Scrolling element without scrollbar with CSS

Question

Left sidebar, full height, fixed position, content overflows that needs to be accessible WITHOUT scrollbars (that means no overflow: scroll). I really don't want to do this in Javascript.

At one point months ago, I accomplished this in CSS with overflow: hidden and something else and now I can't find the code or remember how it was done. And Google is useless for this for some reason. This sidebar has content to the right of it on my site that continues down the page. The bar itself has more than fits vertically on the screen.

I need to be able to scroll down this object, whether it's fixed or absolute, and it must span the height of the page all the way down. Scrolling main content and the sidebar are independent. So far, even with setting to absolute, the wrapper will stop way short of the page bottom.

I've tried every combination of position, float, overflow, height/max-height, top, bottom, left and display that I can think of. Tried lots of other stuff too with no luck.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

CSS:

#left-wrap {
  position: fixed;
  top: 0;
  left: 0;
  bottom: 0;
  z-index: 3;
  max-width: 24em;
  height: 100%;  
  overflow: hidden;
  background-color: rgba(26,26,26,1);
}
#left-bar {
  max-width: 100%;
  max-height: none;
  position: relative;
}
#left-bar.sidebars .block {
  padding: 5%;
  border-right: none;
  margin:  5%;
  background-color: rgba(255,255,238,0.4);
  margin-bottom: 1.5em;
  font-size: 0.9em;
  overflow: hidden;
}
.sidebars .block ul {
  margin: 0;
  padding: 0;
  list-style: none;
}
.sidebars h2 {
  padding: 0;
  margin: 5% 10% 0;
  font-size: 1.75em;
  text-transform: lowercase;
  font-weight: 400;
  text-align: right;
  /*border-bottom: 1px dashed #9c561b;  
  color: #9c561b;
  text-shadow:#130b08 0 1px 0;*/
}
#left-wrap a {
  color: #FDC;
}

HTML:

<div id="left-wrap">
  <div id="left-bar" class="sidebars">
      <div class="block">
        <h2>Title One</h2>
        <ul class="menu">
          <li>Link One</li>
          <li>Link Two</li>
          <li>Link Twenty-five</li>
          <li>Link Seventy</li>
          <li>Link One Hundred Fifty-two</li>
          <li>Link Zero</li>
        </ul>
      </div>
      <div class="block">
        <h2>Title Two</h2>
        <p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat.Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat.Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat.</p>
        <p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat.Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat.</p>
      </div>      
      <div class="block">
        <h2>Title Three</h2>
        <ul class="menu">
          <li>Link One</li>
          <li>Link Two</li>
          <li>Link Twenty-five</li>
          <li>Link Seventy</li>
          <li>Link One Hundred Fifty-two</li>
          <li>Link Zero</li>
        </ul>
      </div>
      <div class="block">
        <h2>Title Four</h2>
        <p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat.Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat.Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat.</p>
        <p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat.Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat.</p>
      </div>      
      <div class="block">
        <h2>Title Five</h2>
        <ul class="menu">
          <li>Link One</li>
          <li>Link Two</li>
          <li>Link Twenty-five</li>
          <li>Link Seventy</li>
          <li>Link One Hundred Fifty-two</li>
          <li>Link Zero</li>
        </ul>
      </div>
      <div class="block">
        <h2>Title Six</h2>
        <p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat.Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat.Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat.</p>
        <p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat.Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat.</p>
      </div>      
      <div class="block">
        <h2>Title Seven</h2>
        <ul class="menu">
          <li>Link One</li>
          <li>Link Two</li>
          <li>Link Twenty-five</li>
          <li>Link Seventy</li>
          <li>Link One Hundred Fifty-two</li>
          <li>Link Zero</li>
        </ul>
      </div>
      <div class="block">
        <h2>Title Eight</h2>
        <p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat.Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat.Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat.</p>
        <p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat.Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat.</p>
      </div>
    </div>
  </div>

If you have a div of fixed width and height, and overflow is hidden, how do you supppose that you can access the content outside of the edges of the container if you don't have scroll bars? Are you intending to use up/down arrows? You need some navigation aid to access the non-visible content and scrollbars are required unless you build something with JavaScript. — Marc Audet
– Marc Audet, Commented Oct 19, 2013 at 14:25
@MarcAudet I believe he wants them, he just doesn't want them visible. I don't think there is another option without javascript — Zach Saucier
– Zach Saucier, Commented Oct 19, 2013 at 14:32
There is and I've done it. I just can't remember how. And the div isn't actually fixed H/W. The wrapper is the height of the viewport and the inner div has no limit. Thanks for the comments. — Deryck
– Deryck, Commented Oct 19, 2013 at 14:42

Zach Saucier · Accepted Answer · 2013-10-19 14:31:54Z

4

If you can set the height and width of the parent, left-wrap, you can do it this way:

#left-wrap {
  position: absolute;
  top: 0;
  left: 0;
  bottom: 0; /* Not sure why this is here */
  z-index: 3;
  max-width: 24em;
  max-height: none;  
  overflow: hidden;
  height:100%; /* Needs to be given a height and width as far as I know */
  width:1000px; /* They can be whatever dimensions you'd like, 'course */
  background-color: rgba(26,26,26,1);
}
#left-bar {
  max-width: 100%;
  max-height: 100%; /* Prevents it from auto sizing to its content */
  position:absolute;
  right: -20px; /* Shifts element to the right */
  padding-right: 10px; /* Uses padding to move element back into position */
  overflow-y: scroll; /* Makes sure that there is a scrollbar */
}

Demo Here

answered Oct 19, 2013 at 14:31

Zach Saucier

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2 Comments

Deryck Over a year ago

So this works and it may even be what I did a while back lol thanks for the help. I'm not a huge fan of makeshift workarounds (the padding+offset) but it's way more than I had before.

Marc Audet Over a year ago

I see how this works. Good use of CSS. In practice, hiding scroll bars makes content inaccessible to some users, but in this case, it may not be a factor in the requirements.

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