Make child div stretch across width of page

Answer 1

You could do it with jQuery...

$("#help_panel").width($(window).width());

Otherwise, as far as css goes, I'm fairly sure you would have to sit the help_panel div on the outside of container using position:absolute styling: http://css-tricks.com/forums/discussion/2318/give-child-div-width%3A100-of-page-width-inside-parent./p1