Using scrollIntoView with a fixed position header

Question

I have a site with a header set to position: fixed. On one of my pages, I use scrollIntoView(true) on an element. My problem is that when scrollIntoView is called, the element gets positioned underneath the header. How would I fix this so that the element is shown just below the header?

I'm using the Bootstrap framework and the header is styled with navbar navbar-fixed-top.

Answer 1

It's a bit hacky but here's a workaround.

var node = 'select your element'; var yourHeight = 'height of your fixed header';  // scroll to your element node.scrollIntoView(true);  // now account for fixed header var scrolledY = window.scrollY;  if(scrolledY){   window.scroll(0, scrolledY - yourHeight); } 

Edit:

A modern workaround is to use the CSS scroll-margin-top property in combination with the :target selector. Described in detail: https://www.bram.us/2020/03/01/prevent-content-from-being-hidden-underneath-a-fixed-header-by-using-scroll-margin-top/

Answer 2

Edit: Although less compatible (no Edge + IE compatibility), scroll-margin-top will also solve this, as mentioned in the answer from Arye Eidelman.

You can solve this with CSS, by applying a padding-top and a negative margin-top to the elements that you want to scroll to.

Demo

// For demo only, no JS needed for the solution  document.querySelector('.scroll-to-working-inline').addEventListener('click', function() {    document.querySelector('.working-inline').scrollIntoView();  });    document.querySelector('.scroll-to-working-block').addEventListener('click', function() {    document.querySelector('.working-block').scrollIntoView();  });    document.querySelector('.scroll-to-broken').addEventListener('click', function() {    document.querySelector('.broken').scrollIntoView();  });

/* Relevant styles */  .working-inline {    padding-top: 60px;    margin-top: -60px;  }    .working-block {    padding-top: 60px;    margin-top: -60px;  }    /* Allow scrolling to the top */  body {    padding-top: 60px;  }    /* Only for the demo */  body { margin: 0; }    header {    position: fixed;    top: 0;    background-color: tomato;    color: white;    width: 100%;    height: 60px;    line-height: 60px;    text-align: center;  }    [class^='working'],  [class^='broken'] {    font-size: 3rem;  }

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