How to center vertical inside header? - html

Question

I am creating a responsive header. I got two columns and want the button in the right column to be vertical centered.
I know I can center items using top: 50%; margin-top: -xy px, and my button although got a fixed height: 40px.
To use this method I wrapped my button inside a div {position: relative}. This does not work, as the div does not stretch its own height.
How can I solve this with css? First I thought about Flexbox, but it has quite some lack of browser compatibility.
JSFIDDLE DEMO

Answer 1

You can greatly simplify your code - remove floats, (use display: inline-block instead), remove the .relative div, etc.
Working Fiddle
html, body {
margin: 0;
padding: 0;
font-size: 16px;
}
header {
background: red;
color: #fff;
padding: 0.5em;
}
header h1 {
font-size: 2em;
margin: 0 0 0.2em;
}
header p {
margin: 0;
}
header button {
height: 40px;
width: 70px;
}
.column-left {
display:inline-block;
width: 70%;
vertical-align: middle;
}
.column-right {
width: 29%;
text-align: right;
display: inline-block;
vertical-align: middle;
height: 100%;
}
/* responsive */
#media (min-width: 200px) {
header {
padding: 1em;
}
}
#media (min-width: 300px) {
header {
padding: 1.5em;
}
}
#media (min-width: 400px) {
header {
padding: 2em;
}
}
#media (min-width: 500px) {
header {
padding: 2.5em;
}
}
#media (min-width: 600px) {
header {
padding: 3em;
}
}
/* helpers */
.clearfix:after {
content: ".";
clear: both;
display: block;
visibility: hidden;
height: 0px;
}

Answer 2

Remove this div with position: relative and add position: relative to your header tag. You can even delete your column-right div.
Another solution:
header button {
top: 50%;
transform: translateY(-50%); // instead of negative margin-top (it is useful when your button has dynamic height, supports IE9+ with -ms- prefix)
}
JSFIDDLE