IE 11, Flexbox, and Absolute Positioning Not Working

This is how Chrome renders my HTML in Windows 10:

Chrome

And this is how Internet Explorer 11 renders my HTML in Windows 10:

Internet Explorer 11

Notice that in Chrome you can see all of the submenu links, but in Internet Explorer 11 you can't. What can I do to make it work in Internet Explorer 11?

Here is my code:

body {
  font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;
  min-width: 1280px;
}

a {
  color: #000;
  text-decoration: none;
}

a.active {
  color: #f00;
}

ul {
  margin: 0;
  padding: 0;
}

ul li {
  display: inline-block;
}

.menu > li {
  position: relative;
  font-size: 18px;
}

.menu > li + li {
  margin-left: 100px;
}

.submenu {
  position: absolute;
  display: -webkit-flex;
  display: -ms-flexbox;
  display: flex;
}

.submenu-4,
.submenu-5 {
  right: 0;
}

.submenu li {
  font-size: 14px;
  white-space: nowrap;
}

.submenu > li + li {
  margin-left: 25px;
}

a:not(.active) + ul {
  display: none;
}

<nav>
  <ul class="menu">
    <li>
      <a href="#">Top Level Link 1</a>
      <ul class="submenu submenu-1">
        <li><a href="#">Submenu 1 Link 1</a></li>
        <li><a href="#">Submenu 1 Link 2</a></li>
        <li><a href="#">Submenu 1 Link 3</a></li>
        <li><a href="#">Submenu 1 Link 4</a></li>
        <li><a href="#">Submenu 1 Link 5</a></li>
      </ul>
    </li>
    <li>
      <a href="#">Top Level Link 2</a>
      <ul class="submenu submenu-2">
        <li><a href="#">Submenu 2 Link 1</a></li>
        <li><a href="#">Submenu 2 Link 2</a></li>
        <li><a href="#">Submenu 2 Link 3</a></li>
        <li><a href="#">Submenu 2 Link 4</a></li>
        <li><a href="#">Submenu 2 Link 5</a></li>
      </ul>
    </li>
    <li>
      <a href="#">Top Level Link 3</a>
      <ul class="submenu submenu-3">
        <li><a href="#">Submenu 3 Link 1</a></li>
        <li><a href="#">Submenu 3 Link 2</a></li>
        <li><a href="#">Submenu 3 Link 3</a></li>
        <li><a href="#">Submenu 3 Link 4</a></li>
        <li><a href="#">Submenu 3 Link 5</a></li>
      </ul>
    </li>
    <li>
      <a href="#" class="active">Top Level Link 4</a>
      <ul class="submenu submenu-4">
        <li><a href="#">Submenu 4 Link 1</a></li>
        <li><a href="#">Submenu 4 Link 2</a></li>
        <li><a href="#">Submenu 4 Link 3</a></li>
        <li><a href="#">Submenu 4 Link 4</a></li>
        <li><a href="#">Submenu 4 Link 5</a></li>
      </ul>
    </li>
    <li>
      <a href="#">Top Level Link 5</a>
      <ul class="submenu submenu-5">
        <li><a href="#">Submenu 5 Link 1</a></li>
        <li><a href="#">Submenu 5 Link 2</a></li>
        <li><a href="#">Submenu 5 Link 3</a></li>
        <li><a href="#">Submenu 5 Link 4</a></li>
        <li><a href="#">Submenu 5 Link 5</a></li>
      </ul>
    </li>
  </ul>
</nav>

Does Flexbox work with position absolute?

If you position a flex item absolutely, it no longer participates in the flex layout. This means any flex properties on the item become moot. You can remove them if you like. The box alignment properties still apply to the flex item even if it is absolutely positioned, which means using align-self will have an effect.

Does Flexbox work in ie11?

Note also that Internet Explorer 11 supports the modern display: flex specification however it has a number of bugs in the implementation.

How absolute positioning works?

Absolute positioningElements that are relatively positioned remain in the normal flow of the document. In contrast, an element that is absolutely positioned is taken out of the flow; thus, other elements are positioned as if it did not exist.

What does position sticky do?

position: sticky; A sticky element toggles between relative and fixed , depending on the scroll position. It is positioned relative until a given offset position is met in the viewport - then it "sticks" in place (like position:fixed).

The problem seems to be that IE11 is not recognizing the right: 0 offset applied to the absolutely-positioned flex container (.submenu).

Considering the layout works in Chrome and Firefox, the problem is likely a bug in IE11, which wouldn't be a surprise.

On the popular browser compatibility website caniuse.com, IE11 used to have a full green badge for flexbox. That means IE11 provides full support. Recently, however, IE11 was downgraded to pale green, meaning partial support, due to a large amount of bugs present.

