Hide scroll bar of nested div, but still make it scrollable [duplicate]

Question

This is a reference that I used, which explains how to make a div scrollable with its scroll bar hidden. The only difference is that I have nested divs. Check my fiddle

HTML:

<div id="main">
    <div id="sub-main">
        <div id="content">
            <div id="item-container">
                <div class="item">a</div>
                <div class="item">b</div>
                <div class="item">c</div>
            </div>
        </div>
    </div>
</div>

CSS:

#main {
    width: 500px;
    height: 500px;
}

#sub-main {
    width: 500px;
    height: 500px;
    overflow: hidden;
}

#content {
    background-color: red;
    width: 500px;
    height: 500px;
    overflow: auto;
}

#item-container {
    width: 1500px;
    height: 500px;
}

.item {
    width: 500px;
    height: 500px;
    font-size: 25em;
    text-align: center;
    float: left;
}

Like above, I have a overflowed horizontal div and I want to hide its scroll bar. I have to make it still scrollable because $.scrollTo() wouldn't work otherwise.

UPDATE:

I have read all the answers, but I still have not resolved my problem and don't know what's causing it. This is the live that's having troubles. Basically, I am trying to follow this almost exactly the same, but there must be some reason that my website isn't working as expected. There are two problems.

1. When I set overflow: hidden to a parent container of scrollable items, I cannot scroll (native javascript scroll functions do not work too).
2. I want to scroll just the overflowed container, not the entire window. This can be done by setting a target in $.localScroll({ target: '#projects-content' }) but nothing scrolls when I set the target. If I don't, scrolling works as long as overflow:hidden is not applied. Again, any help would be greatly appreciated.

HTML:

<div id="projects"> <!-- start of entire projects page -->
  <div id="project-sidebar">
    <a href="#project-first">
      <div class="sidebar-item sidebar-first">first</div>
    </a>
    <a href="#project-second">
      <div class="sidebar-item sidebar-second">second</div>
    </a>
    <a href="#">
      <div class="sidebar-item sidebar-third">third</div>
    </a>
  </div>

  <div id="project-content"> <!-- this must be the scrollable itmes' container, not the entire window -->
    <div id="project-first" class="project-item"> 
      <!-- these items should be scrollable -->
      <div class="project-subitem" id="first-sub1">
        <a href='#first-sub2' class='next'>next</a>
      </div>
      <div class='project-subitem' id='first-sub2'>
        <a href='#first-sub1' class='prev'>prev</a>
      </div>
      <!-- end of scrollable items -->
    </div>
  </div> <!-- end of scroll scroll container -->
</div> <!-- end of entire projects page -->

<script>
  // FIXME: when I set target, nothing scrolls.
  // But I don't want the entire window to scroll
  $('#projects').localScroll({
    //target: '#project-content',
    hash: false
  });
</script>

CSS

#project-content {
  width: 80%;
  height: 100%;
  position: relative;
  float: left;
}

#project-sidebar {
  float: left;
  width: 20%;
  height: 100%;
}

.project-item {
  width: 300%;
  height: 100%;
}

.project-subitem {
  height: 100%;
  width: 33.33%;
  position: relative;
  float: left;
}

Update:

After I added overflow:scroll to #project-content, the scrolling works as expected. All I need now is making scroll bars disappear in #project-content. I tried adding overflow:hidden to its parent but had no success. I also tried adding it to html, body, but then the entire document refuses to accept any scrolling functions like scrollTop().

Any help will be greatly appreciated!

Answer 1

Theory :

The technique is to use a parent container that is shorter than the child element with scrollbar. This image shows what I mean :

Practice :

In your case, I suggest using absolute positionning and negative bottom value on #project-content so it overflows it's parent container (#projects) at the bottom.

The point is now what negative value? It should be the same value as the with of a scroll but scrollbars are never the same width according to browsers. So I suggest giving a bigger value : -30pxto be sure it is hidden. You will just need to be carefull that you don't have content to close to the bottom that can be hidden on browesers with thin scrollbars.

This is the CSS you should add to your website :

#projects{
    position: relative;
}

#project-content{
    position: absolute;
    top: 0;
    left: 20%;
    bottom: -30px;
    /* remove: 
        height: 100%; 
        position: relative; 
        float: left; 
        padding-bottom: -15px
    /*
}

Answer 2

scollbars take up around 20px so just make you scrollable div 20px taller and 20px wider and your scrollbars will be hidden:

#content {
    background-color: red;
    width: 520px;
    height: 520px;
    overflow: auto;
}

Example