Sidebar with main content in Tailwind - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Sidebar with main content

📖 Scenario: You are creating a simple webpage layout with a sidebar and main content area. The sidebar will have navigation links, and the main content will show a welcome message. This layout should be responsive and use Tailwind CSS for styling.

🎯 Goal: Build a webpage with a sidebar on the left and main content on the right using Tailwind CSS. The sidebar should have a vertical list of links, and the main content should have a heading and paragraph. The layout should be flexible and look good on different screen sizes.

📋 What You'll Learn

Use a div with Tailwind classes to create a sidebar on the left

Add three navigation links inside the sidebar with text: Home, About, Contact

Create a main content area to the right of the sidebar

Add a heading <h1> with text 'Welcome to the site!' inside the main content

Add a paragraph <p> with some welcome text inside the main content

Use Tailwind Flexbox classes to arrange sidebar and main content side by side

Make sure the sidebar has a background color and the main content has padding

Ensure the layout is responsive and stacks vertically on small screens

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Sidebars with main content are common in websites and web apps for navigation and displaying information side by side. This layout helps users find links easily while reading content.

💼 Career

Knowing how to build responsive layouts with Tailwind CSS is valuable for frontend web development jobs. It shows you can create clean, accessible, and adaptable user interfaces.

1

Create the HTML structure with sidebar and main content containers

Create a div with class flex to hold the layout. Inside it, create two div elements: one with class sidebar and one with class main-content. Do not add any content or styles yet.

Tailwind

Need a hint?

Use a parent div with class flex. Inside it, add two div elements with classes sidebar and main-content.

2

Add navigation links inside the sidebar

Inside the div with class sidebar, add an unordered list <ul> with three list items <li>. Each list item should contain a link <a> with the texts Home, About, and Contact respectively. Use href="#" for each link.

Tailwind

Need a hint?

Use a <ul> inside the sidebar. Add three <li> each with an <a href="#"> link for Home, About, and Contact.

3

Add heading and paragraph inside the main content

Inside the div with class main-content, add a heading <h1> with the text Welcome to the site! and a paragraph <p> with the text This is the main content area..

Tailwind

  
    
      Home
      About
      Contact
    
  
  
    
  

Need a hint?

Inside the main content div, add an <h1> and a <p> with the specified texts.

4

Add Tailwind CSS classes for layout and styling

Add Tailwind CSS classes to style the layout: add bg-gray-200 p-4 w-48 to the div with class sidebar for background color, padding, and fixed width. Add flex-1 p-6 to the div with class main-content for flexible width and padding. Add flex flex-col min-h-screen to the div with class sidebar to stack its content vertically and fill viewport height. Add flex flex-col space-y-4 to the ul inside the sidebar for vertical spacing between links. Add responsive classes flex-col md:flex-row to the parent div with class flex so the layout stacks vertically on small screens and side by side on medium and larger screens.

Tailwind

  
    
      Home
      About
      Contact
    
  
  
    Welcome to the site!
    This is the main content area.
  

Need a hint?

Add the specified Tailwind CSS classes to the correct elements to style the sidebar and main content and make the layout responsive.