Create a Vertical, Horizontal and Diagonal Sliding Content Website with jQuery

Written by Kevin Liew on 14 Jul 2009
708,140 Views • Tutorials

Introduction

Content Sliding website is one of the famous and creative design techniques for portfolio website. One thing, please make sure you put the menu on every single page to avoid confusion/dizziness.

  • You should put the navigation menu in every single page
  • Or, fix the position of the menu
  • Let your visitors know exactly what section they're reading, like highlight the selected menu item and have a clear title

In this tutorial, we will learn to scroll your web content vertically, horizontally and plus diagonally! Don't worry, we won't rely on javascript too much, we will use css/html for the layout and javascript only do the scrolling. And hey, it will still work even if your browser doesn't support javascript.

And, thanks to Ariel Flesler, his scrollTo plugin is simply amazing!

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1. HTML

Depend on which direction you want to scroll your website, each of them have slightly different layout. For the horizontal and vertical, they use the same layout, whereas for diagonal, you have to add extra div to create the "diagonal". It sounds like a dirty trick, but hey, it works! :)

I put <a name="name"></a>, just in case some of the browsers out there don't support javascript.

Structure for jQuery share it toolbox

Scroll Horizontally & Vertically

<div id="wrapper">
	<div id="mask">

		<div id="item1" class="item">
			<a name="item1"></a>
			<div class="content">item1 
				<a href="#item1" class="panel">1</a> | 
				<a href="#item2" class="panel">2</a> | 
				<a href="#item3" class="panel">3</a> | 
				<a href="#item4" class="panel">4</a> | 
				<a href="#item5" class="panel">5</a>
			</div>
		</div>
		
		<div id="item2" class="item">
			<a name="item2"></a>
			<div class="content">item2 <a href="#item1" class="panel">back</a></div>
		</div>
		
		<div id="item3" class="item">
			<a name="item3"></a>
			<div class="content">item3 <a href="#item1" class="panel">back</a></div>
		</div>

		<div id="item4" class="item">
			<a name="item4"></a>
			<div class="content">item4 <a href="#item1" class="panel">back</a></div>
		</div>
		
		<div id="item5" class="item">
			<a name="item5"></a>
			<div class="content">item5 <a href="#item1" class="panel">back</a></div>
		</div>

	</div>
</div>

<div id="wrapper">
	<div id="mask">

		<!-- first row -->

		<div id="item1" class="item">
			<a name="item1"></a>
			<div class="content">item1 
				<a href="#item1" class="panel">1</a> | 
				<a href="#item2" class="panel">2</a> | 
				<a href="#item3" class="panel">3</a>
			</div>
		</div>
		
		<div class="item"></div>
		<div class="item"></div>
		<div class="clear"></div>

		<!-- second row -->		
		
		<div class="item"></div>

		<div id="item2" class="item">
			<a name="item2"></a>
			<div class="content">item2 <a href="#item1" class="panel">back</a></div>
		</div>

		<div class="item"></div>
		<div class="clear"></div>
		
		<!-- third row -->

		<div class="item"></div>
		<div class="item"></div>

		<div id="item3" class="item">
			<a name="item3"></a>
			<div class="content">item3 <a href="#item1" class="panel">back</a></div>
		</div>
		
		<div class="clear"></div>

	</div>
</div>
<div id="wrapper">
	<div id="mask">

		<div id="item1" class="item">
			<a name="item1"></a>
			<div class="content">item1 
				<a href="#item1" class="panel">1</a> | 
				<a href="#item2" class="panel">2</a> | 
				<a href="#item3" class="panel">3</a> | 
				<a href="#item4" class="panel">4</a> | 
				<a href="#item5" class="panel">5</a>
			</div>
		</div>
		
		<div id="item2" class="item">
			<a name="item2"></a>
			<div class="content">item2 <a href="#item1" class="panel">back</a></div>
		</div>
		
		<div id="item3" class="item">
			<a name="item3"></a>
			<div class="content">item3 <a href="#item1" class="panel">back</a></div>
		</div>

		<div id="item4" class="item">
			<a name="item4"></a>
			<div class="content">item4 <a href="#item1" class="panel">back</a></div>
		</div>
		
		<div id="item5" class="item">
			<a name="item5"></a>
			<div class="content">item5 <a href="#item1" class="panel">back</a></div>
		</div>

