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I have an app that is essentially a header, main content, and a footer which is always visible. The footer can change size, and there are some tools I want to place on the main content panel above the footer. The main layout is done with flex, and my understanding reading the docs is that absolute positioning combines with flex layouts by positioning relative to the nearest descendant, but that doesn't appear to be my experience. Hoping someone can help me out here.
In the code example below, I am expecting to see the "bottom" div positioned above the footer, but it's actually at the bottom of the window.
Here's the jsfiddle link: http://jsfiddle.net/L809zbey/
The HTML:
<div class="flex">
<div class="header">Sweet header</div>
<div class="content">Main content
<div class="bottom">
This guy should be fixed above the footer.
</div>
</div>
<div class="footer">Equally sweet footer</div>
</div>
CSS:
.flex{
border: 1px solid #ddd;
font: 14px Arial;
display: flex;
flex-direction: column;
}
.header{
background : #007AA2;
flex: 0 0 auto;
}
.content{
background : #FFF;
flex: 1 1 auto;
height: 200px;
}
.footer{
background : #7FCADE;
flex: 0 0 auto;
}
.bottom {
position: absolute;
bottom: 20px;
}
Try adding position:relative; to your .flex class. The .bottom element is currently relative to the body hence why it's stuck to the bottom of the page.
you'll want to add position: relative; to .flex. Things that are positioned absolutely will be positioned relative to the nearest positioned ancestor. If there are none it will be relative to the body
You don't need to position the element absolutely...just make sure it's always at the bottom of the .content div. In this way it will never overlay any actual content which it would do if it has absolute position.
You can achieve this by making the .content div a flex-column and applying margin-top:auto your tools div.
.flex {
border: 1px solid #ddd;
font: 14px Arial;
display: flex;
flex-direction: column;
}
.header {
background: #007AA2;
flex: 0 0 auto;
}
.content {
background: pink;
flex: 1;
display: flex;
flex-direction: column;
height: 200px;
}
.footer {
background: #7FCADE;
flex: 0 0 auto;
}
.bottom {
margin-top: auto;
background: orange;
}
<div class="flex">
<div class="header">Sweet header</div>
<div class="content">Main content
<div class="bottom">
This guy should be fixed above the footer.
</div>
</div>
<div class="footer">Equally sweet footer</div>
</div>
Imagine the following layout, where the dots represent the space between the boxes:
[Left box]......[Center box]......[Right box]
When I remove the right box, I like the center box to still be in the center, like so:
[Left box]......[Center box].................
The same goes for if I would remove the left box.
................[Center box].................
Now when the content within the center box gets longer, it will take up as much available space as needed while remaining centered. The left and right box will never shrink and thus when where is no space left the overflow:hidden and text-overflow: ellipsis will come in effect to break the content;
[Left box][Center boxxxxxxxxxxxxx][Right box]
All the above is my ideal situation, but I have no idea how to accomplish this effect. Because when I create a flex structure like so:
.parent {
display : flex; // flex box
justify-content : space-between; // horizontal alignment
align-content : center; // vertical alignment
}
If the left and right box would be exactly the same size, I get the desired effect. However when one of the two is from a different size the centered box is not truly centered anymore.
Is there anyone that can help me?
Update
A justify-self would be nice, this would be ideal:
.leftBox {
justify-self : flex-start;
}
.rightBox {
justify-self : flex-end;
}
If the left and right boxes would be exactly the same size, I get the desired effect. However when one of the two is a different size the centered box is not truly centered anymore. Is there anyone that can help me?
Here's a method using flexbox to center the middle item, regardless of the width of siblings.
Key features:
pure CSS
no absolute positioning
no JS/jQuery
Use nested flex containers and auto margins:
.container {
display: flex;
}
.box {
flex: 1;
display: flex;
justify-content: center;
}
.box:first-child > span { margin-right: auto; }
.box:last-child > span { margin-left: auto; }
/* non-essential */
.box {
align-items: center;
border: 1px solid #ccc;
background-color: lightgreen;
height: 40px;
}
p {
text-align: center;
margin: 5px 0 0 0;
}
<div class="container">
<div class="box"><span>short text</span></div>
<div class="box"><span>centered text</span></div>
<div class="box"><span>loooooooooooooooong text</span></div>
</div>
<p>↑<br>true center</p>
Here's how it works:
The top-level div (.container) is a flex container.