Here's a simple workaround:

.submenu {
  position: absolute;
  display: flex;
  flex-direction: row-reverse;  /* <-- ADD THIS */
}

The flex-direction property determines the direction in which flex items are laid out. The default setting is flex-direction: row. With row-reverse (and column-reverse) the main-start and main-end directions are swapped.

This fixes the problem in IE11, without breaking anything in other browsers.

However, it does reverse the order of the links in all browsers.

To address that issue you can reverse the order of the links in the source, or use the flex order property to reverse the order on the screen only:

.submenu-4 > li:nth-child(1) { order: 5 ; }
.submenu-4 > li:nth-child(2) { order: 4 ; }
.submenu-4 > li:nth-child(3) { order: 3 ; }
.submenu-4 > li:nth-child(4) { order: 2 ; }
.submenu-4 > li:nth-child(5) { order: 1 ; }

Full code (tested in Firefox, Chrome and IE11):

body {
  font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;
  min-width: 1280px;
}

a {
  color: #000;
  text-decoration: none;
}

a.active {
  color: #f00;
}

ul {
  margin: 0;
  padding: 0;
}

ul li {
  display: inline-block;
}

.menu > li {
  position: relative;
  font-size: 18px;
}

.menu > li + li {
  margin-left: 100px;
}

.submenu {
  position: absolute;
  display: -webkit-flex;
  display: -ms-flexbox;
  display: flex;
  flex-direction: row-reverse;                   /* NEW */
}

.submenu-4,
.submenu-5 {
  right: 0;
}

.submenu li {
  font-size: 14px;
  white-space: nowrap;
}

.submenu > li + li {
  margin-left: 25px;
}

a:not(.active) + ul {
  display: none;
}

.submenu-4 > li:nth-child(1) { order: 5 ; }        /* NEW */
.submenu-4 > li:nth-child(2) { order: 4 ; }        /* NEW */
.submenu-4 > li:nth-child(3) { order: 3 ; }        /* NEW */
.submenu-4 > li:nth-child(4) { order: 2 ; }        /* NEW */
.submenu-4 > li:nth-child(5) { order: 1 ; }        /* NEW */

<nav>
  <ul class="menu">
    <li>
      <a href="#">Top Level Link 1</a>
      <ul class="submenu submenu-1">
        <li><a href="#">Submenu 1 Link 1</a></li>
        <li><a href="#">Submenu 1 Link 2</a></li>
        <li><a href="#">Submenu 1 Link 3</a></li>
        <li><a href="#">Submenu 1 Link 4</a></li>
        <li><a href="#">Submenu 1 Link 5</a></li>
      </ul>
    </li>
    <li>
      <a href="#">Top Level Link 2</a>
      <ul class="submenu submenu-2">
        <li><a href="#">Submenu 2 Link 1</a></li>
        <li><a href="#">Submenu 2 Link 2</a></li>
        <li><a href="#">Submenu 2 Link 3</a></li>
        <li><a href="#">Submenu 2 Link 4</a></li>
        <li><a href="#">Submenu 2 Link 5</a></li>
      </ul>
    </li>
    <li>
      <a href="#">Top Level Link 3</a>
      <ul class="submenu submenu-3">
        <li><a href="#">Submenu 3 Link 1</a></li>
        <li><a href="#">Submenu 3 Link 2</a></li>
        <li><a href="#">Submenu 3 Link 3</a></li>
        <li><a href="#">Submenu 3 Link 4</a></li>
        <li><a href="#">Submenu 3 Link 5</a></li>
      </ul>
    </li>
    <li>
      <a href="#" class="active">Top Level Link 4</a>
      <ul class="submenu submenu-4">
        <li><a href="#">Submenu 4 Link 1</a></li>
        <li><a href="#">Submenu 4 Link 2</a></li>
        <li><a href="#">Submenu 4 Link 3</a></li>
        <li><a href="#">Submenu 4 Link 4</a></li>
        <li><a href="#">Submenu 4 Link 5</a></li>
      </ul>
    </li>
    <li>
      <a href="#">Top Level Link 5</a>
      <ul class="submenu submenu-5">
        <li><a href="#">Submenu 5 Link 1</a></li>
        <li><a href="#">Submenu 5 Link 2</a></li>
        <li><a href="#">Submenu 5 Link 3</a></li>
        <li><a href="#">Submenu 5 Link 4</a></li>
        <li><a href="#">Submenu 5 Link 5</a></li>
      </ul>
    </li>
  </ul>
</nav>

IE 11, Flexbox, and Absolute Positioning Not Working

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internet-explorer

flexbox

Nick

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IE 11, Flexbox, and Absolute Positioning Not Working

Tags:

html

css

internet-explorer

flexbox

Nick

People also ask

1 Answers

jsFiddle

Michael Benjamin

Related questions

Recent Activity

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