	</div>
</div>

<div id="wrapper">
	<div id="mask">

		<!-- first row -->

		<div id="item1" class="item">
			<a name="item1"></a>
			<div class="content">item1 
				<a href="#item1" class="panel">1</a> | 
				<a href="#item2" class="panel">2</a> | 
				<a href="#item3" class="panel">3</a>
			</div>
		</div>
		
		<div class="item"></div>
		<div class="item"></div>
		<div class="clear"></div>

		<!-- second row -->		
		
		<div class="item"></div>

		<div id="item2" class="item">
			<a name="item2"></a>
			<div class="content">item2 <a href="#item1" class="panel">back</a></div>
		</div>

		<div class="item"></div>
		<div class="clear"></div>
		
		<!-- third row -->

		<div class="item"></div>
		<div class="item"></div>

		<div id="item3" class="item">
			<a name="item3"></a>
			<div class="content">item3 <a href="#item1" class="panel">back</a></div>
		</div>
		
		<div class="clear"></div>

	</div>
</div>

Scroll Diagonally

<div id="wrapper">
	<div id="mask">

		<div id="item1" class="item">
			<a name="item1"></a>
			<div class="content">item1 
				<a href="#item1" class="panel">1</a> | 
				<a href="#item2" class="panel">2</a> | 
				<a href="#item3" class="panel">3</a> | 
				<a href="#item4" class="panel">4</a> | 
				<a href="#item5" class="panel">5</a>
			</div>
		</div>
		
		<div id="item2" class="item">
			<a name="item2"></a>
			<div class="content">item2 <a href="#item1" class="panel">back</a></div>
		</div>
		
		<div id="item3" class="item">
			<a name="item3"></a>
			<div class="content">item3 <a href="#item1" class="panel">back</a></div>
		</div>

		<div id="item4" class="item">
			<a name="item4"></a>
			<div class="content">item4 <a href="#item1" class="panel">back</a></div>
		</div>
		
		<div id="item5" class="item">
			<a name="item5"></a>
			<div class="content">item5 <a href="#item1" class="panel">back</a></div>
		</div>

	</div>
</div>

<div id="wrapper">
	<div id="mask">

		<!-- first row -->

		<div id="item1" class="item">
			<a name="item1"></a>
			<div class="content">item1 
				<a href="#item1" class="panel">1</a> | 
				<a href="#item2" class="panel">2</a> | 
				<a href="#item3" class="panel">3</a>
			</div>
		</div>
		
		<div class="item"></div>
		<div class="item"></div>
		<div class="clear"></div>

		<!-- second row -->		
		
		<div class="item"></div>

		<div id="item2" class="item">
			<a name="item2"></a>
			<div class="content">item2 <a href="#item1" class="panel">back</a></div>
		</div>

		<div class="item"></div>
		<div class="clear"></div>
		
		<!-- third row -->

		<div class="item"></div>
		<div class="item"></div>

		<div id="item3" class="item">
			<a name="item3"></a>
			<div class="content">item3 <a href="#item1" class="panel">back</a></div>
		</div>
		
		<div class="clear"></div>

	</div>
</div>
<div id="wrapper">
	<div id="mask">

		<div id="item1" class="item">
			<a name="item1"></a>
			<div class="content">item1 
				<a href="#item1" class="panel">1</a> | 
				<a href="#item2" class="panel">2</a> | 
				<a href="#item3" class="panel">3</a> | 
				<a href="#item4" class="panel">4</a> | 
				<a href="#item5" class="panel">5</a>
			</div>
		</div>
		
		<div id="item2" class="item">
			<a name="item2"></a>
			<div class="content">item2 <a href="#item1" class="panel">back</a></div>
		</div>
		
		<div id="item3" class="item">
			<a name="item3"></a>
			<div class="content">item3 <a href="#item1" class="panel">back</a></div>
		</div>

		<div id="item4" class="item">
			<a name="item4"></a>
			<div class="content">item4 <a href="#item1" class="panel">back</a></div>
		</div>
		
		<div id="item5" class="item">
			<a name="item5"></a>
			<div class="content">item5 <a href="#item1" class="panel">back</a></div>
		</div>

	</div>
</div>

<div id="wrapper">
	<div id="mask">

		<!-- first row -->

		<div id="item1" class="item">
			<a name="item1"></a>
			<div class="content">item1 
				<a href="#item1" class="panel">1</a> | 
				<a href="#item2" class="panel">2</a> | 
				<a href="#item3" class="panel">3</a>
			</div>
		</div>
		
