IE Overflow issue: not displaying scrollbars

[Yossarian]

Hi there,

I've been battling with this all day (which, since I'm in uk is about 10 hours).

Website here: http://paidiasoftware.co.uk/overflowbug/outputtest.html
css here: http://paidiasoftware.co.uk/overflowbug/basic.css

Now this is a stripped down version of what I'm doing - I had it looking fine in firefox but it will look fugly just now because I'm trying to nail the one issue.

If you look at the page and click in the middle + drag, you'll see that there is content to the right that isn't being shown. I want a scrollbar to appear at the bottom of the page to allow the user to access the data to the right.

Now, I can hear you say "use overflow:scroll" and I've tried that. But it doesn't show the scrollbar unless i manually force the height of the content panel to a fixed height. ie - If I put "height:400;" inside the "* html #content_panel {" area of my css, then I get a scrollbar horizontally as I require.

this solution is no good for me though,

I want the page to be able to stretch vertically. If a user has a browser that is longer than 768 high, the 'height:400' looks rubbish because all the content is squished.

So..

long story short

how do i change my css to have the page be as long as the user's web browser allows but have a scrollbar horizontally.

I have tried all the overflow-x options offered here:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/workshop/...s/overflowx.asp

I think the scrollbars ARE being shown, but off the bottom of the screen - ie the DIV thinks it is at the top so it is showing scrollbars lower than it should - off the screen in fact.

I think I need a way to let the div know that it isn't at the top of the screen or that it's height is screen height -us X pixels

Can anyone help me? I'm going nuts with this!

Cheers

David

[ukgeoff]

To be honest, I've had a look at your assortment of xhtml and css and it's a nightmare to figure out what you are trying to do.

You really shouldn't need all those position: absolute;'s in there and you shouldn't need those negative margins.

I strongly suggest that you rethink your structure so that things are flowing more naturally, then we might be able to figure out what is going on.

[Yossarian]

The negative margins were an aid to centre things, but I take your comments on board. If I can't crack it (and if noone else can) then i'll try to simplify things before seeking further comment.