<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html> <head> <style> body > div { overflow: auto } .test { height: 20px; background: green } #test2 { padding: 0 100px } #test3 { padding: 0 100px; width: 250px } #test4 { padding: 0 10% } #test5 { padding: 0 10%; width: 250px } body { width: 500px } </style> </head> <body> <div id="test1"> <div class="test"></div> </div> <div id="test2"> <div class="test"></div> </div> <div id="test3"> <div class="test"></div> </div> <div id="test4"> <div class="test"></div> </div> <div id="test5"> <div class="test"></div> </div> </body> </html>