		<div class="item"></div>
		<div class="item"></div>
		<div class="clear"></div>

		<!-- second row -->		
		
		<div class="item"></div>

		<div id="item2" class="item">
			<a name="item2"></a>
			<div class="content">item2 <a href="#item1" class="panel">back</a></div>
		</div>

		<div class="item"></div>
		<div class="clear"></div>
		
		<!-- third row -->

		<div class="item"></div>
		<div class="item"></div>

		<div id="item3" class="item">
			<a name="item3"></a>
			<div class="content">item3 <a href="#item1" class="panel">back</a></div>
		</div>
		
		<div class="clear"></div>

	</div>
</div>

2. CSS

The CSS is basically almost the same with the tabbed based content slider tutorial. I have illustrated how it works in that tutorial, so you might wanna check that out as well.

Scroll Horizontally & Diagonally

 

  • #mask : height=100%, width = 100% * total of items
  • .item : height=100%, width = 100% / total of items
body {
	height:100%;
	width:100%;
	margin:0;padding:0;
}

#wrapper {
	width:100%;
	height:100%;
	position:absolute;
	top:0;left:0;
	background-color:#ccc;
	overflow:hidden;
}

	#mask {
		width:500%;
		height:100%;

		background-color:#eee;
	}

	.item {
		width:20%;
		height:100%;
		float:left;
		background-color:#ddd;
	}
	
	
	.content {
		width:400px;
		height:300px;
		top:20%;
		margin:0 auto;
		background-color:#aaa;
		position:relative;
	}
	
	.selected {
		background:#fff;
		font-weight:700;
	}

	.clear {
		clear:both;
	}

Scroll Vertically

The width and height are opposite from scrolling horizontally. Calculations are:

  • #mask : width=100%, height = 100% * total of items
  • .item : width=100%, height = 100% / total of items
	#mask {
		width:100%;
		height:500%;
		background-color:#eee;
	}

	.item {
		width:100%;
		height:20%;
		float:left;
		background-color:#ddd;
	}

3. Javascript

So, you must be thinking how complicated the javascript would be. You'll be surprise! its only a line of code to make the scrolling effect. Thanks to jquery.scrollTo Plugin. What we have to do is solve the layout using css/html, and the plugin will do the rest.

$(document).ready(function() {

	//get all link with class panel
	$('a.panel').click(function () {

                //reset and highlight the clicked link
		$('a.panel').removeClass('selected');
		$(this).addClass('selected');
		
		//grab the current item, to be used in resize function
		current = $(this);
		
                //scroll it to the destination
		$('#wrapper').scrollTo($(this).attr('href'), 800);		
		
                //cancel the link default behavior
		return false;
	});


	//resize all the items according to the new browser size
	$(window).resize(function () {
		
		//call the resizePanel function
		resizePanel();
	});
	
});

This resize function have 2 versions. One for vertical and another for both horizontal and diagonal. The only difference is the mask_height and mask_width.

Vertical 
function resizePanel() {

	//get the browser width and height
	width = $(window).width();
	height = $(window).height();

	//get the mask height: height * total of items
	mask_height = height * $('.item').length;
		
	//set the dimension		
	$('#wrapper, .item').css({width: width, height: height});
	$('#mask').css({width: width, height: mask_height});

	//if the item is displayed incorrectly, set it to the corrent pos
	$('#wrapper').scrollTo($('a.selected').attr('href'), 0);
		
}
Horizontal & Diagonal 
function resizePanel() {

	//get the browser width and height
	width = $(window).width();
	height = $(window).height();

	//get the mask width: width * total of items
	mask_width = width * $('.item').length;
		
	//set the dimension	
	$('#wrapper, .item').css({width: width, height: height});
	$('#mask').css({width: mask_width, height: height});
	
	//if the item is displayed incorrectly, set it to the corrent pos
	$('#wrapper').scrollTo($('a.selected').attr('href'), 0);
		
}

Conclusion

That's it, simple and easy! I hope you all will enjoy it.

Last but not least, I need your support :) If you like this article, please help me to promote it by adding this post into your bookmark. You can subscribe to my RSS for more jQuery tutorial posts! Or go to my website footer to follow me on twitter, and buy me a drink! Thanks!

Jump to Certain Item on Page Load

This is one of the most popular request. A lot of people want this content slider to display certain item on page load. It's simple, you need to use this:

$(document).ready(function () {

   $('#wrapper').scrollTo('ITEM-ID-HERE', 0); 

   ......
   ......
   ...... 
}

With that line of code, the slider will jump to the item on page load.

