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How to use innerHeight for div on both window load & resize?

I am trying to determine the top/bottom padding of a div (.content) based on it's height, and to recalculate it based on load AND resize of the window. This is supposed to align nicely centered next to another div (.character) beside it.
I've tried using CSS calc, but in this case it doesn't do exactly what I want it to do since the syntax doesn't support operators and I have a few media queries that change the size of the font based on the viewfinder, so the height of the .content div is somewhat dynamic.
Below is the JS portion, but here is the JSFiddle of what I've done so far: https://jsfiddle.net/inochiishtal/a9z13fb2/62/
$(function(){
$.w = $(window);
$.w.on('load resize', res);
res();
});
function res() {
$('.content').css('height',($.w.innerHeight()/2)+'px');
}
Any help or suggestions are appreciated. I'm not 100% dedicated to using innerHTML if there is a better solution.

It's a little unclear exactly how you want the items aligned, but based on what you said it seems like you want the .content and the .character to be vertically center aligned with each other.
In your snippet you have both of them absolutely positioned. If that's the way you want to go, you can just ignore their margins and JavaScript in general with this little vertical centering trick applied to both:
top: 50%;
transform: translateY( -50% );
The first line says "Put the top of this element 50% of the way down the element that it's positioned based on." Since it goes by the top, the second line says "Scoot me back up 50% of my height." That's just the way those CSS properties work -- the "top" % is about its parent, and the translateY % is about itself.
Since both of your elements would be vertically centered in their parent, they'd be aligned.
https://jsfiddle.net/qowxezpy/
HOWEVER if you don't need the elements to overlap like they do in this example (which I think looks nice and modern) there's a much easier way, using flex.
The parent would get:
display: flex;
align-items: center;
And the two children get:
flex-basis: 50%; //just to give them some width, since one is empty

Liquid Grid - How do people refer to it

I've been playing with the google apps console and it has a fluid page where there are grids of items. When the user makes the window bigger and smaller the width of the grid items gets smaller and smaller until it drops one onto the next row when it cant make each grid item any smaller.
Can anyone tell me what this technique is called so I can find some tutorials. For bonus points, does it require javascript?

The technique is known as liquid or elastic layout. It is achieved via CSS, no javascript required. If you're looking for tutorials, you might this article useful:
"70+ essential resources for creating liquid and elastic layouts" by Zoe Mickley Gillenwater

Most used method (at least by my observation) is floating div with width in percentage and css media style.
Example
.thumb {
float: left;
width:18%;
margin:1%;
background: #eee;
height: 200px;
}
#media (max-width: 724px) {
.thumb {
width:48%;
}
}
In example above div.thumb will have width of 20%(margin+width) meaning it will have 5 div per row. And if viewport has width of max 724px there will 2 divs per row.
There are a lot of methods for this but this is most easiest to do, if your div's have same height, otherwise you will have some glitches with float.
EDIT: here is jsfiddle http://jsfiddle.net/P2URP/

What you are looking for it's called fluid (or scalable, liquid, etc.) "tiles" better than "grid"
This other question may solve yours if you want to do it only with CSS: Fluid, flexible and scalable tiles to fill entire width of viewport

Side Panel in CSS

I have a div called calendar that is inside a div called cal-container. The calendar has width:100% so currently it takes up the whole cal-container.
I need to add a side-panel div. This div will have a fixed width of 150 pixels. Thus, #calendar width should be #cal-container width - 150px. Is this possible with CSS or am I forced to use a table?
If it is possible, is there an example? I googled it but nothing like what I want came up.
The side-panel can be hidden and shown by click a button so adding padding will not work.
Here is an idea of what I mean:
The days part is #calendar, and the Unscheduled part is the side panel of 150px.
I tried floating the calendar left, and cloating the side panel right and giving it a width of 150px. But the idea is if I hide that div, the calendar should then take 100%.
Thanks
Like this, the blue would be side and calendar be the left, but calendar needs to take up the room side does not when hidden.
http://www.456bereastreet.com/lab/developing_with_web_standards/csslayout/2-col/finished.html
Result of float:

Got a working solution for you here.
The code to get this working basically hinges on the following structure:
<div class="sideBar">
...
</div>
<div class="tableWrapper">
<table>
...
</table>
</div>
Next, make sure the elements have these significant CSS properties:
.sideBar {
float: right;
}
.tableWrapper {
overflow: hidden;
}
table {
width: 100%;
}
What's happening here is that the .sideBar floats right, and takes up whatever space it needs to. Meanwhile, the .tableWrapper will take up whatever space is left by virtue of overflow: hidden. Finally, tell the table to take up 100% of its available width.
Click the button in the demo to see the table automatically resize.

All major browsers and IE10 support flexbox. Not supported < IE10.