Each child div (.box) is now a flex item.
Each .box item is given flex: 1 in order to distribute container space equally (more details).
Now the items are consuming all space in the row and are equal width.
Make each item a (nested) flex container and add justify-content: center.
Now each span element is a centered flex item.
Use flex auto margins to shift the outer spans left and right.
You could also forgo justify-content and use auto margins exclusively.
But justify-content can work here because auto margins always have priority.
8.1. Aligning with auto
margins
Prior to alignment via justify-content and align-self, any
positive free space is distributed to auto margins in that dimension.
Use three flex items in the container
Set flex: 1 to the first and last ones. This makes them grow equally to fill the available space left by the middle one.
Thus, the middle one will tend to be centered.
However, if the first or last item has a wide content, that flex item will also grow due to the new min-width: auto initial value.
Note Chrome doesn't seem to implement this properly. However, you can set min-width to -webkit-max-content or -webkit-min-content and it will work too.
Only in that case the middle element will be pushed out of the center.
.outer-wrapper {
display: flex;
}
.item {
background: lime;
margin: 5px;
}
.left.inner-wrapper, .right.inner-wrapper {
flex: 1;
display: flex;
min-width: -webkit-min-content; /* Workaround to Chrome bug */
}
.right.inner-wrapper {
justify-content: flex-end;
}
.animate {
animation: anim 5s infinite alternate;
}
#keyframes anim {
from { min-width: 0 }
to { min-width: 100vw; }
}
<div class="outer-wrapper">
<div class="left inner-wrapper">
<div class="item animate">Left</div>
</div>
<div class="center inner-wrapper">
<div class="item">Center</div>
</div>
<div class="right inner-wrapper">
<div class="item">Right</div>
</div>
</div>
<!-- Analogous to above --> <div class="outer-wrapper"><div class="left inner-wrapper"><div class="item">Left</div></div><div class="center inner-wrapper"><div class="item animate">Center</div></div><div class="right inner-wrapper"><div class="item">Right</div></div></div><div class="outer-wrapper"><div class="left inner-wrapper"><div class="item">Left</div></div><div class="center inner-wrapper"><div class="item">Center</div></div><div class="right inner-wrapper"><div class="item animate">Right</div></div></div>
The key is to use flex-basis. Then the solution is simple as:
.parent {
display: flex;
justify-content: space-between;
}
.left, .right {
flex-grow: 1;
flex-basis: 0;
}
CodePen is available here.
Here's an answer that uses grid instead of flexbox. This solution doesn't require extra grandchild elements in the HTML like the accepted answer does. And it works correctly even when the content on one side gets long enough to overflow into the center, unlike the grid answer from 2019.
The one thing this solution doesn't do is show an ellipsis or hide the extra content in the center box, as described in the question.
section {
display: grid;
grid-template-columns: 1fr auto 1fr;
}
section > *:last-child {
white-space: nowrap;
text-align: right;
}
/* not essential; just for demo purposes */
section {
background-color: #eee;
font-family: helvetica, arial;
font-size: 10pt;
padding: 4px;
}
section > * {
border: 1px solid #bbb;
padding: 2px;
}
<section>
<div>left</div>
<div>center</div>
<div>right side is longer</div>
</section>
<section>
<div>left</div>
<div>center</div>
<div>right side is much, much longer</div>
</section>
<section>
<div>left</div>
<div>center</div>
<div>right side is much, much longer, super long in fact</div>
</section>
Instead of defaulting to using flexbox, using grid solves it in 2 lines of CSS without additional markup inside the top level children.
HTML:
<header class="header">
<div class="left">variable content</div>
<div class="middle">variable content</div>
<div class="right">variable content which happens to be very long</div>
</header>
CSS:
.header {
display: grid;
grid-template-columns: [first] 20% auto [last] 20%;
}
.middle {
/* use either */
margin: 0 auto;
/* or */
text-align: center;
}
Flexbox rocks but shouldn't be the answer for everything. In this case grid is clearly the cleanest option.