Update

31 Aug 2009 : Due to popular demand, and something I should have created. I have added window resize function.
Demo 1Demo 2Demo 3Download
By Kevin Liew

Kevin Liew is a web designer and developer and keen on contributing to the web development industry. He loves frontend development and absolutely amazed by jQuery. Feel free to say hi to me, or follow @quenesswebblog on twitter.

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Join the discussion

Comments will be moderated and rel="nofollow" will be added to all links. You can wrap your coding with [code][/code] to make use of built-in syntax highlighter.

792 comments
Jas 16 years ago
Thanks for the cool effect. But I couldn't get "overflow:auto;" to work with IE, it works with Safari, Firefox and Chrome, any idea?

cheers
Reply
Jas 16 years ago
Oh, i just figured it out, add "position:relative" and it will work! :)
Reply
hemanta 16 years ago
thanx man but got a problem....couldnot able to add more pages coz it is limited to five page and where is the panel class attributes...
i have more than 5 links...so what do add more pages??

Reply
Shawn 16 years ago
How to make it slider automated?
which mean it will change the panel in every 15 seconds example.
Reply
DX 16 years ago
I'm kind of slightly better than beginner at website devleopment, however I cannot for the life of me work this out (VERTICAL scrolling)! I apologise if I sound rather stupid...

Anyway, I've followed everything and I just cannot get the scrolling to work/animate. 'Pages' display and link fine otherwise.

I have even tried ripping the demo site using Web Devil, opening in Dreamweaver and testing it, and still cannot get it to work. Using a Mac and have tried Safari and Firefox.

Any help greatly appreciated! Thanks.
Reply
martin 16 years ago
hey kevin,

i am trying to combine horizontal and diagonal scrolling.

i have 6 panels horizontal with info
then 3 panels down with info underneath panel 4.

xxxxxx
oooxo
oooxo
oooxo

unfortunately the second row panel sits on panel1 in the first row and the others underneath.

anythoughts where the problem might be?

here the css

#wrapper {
width:100%;
height:100%;
position:absolute;
background-color:#FFF;
overflow:hidden;

}

#mask {
width:600%;
height:400%;
}

.item {
width:16.6%;
height:100%;
float:left;
}


.content {
width:800px;
height:1100px;
margin:0 auto;
position:relative;
padding-top: 30px;
}

thank you!!
Reply
Tybo 16 years ago
Hi,

do you think it's possible to do horizontal, vertical and diagonal slide ??

Thanks a lot.
Reply
Nick02 16 years ago
Is there anyway to have the #wrapper start at the bottom when the page loads. Then work upwards.

I have a site where I need the page to swap to another page above, and I can't figure out how to make the page start at the bottom.
Reply
james 16 years ago
Excellent tute btw. This enabled me to do a friends site without having to result to flash. :)

A question, and you may or may not have seen a need for this, but I am trying to place a div over the mask or wrapper, that stays static, while the content does it's horizontal scrolling magic.

I've tried z-index.. and that's not working. Any thoughts? I might be missing something obvious, just not sure.

Thanks, and again, Great Tute..
Reply
Rome 16 years ago
I'm working on a layout that uses this configuration:

oxo
xxx
oxo

I have it navigate using vertical, horizontal, and diagonal. Works like a champ. However, I'm running into an issue where the page lands on the first row, top left empty panel. Is there a way to set the initial state be the middle panel, second row?
Reply
kevin Admin 16 years ago
hmm, so sorry for the late reply.. didn't realize so many comments are in queue!

@hemanta: Yes, you can add as many as you want. Just duplicate the item div and rename the id and a name to different number.

@Shawn: hmm, sorry, this is not designed to scroll automatically. I reckon that would be too annoying for reader to view your site.

@DX: is the demo works for you?

@Nick02: Yes, in the document ready, put in this code: $('#wrapper').scrollTo($('.item:last'), 0);

@james: put the div before </body>, style it up and then use position absolute to fix the position and z-index to make sure it appears on top of every items.. should work!
Reply
kevin Admin 16 years ago
Hi Rome, I think you're asking the same question Nick02 asked. The only way to do it is, scroll it to the page when the website is loaded.

So, I think you can put this:
$('#wrapper').scrollTo($('#item2'), 0);

Try to put it outside of (document).ready or inside it to see which one work best to you.

I put the scroll speed to 0, so the user can't see the scrolling.
Reply
Rome 16 years ago
@Kevin - That did it! Thank you very much! I really appreciate it.

Awesome code by the way.
Reply