Positioning multiple, random sized, absolutely positioned elements so they don't overlap

Question

Ok I need to be able to position a bunch of random sized absolutely positioned words on a page but I don't want any of the elements to overlap.

The end goal is to have a fluid word cloud that responds to user interaction (remember the Google Balls Doodle?). I would really like to build this from scratch to develop my understanding of this type of development. Any help in this department would also be appreciated :)

Answer 1

I have forked Jules' script to add this improvement : the search for a non-overlapping region is bounded (otherwise the original script will loop I believe), and the best region (the one with the smallest overlap) is selected.

see http://jsfiddle.net/Vnyvc/21/

play with the maxSearchIterations variable and/or the size of the whole region, it really makes a difference.

Answer 2

I'm not sure if you also want to position the words randomly inside a container, but i've written a fiddle that does just that. You can modify the code to position one word right after the other if you want to though. I think the key part is the method to check if there's a collision.

see http://jsfiddle.net/fZtdt/13/

EDIT: Be aware that this is very simple and unoptimized code. If for example you would add to many words, chances are that the script won't be able to fit all words inside the container, and get into an endless loop.