Even made a codepen for your testing pleasure:
https://codepen.io/anon/pen/mooQOV
You can do this like so:
.bar {
display: flex;
background: #B0BEC5;
}
.l {
width: 50%;
flex-shrink: 1;
display: flex;
}
.l-content {
background: #9C27B0;
}
.m {
flex-shrink: 0;
}
.m-content {
text-align: center;
background: #2196F3;
}
.r {
width: 50%;
flex-shrink: 1;
display: flex;
flex-direction: row-reverse;
}
.r-content {
background: #E91E63;
}
<div class="bar">
<div class="l">
<div class="l-content">This is really long content. More content. So much content.</div>
</div>
<div class="m">
<div class="m-content">This will always be in the center.</div>
</div>
<div class="r">
<div class="r-content">This is short.</div>
</div>
</div>
Here is another way to do it, using display: flex in the parents and childs:
.Layout{
display: flex;
justify-content: center;
}
.Left{
display: flex;
justify-content: flex-start;
width: 100%;
}
.Right{
display: flex;
justify-content: flex-end;
width: 100%;
}
<div class = 'Layout'>
<div class = 'Left'>I'm on the left</div>
<div class = 'Mid'>Centered</div>
<div class = 'Right'>I'm on the right</div>
</div>
A slightly more robust grid solution looks like this:
.container {
overflow: hidden;
border-radius: 2px;
padding: 4px;
background: orange;
display: grid;
grid-template-columns: minmax(max-content, 1fr) auto minmax(max-content, 1fr);
}
.item > div {
display: inline-block;
padding: 6px;
border-radius: 2px;
background: teal;
}
.item:last-child > div {
float: right;
}
<div class="container">
<div class="item"><div contenteditable>edit the text to test the layout</div></div>
<div class="item"><div contenteditable>just click me and</div></div>
<div class="item"><div contenteditable>edit</div></div>
</div>
And here you can see it in Codepen: https://codepen.io/benshope2234/pen/qBmZJWN
I wanted the exact result shown in the question, I combined answers from gamliela and Erik Martín Jordán and it works best for me.
.parent {
display: flex;
justify-content: space-between;
}
.left, .right {
flex-grow: 1;
flex-basis: 0;
}
.right {
display: flex;
justify-content: flex-end;
}
you can also use this simple way to reach exact center alignment for middle element :
.container {
display: flex;
justify-content: space-between;
}
.container .sibling {
display: flex;
align-items: center;
height: 50px;
background-color: gray;
}
.container .sibling:first-child {
width: 50%;
display: flex;
justify-content: space-between;
}
.container .sibling:last-child {
justify-content: flex-end;
width: 50%;
box-sizing: border-box;
padding-left: 100px; /* .center's width divided by 2 */
}
.container .sibling:last-child .content {
text-align: right;
}
.container .sibling .center {
height: 100%;
width: 200px;
background-color: lightgreen;
transform: translateX(50%);
}
codepen: https://codepen.io/ErAz7/pen/mdeBKLG
Althought I might be late on this one, all those solutions seems complicated and may not work depending on the cases you're facing.
Very simply, just wrap the component you want to center with position : absolute, while letting the other two with justify-content : space-between, like so :
CSS:
.container {
display: flex;
justify-content: space-between;
align-items: center;
background-color: lightgray;
}
.middle {
position: absolute;
margin-left: auto;
margin-right: auto;
/* You should adapt percentages here if you have a background ; else, left: 0 and right: 0 should do the trick */
left: 40%;
right: 40%;
text-align: center;
}
/* non-essential, copied from #Brian Morearty answer */
.element {
border: 1px solid #ccc;
background-color: lightgreen;
}
p {
margin: 5px;
padding: 5px;
}
<div class="container">
<p class="element">First block</p>
<p class="middle element">Middle block</p>
<p class="element">Third THICC blockkkkkkkkk</p>
</div>
Michael Benjamin has a decent answer but there is no reason it can't / shouldn't be simplified further:
.container {
display: flex;
}
.box {
flex: 1;
display: flex;
justify-content: center;
}
.box:first-child { justify-content: left; }
.box:last-child { justify-content: right; }
And html
<div class="container">
<div class="box">short text</div>
<div class="box">centered tex</div>
<div class="box">loooooooooooooooong text</div>
</div>
I'm using flexbox to align my child elements. What I'd like to do is center one element and leave the other aligned to the very left. Normally I would just set the left element using margin-right: auto. The problem is that pushes the center element off center. Is this possible without using absolute positioning?
