CSS, or if we
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don't change this position property at all.
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Now the next one is called the relative positioning.
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And what this allows us to do is to position the element that we select relative to how it would have
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been positioned had it been static.
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So in this case on the left we've got our Bacon Fansite, and this is just the normal HTML flow.
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The image is being shown to the left and it's below all the other elements,
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abiding by those three rules for HTML flow that we mentioned before.
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Now if we select that image element and we change its position property to relative instead of static,
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which is the default remember, and in addition to that we say it should be pushed 30 pixels from the
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left of the previous position,
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this is how our image will end up being positioned.
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So whereas the left edge of our image used to be here and that would have been its natural position,
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abiding by the HTML flow,
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now we're saying, give that image 30 pixels of space between its left edge and where the left edge used
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to be.
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And there's four of these coordinate properties:
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the top, the bottom, the left and the right.
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And we can set values for them in order to determine how we want to move our element.
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So let's say that we've got a image that is positioned using relative layer.
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Then we set the top coordinate property to 20 pixels.
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That means it'll get moved down by 20 pixels. And if we change the left property 20 pixels, then it'll
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get pushed right 20 pixels.
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If we change the right property 20 pixels, it'll get pushed left
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20 pixels, and the bottom property as well.
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Now there's two important things that you have to remember when you're dealing with relative positioning.
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The first thing is that when you move an element that has a relative position,
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say in this case we're pushing it down by 50 pixels,
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it doesn't affect the position of anything else on screen.
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It's as if the old position was kept and everything else just flows around it as if it was never moved.
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It's almost like this element left the ghost of itself where it used to be in order for all the other
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elements to keep their own positions.
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Now the other thing to remember is that when we change the coordinate properties, for example in this
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case we're saying make the top corner property for this relatively positioned image 50 pixels,
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what that really means is that we're taking the top of where that image used to be and we're giving it
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a 50 pixel margin from the top of our current image.
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So if you think back to the box model when we spoke about margins, this is the best way of thinking about
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these coordinates. Because very often students tend to ask, 'If it's top 50, why is it not going up by 50
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and why is it instead going down,
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and what is it top relative to?'.
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So if you get confused
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have a look back at this video.
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So inside this code pen I've created three divs that are colored red, blue and yellow, and they each
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have a height of 100 pixels and a width of 100 pixels,
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so essentially three squares inside a body element.
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I want to show you what changing the red div's position from static, which it currently is by default,
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to relative does. Now by itself changing this position property does nothing.
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It only starts doing something when you use one of the coordinate properties like left.
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So let's push it 20 pixels from the left you can see that it just got nudged 20 pixels from the left
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of where it used to be.
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Now I can also move it all the way to the right by saying something like left 600 pixels.
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So it's now got a margin between the left edge of where it used to be and the current left edge of
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600 pixels.
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Now if I say right 200 pixels,, can you predict what will happen to my red square?
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So let's take a look, see if you got it right.
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So all of our red square has completely disappeared off the screen.
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Now why is that?
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Well, because the previous right edge was here, and to have a margin between the current right edge and
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the previous right edge of 200 pixels pushes our red square all the way over to the left that you can't
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see it anymore.
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Now some people might have thought that by saying right 200 pixels, then it should be somewhere around
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here, because this is the right edge of the screen.
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But as we mentioned the relative positioning is relative to where the element would have been displayed
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if it was just following the natural HTML flow.
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So it would have been here and now there's a margin between its previous right edge and its current
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right edge of 200 pixels.
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But remember as we said that the relative positioning doesn't affect any other element on screen.
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So if I said top 50 pixels it pushes it down by 50 pixels but it doesn't affect the layout of any other
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element on screen.
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It doesn't for example push this blue square downwards or any other element.
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It's as if the ghost of the red square's past has stayed where it used to be,
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and it's only this newer version that's being moved around.
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So there's a lot of new concepts here.
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And before we move on I just want to make sure that you're comfortable with this idea of relative positioning.
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So as a challenge I want you to change the display property of the blue and the yellow squares so that
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they will show up in a row where we've got the red square, the blue square and the yellow square,
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and then I want you to move the red square to the right of the yellow square.
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And this is what you should end up with.
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Now don't worry too much about the gaps between the squares.
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It's more important that you get the order right.
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So they're all on the same line and it's blue, then yellow, then red, and you should be able to see most of
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the square.
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All right.
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So did you manage to do it?
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So the first thing that we needed to change was the display property of all three elements. So we're
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going to change it to inline block so that we can still change its width but also have them show up
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inline.
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So let's add that line of code to all three divs.
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So now they're in the same line.
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So I want to get rid of this top and make them line up properly.
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But I now want to nudge the blue square to the position of the red square.
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So I'm going to make its position relative to where it should be.
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And I'm going to give it a right margin of 100 pixels and I'm going to do the same thing to our yellow square.
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So I'm going to change its position to relative and also give it a right margin from its previous position
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to 100 pixels and that nudges it left.
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Now the final thing I have to doing is to move the red square to the right by 200 pixels. So I can change
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its left margin to 200 pixels, and that moves the red square over to the right.
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Now the reason why the spaces between our squares are inconsistent is because by making it an inline
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block there's actually a little space that gets added in by the browser.
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So we can see that if we get rid of all the position code there's just a slight smudge of a space between
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each of the inline block elements.
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And that's what's making our gap slightly inconsistent.
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But the important thing is that you managed to get the order of the blocks correct.
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So if you managed to get the squares to line up in this order then that means you've successfully completed
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the challenge. In order to get the position more fine tuned,
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we're going to look at different ways in the future.
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Now in the next lesson I want to show you another way of positioning your elements by using absolute
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positions.
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So for all of that and more.
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I'll see you on the next lesson.