CSS Floating Divs with different height are aligned with space between them

Question

i am using left floating DIVs to simulate a two column layout (each div contains textfield to edit different data, like name, hobbies,...). So it should look like this

1 2
3 4
5 6

Now my div-boxes aren't always the same, since some DIVs have more elements than the other ones. Now my layout looks likes this

   1 2
     2 
   3 4
   5 6

You can also see the effect on this example if you scale your so that only four or three colums are shown. E.g. if 4 columns are shown in a row there is much space between Float 1 and Float 6. This doesn't look good on my UI. What I want is to have Float 6 following Float 1 with no space in between (except the margin I define)

Edit: My DIVs basically just contain a float:left and a width:40%, so that two fit on a screen

Here's a screenshot showing more

Answer 1

Here is a pure CSS solution. I took this example

Check it out if you want to learn more. He also use jQuery Masonry as fallback.

CSS:

.masonry { /* Masonry container */
    -moz-column-count: 4;
    -webkit-column-count: 4;
    column-count: 4;
    -moz-column-gap: 1em;
    -webkit-column-gap: 1em;
    column-gap: 1em;
}

.item { /* Masonry bricks or child elements */
    background-color: #eee;
    display: inline-block;
    margin: 0 0 1em;
    width: 100%;
}

HTML:

<div class="masonry">
    <div class="item">Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit.</div>
    <div class="item">Neque, vitae, fugiat, libero corrupti officiis sint facilis tempora quidem repudiandae praesentium odit similique adipisci aut.</div>
    <div class="item">Incidunt sit unde minima in nostrum? Incidunt sit unde minima in nostrum?</div>
    <div class="item">Ducimus, voluptates, modi, delectus animi maiores consequuntur repellat quisquam fugiat eum possimus enim culpa totam praesentium magni quae!</div>
    <div class="item">Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, dicta dolore adipisci hic ipsam velit deleniti possimus cumque accusantium rerum quibusdam.</div>
    <div class="item">Neque, vitae, fugiat, libero corrupti officiis sint facilis tempora quidem repudiandae praesentium odit similique adipisci aut.</div>
    <div class="item">Incidunt sit unde minima in nostrum?</div>
    <div class="item">Incidunt sit unde minima in unde minima in unde minima in nostrum?</div>
    <div class="item">Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit. Quae, praesentium consequatur ducimus commodi quam ex illo omnis dicta reiciendis vel nesciunt deserunt aut sequi nam mollitia perferendis ipsam possimus temporibus!</div>
    <div class="item">Ab, adipisci, temporibus eaque quis harum perferendis incidunt cupiditate doloribus dolor numquam voluptates ipsum dolore aspernatur et voluptate ipsam beatae animi culpa.</div>
</div>

Hope this will help you. Thanks.

Answer 2

The jQuery Masonry plugin will do exactly what you want.

If you wanted to stick with pure CSS, you could do something like the following, but I don't think it's what you're going for:

<div class="col">
   <div class="one"></div>
   <div class="three"></div>
   <div class="five"></div>
   <div class="seven"></div>
</div>
<div class="col">
   <div class="two"></div>
   <div class="four"></div>
   <div class="six"></div>
   <div class="eight">who do we appreciate</div>
</div>

And the CSS:

.col {
    float: left;
    width: 200px;
}