HTML & CSS
#parent {
align-items: center;
border: 1px solid black;
display: flex;
justify-content: center;
margin: 0 auto;
width: 500px;
}
#left {
margin-right: auto;
}
#center {
margin: auto;
}
<div id="parent">
<span id="left">Left</span>
<span id="center">Center</span>
</div>
Add third empty element:
<div class="parent">
<div class="left">Left</div>
<div class="center">Center</div>
<div class="right"></div>
</div>
And the following style:
.parent {
display: flex;
}
.left, .right {
flex: 1;
}
Only left and right are set to grow and thanks to the facts that...
there are only two growing elements (doesn't matter if empty) and
that both get same widths (they'll evenly distribute the available space)
...center element will always be perfectly centered.
This is much better than accepted answer in my opinion because you do not have to copy left content to right and hide it to get same width for both sides, it just magically happens (flexbox is magical).
In action:
.parent {
display: flex;
}
.left,
.right {
flex: 1;
}
/* Styles for demonstration */
.parent {
padding: 5px;
border: 2px solid #000;
}
.left,
.right {
padding: 3px;
border: 2px solid red;
}
.center {
margin: 0 3px;
padding: 3px;
border: 2px solid blue;
}
<div class="parent">
<div class="left">Left</div>
<div class="center">Center</div>
<div class="right"></div>
</div>
EDIT: See Solo's answer below, it is the better solution.
The idea behind flexbox is to provide a framework for easily aligning elements with variable dimensions within a container. As such, it makes little sense to provide a layout where the width of one element is totally ignored. In essence, that is exactly what absolute positioning is for, as it takes the element out of the normal flow.
As far as I know, there is no nice way of doing this without using position: absolute;, so I would suggest using it... but If you REALLY don't want to, or can't use absolute positioning then I suppose you could use one of the following workarounds.
If you know the exact width of the "Left" div, then you could change justify-content to flex-start (left) and then align the "Center" div like this:
#center {
position: relative;
margin: auto;
left: -{half width of left div}px;
}
If you do not know the width, then you could duplicate "Left" on the right side, use justify-content: space-between;, and hide the new right element:
Just to be clear, this is really, really ugly... better to use absolute positioning than to duplicate content. :-)
#parent {
align-items: center;
border: 1px solid black;
display: flex;
justify-content: space-between;
margin: 0 auto;
width: 500px;
}
#right {
opacity: 0;
}
<div id="parent">
<span id="left">Left</span>
<span id="center">Center</span>
<span id="right">Left</span>
</div>
.parent {
display: flex;
}
.left {
flex: 1;
}
.parent::after {
flex: 1;
content: '';
}
<div class="parent">
<div class="left">Left</div>
<div>Center</div>
</div>
I have another solution. In my opinion, Adding an empty block to the center element is fine but code-wise it bit ugly.
Since this is 4 years old I figured I'd update this with a much easier CSS Grid solution.
#parent {
display: grid;
grid-template-columns: repeat(3, 1fr);
border: 1px solid black;
margin: 0 auto;
width: 500px;
}
#center {
text-align: center;
}
<div id="parent">
<span id="left">Left</span>
<span id="center">Center</span>
</div>
If you don't want to rely on positioning, the only way I've found that makes it truly centered is to use a combination of auto margin and negative margin prevent the centered element to getting pushed over by the left aligned element. This requires that you know the exact width of the left aligned element though.
.container {
height: 100px;
border: solid 10px skyblue;
display: flex;
justify-content: center;
}
.block {
width: 120px;
background: tomato;
}
.justify-start {
margin-right: auto;
}
.justify-center {
margin-right: auto;
margin-left: -120px;
}
<div class="container">
<div class="block justify-start"></div>
<div class="block justify-center"></div>
</div>
As far as I know this is possible with the following code.
https://jsfiddle.net/u5gonp0a/
.box {
display: flex;
justify-content: center;
background-color: green;
text-align: left;
}
.left {
padding: 10px;
background-color: pink;
}
.center {
padding: 10px;
background-color: yellow;
margin: 0 auto;
}
<div class="box">
<div class="left">left</div>
<div class="center">center</div>
</div>
Try this no hacks :)
CSS
.container{
width: 500px;
margin: 0 auto;
}
.box{
display: flex;
align-items: center;/* just in case*/
justify-content: space-between;
}
.box p:nth-child(2){
text-align: center;
background-color: lime;
flex: 1 1 0px;
}
HTML
<div class="container">
<div class="box">
<p>One</p>
<p>Two</p>
</div>
</div>
http://codepen.io/whisher/pen/XpGaEZ
If you have a grid system you can use it to do what you want without "extra" css.