My webpages div doesnt set dynamic width correctly

I have 2 toolbars, 1 of each side of the screen, and a main content area. I dont want it to have to sidescroll cause that is pathetic, so i was trying to figure out if someone could help me set it up.
My current attemp was:
$("#main").css("width", window.outerWidth - $("#t1").width() - $("#t2").width());
The issue is that it is too big still because of margins. Instead of me doing width, should i do outerWidth, similar to how i did window, or is there a jquery command which will do just that?
Thanks
here is a basic fiddle: it is set up differently, but the idea is there. I just am unsure as to how to do it. http://jsfiddle.net/fallenreaper/DfZx7/
Upon tinkering deeper and deeper with my fiddle, i am fairly certain i figured it out in the example i had given. derp Standby while i look and see if i can apply the same thing to my code.
The sample did not work with my code, but border was set to 2px around, for both main and attributes. Deducting 8 pixels resolves.

You don't need JavaScript to avoid scrollbars. It's a layout width two fixed-width columns and a liquid one.
Here is the "skeleton" of your layout in a responsive way:
<div id="window">
<div id="column-sx"></div>
<div id="main"></div>
<div id="column-dx"></div>
</div>​
CSS:
#window {
width:100%;
overflow:hidden;
}
#column-sx {
width:54px;
float:left;
}
#column-dx {
width: 140px;
float:right;
}
#main {
width:100%;
float:left;
margin-right:-194px; /* left + right col width */
}
#main > * {
margin-right:194px; /* left + right col width */
}
This way it will never "break" nor cause an horizontal scrollbar.
Anyway, probably you want to set a min-width for #main contents, and add another container for contents instead of targeting them with > *
Check this fiddle with your code revised

Off the top of my head, i would think outerWidth would work. If it doesnt, you can find the margin value via the .style attribute - but thats not ideal.
One thing you should be aware of is window resize if your setting your widths dynamically and you truely hate horizontal scrolling. You could put the above function also in the $().resize() function to ensure the widths are always within the window and complement this with css min-width so it doesnt go too small.

Fluid Elements and Overflow Question

So here's a stump I've hit.
I'm designing a... Thing. It sizes itself to the browser window, with some controls at the top and a rather large list near the bottom. Anyways, it's basically a table cell that sizes with the browser window, whos size is the document size - 130px in height, and document size - 50px in width. What I want it to do, is when the list of stuff inside that cell is bigger then the cell, it to become scrolly using css's overflow: auto.
The problem, is that I can't get it to do that, only make the entire document scrolly. Currently, the cell has no properties aside from valign:top, and it has a single div in it (to which the list elements are written), and it's set to overflow:auto. However, it's just scales up the entire document when the list becomes to long.
I don't want to give it a static size since it sizes with the page.
Any ideas?
Thanks!
-Dave

I'm not sure I understand correctly, but here's a try that may give you ideas.
<head>
<title>Test</title>
<style>
div.outer {
background-color: red;
position: absolute;
top: 40px;
bottom: 40px;
left: 40px;
right: 40px;
}
div.inner {
position: absolute;
top: 0;
bottom: 0;
left: 0;
right: 0;
overflow: auto;
background-color: aqua;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<div class="outer">
<div class="inner">
On the Insert tab, the galleries include items that are designed to coordinate with the overall look of your document. You can use these galleries to insert tables, headers, footers, lists, cover pages, and other document building blocks. When you create pictures, charts, or diagrams, they also coordinate with your current document look.
You can easily change the formatting of selected text in the document text by choosing a look for the selected text from the Quick Styles gallery on the Home tab. You can also format text directly by using the other controls on the Home tab. Most controls offer a choice of using the look from the current theme or using a format that you specify directly.
To change the overall look of your document, choose new Theme elements on the Page Layout tab. To change the looks available in the Quick Style gallery, use the Change Current Quick Style Set command. Both the Themes gallery and the Quick Styles gallery provide reset commands so that you can always restore the look of your document to the original contained in your current template.
</div>
</div>
</body>

The solution of buti-oxa is very nice, but doesn't work in Internet Explorer.
For a cross-browser solution, you need to assign a fixed height to the div that contains the list. You can't do it using only css, because the height to assign depends from the height of the browser window.
But you can use a simple javascript function to dinamically assign the height to the div.
Here is an example, using jQuery:
function resizeDiv(){
var h = $(window).height(); //maybe the window height minus the header and footer height...
$("#yourDivId").css("height", h + "px");
}
You should call this function when the page is loaded and when the user resizes the window:
$(document).ready(function(){
resizeDiv();
$(window).resize(function(){
resizeDiv();
});
});
You can see this in action in this demo page I posted (resize window to test):
http://www.meiaweb.com/test/BMS_DM_NI/

if I m not wrong and your content is only text you can add wrap property although this dosen't work in firefox u can add wbr to your text

I think you should consider fluid layout design patterns.
Couple of tips:
MediaQueries
Use % instead of fixed values like px

I think an iFrame would help. Put your 'thing' into a base URL, and then use another page with an iFrame to load it. As the 'thing' goes crazy in size, the scroll bars appear, but your outer page is not effected.
An old fashion frame should work too, but iFrames are just more fun ....