I'm new to HTML and I'm trying to learn how to use forms.
The biggest issue I am having so far is aligning the forms. Here is an example of my current HTML file:
<form>
First Name:<input type="text" name="first"><br />
Last Name:<input type="text" name="last"><br />
Email:<input type="text" name="email"><br />
</form>
The problem with this is, the field box after 'Email' is drastically different in terms of spacing compared to first, and last name. What is the 'proper' way to make it so that they 'line-up' essentially?
I am trying to practice good form and syntax...a lot of people might do this with CSS I am not sure, I have only learned the very basics of HTML so far.
The accepted answer (setting an explicit width in pixels) makes it hard to make changes, and breaks when your users use a different font size. Using CSS tables, on the other hand, works great:
form { display: table; }
p { display: table-row; }
label { display: table-cell; }
input { display: table-cell; }
<form>
<p>
<label for="a">Short label:</label>
<input id="a" type="text">
</p>
<p>
<label for="b">Very very very long label:</label>
<input id="b" type="text">
</p>
</form>
Here's a JSFiddle: http://jsfiddle.net/DaS39/1/
And if you need the labels right-aligned, just add text-align: right to the labels: http://jsfiddle.net/DaS39/
EDIT: One more quick note: CSS tables also let you play with columns: for example, if you want to make the input fields take as much space as possible, you can add the following in your form
<div style="display: table-column;"></div>
<div style="display: table-column; width:100%;"></div>
you may want to add white-space: nowrap to the labels in that case.
Another example, this uses CSS, I simply put the form in a div with the container class. And specified that input elements contained within are to be 100% of the container width and not have any elements on either side.
.container {
width: 500px;
clear: both;
}
.container input {
width: 100%;
clear: both;
}
<html>
<head>
<title>Example form</title>
</head>
<body>
<div class="container">
<form>
<label>First Name</label>
<input type="text" name="first"><br />
<label>Last Name</label>
<input type="text" name="last"><br />
<label>Email</label>
<input type="text" name="email"><br />
</form>
</div>
</body>
</html>
A simple solution for you if you're new to HTML, is just to use a table to line everything up.
<form>
<table>
<tr>
<td align="right">First Name:</td>
<td align="left"><input type="text" name="first" /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="right">Last Name:</td>
<td align="left"><input type="text" name="last" /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="right">Email:</td>
<td align="left"><input type="text" name="email" /></td>
</tr>
</table>
</form>
I find it far easier to change the display of the labels to inline-block and set a width
label {
display: inline-block;
width: 100px;
text-align: right;
}
<form>
<label>First Name:</label><input type="text" name="first" /><br />
<label>Last Name:</label><input type="text" name="last" /><br />
<label>Email:</label><input type="text" name="email" /><br />
</form>
You should use a table. As a matter of logical structure the data is tabular: this is why you want it to align, because you want to show that the labels are not related solely to their input boxes but also to each other, in a two-dimensional structure.
[consider what you would do if you had string or numeric values to display instead of input boxes.]
For this, I prefer to keep a correct HTML semantic, and to use a CSS simple as possible.
Something like this would do the job :
label{
display: block;
float: left;
width : 120px;
}
One drawback however : you might have to pick the right label width for each form, and this is not easy if your labels can be dynamic (I18N labels for instance).
using css
.containerdiv label {
float:left;
width:25%;
text-align:right;
margin-right:5px; /* optional */
}
.containerdiv input {
float:left;
width:65%;
}
this give you something like:
label1 |input box |
another label |another input box |
I'm a big fan of using definition lists.
They're easy to style using CSS, and they avoid the stigma of using tables for layout.
<dl>
<dt>Username:</dt>
<dd><input type="text" name="username" /></dd>
<dt>Password:</dt>
<dd><input type="password" name="password" /></dd>
</dl>
It also can be done using CSS and without tables or floats or fixed lengths by changing the content direction to rtl and then back to ltr, but the labels must go after each input.
To avoid this markup reordering, just set the label's text in a data-* attribute and show it using an ::after pseudo-element. I think it becomes much clearer.