Below with bootstrap (V 4.X)
Note: It uses flex under the hood
<div class="row">
<div class="col text-left">left</col>
<div class="col text-center">center</col>
<div class="col text-right">right</col>
</div>
Doc bootstrap: https://getbootstrap.com/docs/4.6/layout/grid/
Et voilà ! :)
Solution 1: give 50% width to center element and use justify-content:space-between
#parent {
display: flex;
justify-content: space-between;
}
#center {
flex-basis: 50%;
}
<div id="parent">
<span id="left">Left</span>
<span id="center">Center</span>
</div>
Solution 2: Add one dummy element and hide it.
#parent {
display: flex;
justify-content: space-between;
}
#right {
visibility:hidden;
}
<div id="parent">
<span id="left">Left</span>
<span id="center">Center</span>
<span id="right">Right</span>
</div>
I'm using flexbox to align my child elements. What I'd like to do is center one element and leave the other aligned to the very left. Normally I would just set the left element using margin-right: auto. The problem is that pushes the center element off center. Is this possible without using absolute positioning?
HTML & CSS
#parent {
align-items: center;
border: 1px solid black;
display: flex;
justify-content: center;
margin: 0 auto;
width: 500px;
}
#left {
margin-right: auto;
}
#center {
margin: auto;
}
<div id="parent">
<span id="left">Left</span>
<span id="center">Center</span>
</div>
Add third empty element:
<div class="parent">
<div class="left">Left</div>
<div class="center">Center</div>
<div class="right"></div>
</div>
And the following style:
.parent {
display: flex;
}
.left, .right {
flex: 1;
}
Only left and right are set to grow and thanks to the facts that...
there are only two growing elements (doesn't matter if empty) and
that both get same widths (they'll evenly distribute the available space)
...center element will always be perfectly centered.
This is much better than accepted answer in my opinion because you do not have to copy left content to right and hide it to get same width for both sides, it just magically happens (flexbox is magical).
In action:
.parent {
display: flex;
}
.left,
.right {
flex: 1;
}
/* Styles for demonstration */
.parent {
padding: 5px;
border: 2px solid #000;
}
.left,
.right {
padding: 3px;
border: 2px solid red;
}
.center {
margin: 0 3px;
padding: 3px;
border: 2px solid blue;
}
<div class="parent">
<div class="left">Left</div>
<div class="center">Center</div>
<div class="right"></div>
</div>
EDIT: See Solo's answer below, it is the better solution.
The idea behind flexbox is to provide a framework for easily aligning elements with variable dimensions within a container. As such, it makes little sense to provide a layout where the width of one element is totally ignored. In essence, that is exactly what absolute positioning is for, as it takes the element out of the normal flow.
As far as I know, there is no nice way of doing this without using position: absolute;, so I would suggest using it... but If you REALLY don't want to, or can't use absolute positioning then I suppose you could use one of the following workarounds.
If you know the exact width of the "Left" div, then you could change justify-content to flex-start (left) and then align the "Center" div like this:
#center {
position: relative;
margin: auto;
left: -{half width of left div}px;
}
If you do not know the width, then you could duplicate "Left" on the right side, use justify-content: space-between;, and hide the new right element:
Just to be clear, this is really, really ugly... better to use absolute positioning than to duplicate content. :-)
#parent {
align-items: center;
border: 1px solid black;
display: flex;
justify-content: space-between;
margin: 0 auto;
width: 500px;
}
#right {
opacity: 0;
}
<div id="parent">
<span id="left">Left</span>
<span id="center">Center</span>
<span id="right">Left</span>
</div>
.parent {
display: flex;
}
.left {
flex: 1;
}
.parent::after {
flex: 1;
content: '';
}
<div class="parent">
<div class="left">Left</div>
<div>Center</div>
</div>
I have another solution. In my opinion, Adding an empty block to the center element is fine but code-wise it bit ugly.
