<% head do %>
The Left Menu 2 column Liquid Layout. Em widths. Cross-Browser. Equal Height Columns.
<% layout_and_theme_stylesheets '2_column_left_menu_em' do %>
<% end %>
<% end %>
<% body do %>
<%= render :partial => 'layouts/flashes' -%>
<% header do %>
The CSS used for this layout is 100% valid and hack free. To overcome Internet Explorer's broken box model, no horizontal padding or margins are used. Instead, this design uses pixel widths and clever relative positioning.
SEO friendly 2-1 column ordering
The higher up content is in your page code, the more important it is considered by search engine algorithms. To make your website as optimised as possible your main page content must come before the side columns. This layout does exactly that: The center page comes first, then the left column and finally the right column (see the nested div structure diagram for more info). The columns can also be configured to any other order if required.
Equal height columns
It doesn't matter which column has the longest content, the background colour of all columns will stretch down to meet the footer. This feature was traditionally only available with table based layouts but now with a little CSS trickery we can do exactly the same with divs. Say goodbye to annoying short columns!
No Images
This layout requires no images. Many CSS website designs need images to colour in the column backgrounds but that is not necessary with this design. Why waste bandwidth and precious HTTP requests when you can do everything in pure CSS and XHTML?
No JavaScript
JavaScript is not required. Some website layouts rely on JavaScript hacks to resize divs and force elements into place but you won't see any of that nonsense here.
Valid XHTML strict markup
The HTML in this layout validates as XHTML 1.0 strict.
Resizable text compatible
This layout is fully compatible with resizable text. Resizable text is important for web accessibility. People who are vision impaired can make the text larger so it's easier for them to read. It is becoming increasingly more important to make your website resizable text compatible because people are expecting higher levels of web accessibility. Apple have made resizing the text on a website simple with the pinch gesture on their multi-touch trackpad. So far this trackpad is only available on the MacBook Air but it will soon be rolled out to all of their systems. Is your website text-resizing compatible?
<% end %>
<%= google_analytics_tracker GOOGLE_ANALYTICS_ACCOUNT if defined?(GOOGLE_ANALYTICS_ACCOUNT) -%>
<% end %>