IE7/IE8 Compatible rendering floated layout wrong - layout

Question

I have a site with a right sidebar and a left main content area. Code looks like this:
<div class="leftside">leftsidecontent</div>
<div class="leftside">leftsidecontent</div>
<div class="leftside">leftsidecontent</div>
<div class="leftside">leftsidecontent</div>
<div class="rightside">rightsidecontent</div>
<div class="rightside">rightsidecontent</div>
<div class="rightside">rightsidecontent</div>
with
.leftside
{
float:left;
width:710px;
}
.rightside
{
margin-left:720px;
}
(see actual site at http://blog.stephenkiers.com/)
Reason it is coded this way is so that because the leftsidecontent is important and I want to be first data accessed by visually impaired visitors; instead of them having to skip all the fluff every time!
The code works in FF, IE8, Safari etc; but in IE7 the rightside divs clear the floated divs.
I would love any suggestions you may have. I have some ideas about how to fix it; but they all involve pretty big rewrites.
thanks!

Answer 1

why don't you try wrapping the content stuff into two columns like this example
The CSS:
.leftside {
float:left;
width:710px;
}
.rightside {
float: left;
margin-left: 20px;
}
.contentBlock { margin-bottom: 10px; background: #ccc; padding: 8px; }
The HTML:
<div class="leftside">
<div class="contentBlock">
<p>main stuff goes here</p>
</div>
<div class="contentBlock">
<p>main stuff goes here</p>
</div>
<div class="contentBlock">
<p>main stuff goes here</p>
</div>
<div class="contentBlock">
<p>main stuff goes here</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="rightside">
<div class="contentBlock">
<p>secondary stuff goes here</p>
</div>
<div class="contentBlock">
<p>secondary stuff goes here</p>
</div>
<div class="contentBlock">
<p>secondary stuff goes here</p>
</div>
<div class="contentBlock">
<p>secondary stuff goes here</p>
</div>
</div>
This way the leftside and rightside are just layout elements and are isolated from the content.
Another good tip for visually impaired visitors is to have links at the top of the page to allow users to skip directly to content sections and hide them from your layout with css:
.skipToLinks { position: absolute; top: -100px;}