Since this is 4 years old I figured I'd update this with a much easier CSS Grid solution.
#parent {
display: grid;
grid-template-columns: repeat(3, 1fr);
border: 1px solid black;
margin: 0 auto;
width: 500px;
}
#center {
text-align: center;
}
<div id="parent">
<span id="left">Left</span>
<span id="center">Center</span>
</div>
If you don't want to rely on positioning, the only way I've found that makes it truly centered is to use a combination of auto margin and negative margin prevent the centered element to getting pushed over by the left aligned element. This requires that you know the exact width of the left aligned element though.
.container {
height: 100px;
border: solid 10px skyblue;
display: flex;
justify-content: center;
}
.block {
width: 120px;
background: tomato;
}
.justify-start {
margin-right: auto;
}
.justify-center {
margin-right: auto;
margin-left: -120px;
}
<div class="container">
<div class="block justify-start"></div>
<div class="block justify-center"></div>
</div>
As far as I know this is possible with the following code.
https://jsfiddle.net/u5gonp0a/
.box {
display: flex;
justify-content: center;
background-color: green;
text-align: left;
}
.left {
padding: 10px;
background-color: pink;
}
.center {
padding: 10px;
background-color: yellow;
margin: 0 auto;
}
<div class="box">
<div class="left">left</div>
<div class="center">center</div>
</div>
Try this no hacks :)
CSS
.container{
width: 500px;
margin: 0 auto;
}
.box{
display: flex;
align-items: center;/* just in case*/
justify-content: space-between;
}
.box p:nth-child(2){
text-align: center;
background-color: lime;
flex: 1 1 0px;
}
HTML
<div class="container">
<div class="box">
<p>One</p>
<p>Two</p>
</div>
</div>
http://codepen.io/whisher/pen/XpGaEZ
If you have a grid system you can use it to do what you want without "extra" css.
Below with bootstrap (V 4.X)
Note: It uses flex under the hood
<div class="row">
<div class="col text-left">left</col>
<div class="col text-center">center</col>
<div class="col text-right">right</col>
</div>
Doc bootstrap: https://getbootstrap.com/docs/4.6/layout/grid/
Et voilà ! :)
Solution 1: give 50% width to center element and use justify-content:space-between
#parent {
display: flex;
justify-content: space-between;
}
#center {
flex-basis: 50%;
}
<div id="parent">
<span id="left">Left</span>
<span id="center">Center</span>
</div>
Solution 2: Add one dummy element and hide it.
#parent {
display: flex;
justify-content: space-between;
}
#right {
visibility:hidden;
}
<div id="parent">
<span id="left">Left</span>
<span id="center">Center</span>
<span id="right">Right</span>
</div>
I'm try to accomplish something rather basic but I failed to succeed, so far.
I have an image and a title which should be displayed in the center of the parent selector (div). Unfortunately I don't know how to properly align them when I center both the logo and the text.
Html:
<div class="content">
<div class="header">
<img src="path/to/image">
<span>Hey this is my title</span>
</div>
</div>
CSS:
.header{
text-align: center;
width: 100%;
height: 40px;
}
.header img{
height: 40px;
width: auto;
display: inline-block;
}
.header span{
display: inline-block;
}
As you can see the logo has a static width/height while the text can have a variable height.
The code above makes the styling like the example below:
Can anyone tell me how to do this? I basically want several divs next to eachother, but all aligned in the center.
Are you looking for vertical-align: middle to center vertically?
.header {
text-align: center;
width: 100%;
height: 40px;
}
.header img {
height: 40px;
width: auto;
display: inline-block;
vertical-align: middle;
}
.header span {
display: inline-block;
vertical-align: middle;
background: #eef;
}
<div class="content">
<div class="header">
<img src="//placehold.it/40?text=Logo" />
<span>Hey this is my title</span>
</div>
</div>
Note: I have added background for better visibility of the borders.
A better explanation:
Use flexbox. I don't know if I correctly got that you want your items to be centered both horizontally and vertically inside header. If not just delete the justify-content part.
.header {
display: flex;
flex-direction: row;
align-items: center;
justify-content: center;
}
More info about flexbox: https://css-tricks.com/snippets/css/a-guide-to-flexbox/