Css overflow-x: visible; and overflow-y: hidden; causing scrollbar issue

Navigating through the churn of overflow properties

Overflow settings might feel like learning a new language, but once you crack the code, it's smooth sailing. From understanding the W3C-spec behaviour to fine-tuning your layouts, let's pivot into the whys and hows of CSS overflow.

The alphabet soup of overflow behaviour

This isn't the wild west. So, having overflow: visible alongside scroll or auto doesn't mean it stays as visible — it falls back to auto. Hence, to avert any gotcha! moments with random scrollbars, ensure matching overflow properties.

Steering through horizontal and vertical overflow

If your goal is achieving a scroll-free layout, strive for consistency between overflow-x and overflow-y. For layouts at risk of horizontal overflow, a workaround is to use overflow-x: hidden on the outer elements. For vertical counterparts, consider the overflow-y: clip;, which can gracefully handle vertical overflow sans the need for wrapper reinforcements.

An ode to padding and margins in overflow land

While paddings and margins may make your content look good, dealing with them while handling overflow can often be as challenging as a tightrope walk. One trick in our magic hat is using negative margins identical to the used padding. This way, you balance out any changes to the layout when wrestling with the overflow.

Overflow solutions that aren't just theories

Remember, theory without practice is like a car without gas. One hands-on overflow solution suggested by James Khoury, involves wielding the overflow-x property on the parent and overflow-y on the content. In addition, maintaining awareness that overflow-y: visible behaves similarly to auto or scroll can help stave off surprises.

Advanced overflow tactics: beyond the basic toolbox

For the daring developers venturing beyond the basics, here are some tactics that take you from novice to maestro.

No more clipping: mastering positioning and stacking

When dealing with elements assigned as fixed, avoid the notorious clipping by using fixed positioning. When you need to manage overflow visibility along a single dimension, placing inner wrappers can be a game-changer.

Overflow without a spell of scrollbars

Preferences vary, but for many of us, avoiding scrollbars is a win. A workaround for this could involve fidgeting the padding-bottom and margin-bottom, hinting the browser how to manage elements prone to overflow, keeping scrollbars out of the scene.

Keeping up: Cross-browser harmony

There's a wide canvas of browsers out there. Knowledge about cross-browser overflow handling is your armour against inconsistency. A helpful companion in this journey is Brunildo’s test page to understand nuances across various browsers.