Here is an example setting the label's text in a custom attribute called data-text and showing them using the ::after pseudo-element, so we don't mess with markup while changing direction to rtl and ltr :
form
{
display: inline-block;
background-color: gold;
padding: 6px;
}
label{
display: block;
direction: rtl;
}
input{
direction: ltr;
}
label::after{
content: attr(data-text);
}
<form>
<label data-text="First Name">
<input type="text" />
</label>
<label data-text="Last Name">
<input type="text" />
</label>
<label data-text="E-mail">
<input type="text" />
</label>
</form>
Clément's answer is by far the best. Here's a somewhat improved answer, showing different possible alignments, including left-center-right aligned buttons:
label {
padding-right: 8px;
}
.FAligned,
.FAlignIn {
display: table;
}
.FAlignIn {
width: 100%;
}
.FRLeft,
.FRRight,
.FRCenter {
display: table-row;
white-space: nowrap;
}
.FCLeft,
.FCRight,
.FCCenter {
display: table-cell;
}
.FRLeft,
.FCLeft,
.FILeft {
text-align: left;
}
.FRRight,
.FCRight,
.FIRight {
text-align: right;
}
.FRCenter,
.FCCenter,
.FICenter {
text-align: center;
}
<form class="FAligned">
<div class="FRLeft">
<p class="FRLeft">
<label for="Input0" class="FCLeft">Left:</label>
<input id="Input0" type="text" size="30" placeholder="Left Left Left" class="FILeft" />
</p>
<p class="FRLeft">
<label for="Input1" class="FCRight">Left Right Left:</label>
<input id="Input1" type="text" size="30" placeholder="Left Right Left" class="FILeft" />
</p>
<p class="FRRight">
<label for="Input2" class="FCLeft">Right Left Left:</label>
<input id="Input2" type="text" size="30" placeholder="Right Left Left" class="FILeft" />
</p>
<p class="FRRight">
<label for="Input3" class="FCRight">Right Right Left:</label>
<input id="Input3" type="text" size="30" placeholder="Right Right Left" class="FILeft" />
</p>
<p class="FRLeft">
<label for="Input4" class="FCLeft">Left Left Right:</label>
<input id="Input4" type="text" size="30" placeholder="Left Left Right" class="FIRight" />
</p>
<p class="FRLeft">
<label for="Input5" class="FCRight">Left Right Right:</label>
<input id="Input5" type="text" size="30" placeholder="Left Right Right" class="FIRight" />
</p>
<p class="FRRight">
<label for="Input6" class="FCLeft">Right Left Right:</label>
<input id="Input6" type="text" size="30" placeholder="Right Left Right" class="FIRight" />
</p>
<p class="FRRight">
<label for="Input7" class="FCRight">Right:</label>
<input id="Input7" type="text" size="30" placeholder="Right Right Right" class="FIRight" />
</p>
<p class="FRCenter">
<label for="Input8" class="FCCenter">And centralised is also possible:</label>
<input id="Input8" type="text" size="60" placeholder="Center in the centre" class="FICenter" />
</p>
</div>
<div class="FAlignIn">
<div class="FRCenter">
<div class="FCLeft"><button type="button">Button on the Left</button></div>
<div class="FCCenter"><button type="button">Button on the Centre</button></div>
<div class="FCRight"><button type="button">Button on the Right</button></div>
</div>
</div>
</form>
I added some padding on the right of all labels (padding-right:8px) just to make the example slight less horrible looking, but that should be done more carefully in a real project (adding padding to all other elements would also be a good idea).
The traditional method is to use a table.
However, many would argue that tables are restricting and prefer CSS. The benefit of using CSS is that you could use various elements. From divs, ordered and un-ordered list, you could accomplish the same layout.
In the end, you'll want to use what you're most comfortable with.
Hint: Tables are easy to get started with.
Example:
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
First Name:
</td>
<td>
<input type="text" name="first">
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
Last Name:
</td>
<td>
<input type="text" name="last">
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
I know this has already been answered, but I found a new way to align them nicely - with an extra benefit - see http://www.gargan.org/en/Web_Development/Form_Layout_with_CSS/
basically you use the label element around the input and align using that and then with css you simply align:
label {
display: block;
position: relative;
}
label span {
font-weight: bold;
position: absolute;
left: 3px;
}
label input,
label textarea,
label select {
margin-left: 120px;
}
<label><span>Name</span> <input /></label>
<label><span>E-Mail</span> <input /></label>
<label><span>Comment</span> <textarea></textarea></label>
you do not need any messy br lying around for linebreaks - meaning you can quickly accomplish a multi-column layout dynamically
the whole line is click-able. Especially for checkboxes this is a huge help.
Dynamically showing/hiding form lines is easy (you just search for the input and hide its parent -> the label)
you can assign classes to the whole label making it show error input much clearer (not only around the input field)
Well for the very basics you can try aligning them in the table. However the use of table is bad for layout since table is meant for contents.
What you can use is CSS floating techniques.
.styleform label{float:left;}
.styleform input{margin-left:200px;} /* this gives space for the label on the left */
.styleform .clear{clear:both;} /* prevent elements from stacking weirdly */
<div class="styleform">
<form>
<label>First Name:</label><input type="text" name="first" />
<div class="clear"></div>
<label>Last Name:</label><input type="text" name="first" />
<div class="clear"></div>
<label>Email:</label><input type="text" name="first" />
<div class="clear"></div>
</form>
</div>
An elaborate article I wrote can be found answering the question of IE7 float problem: IE7 float right problems
Insert input tags inside an unordered lists.Make the style-type none.
Here's an example.
<ul>
Input1
<li> <input type="text" />
Input2
<li> <input type="text" />
<ul/>
Worked for me !
The CSS I used to solve this problem, similar to Gjaa but styled better
It's very simple, and I'm just beginning, but it worked quite nicely
Here is my CSS and HTML, used specifically for a simple registration form with no php code
p {
text-align: center;
}
.styleform label {
float: left;
width: 40%;
text-align: right;
}
.styleform input {
float: left;
width: 30%;
}
<form id="registration">
<h1>Register</h1>
<div class="styleform">
<fieldset id="inputs">
<p><label>Name:</label>
<input id="name" type="text" placeholder="Name" autofocus required>
</p>
<p><label>Email:</label>
<input id="email" type="text" placeholder="Email Address" required>
</p>
<p><label>Username:</label>
<input id="username" type="text" placeholder="Username" autofocus required>
</p>
<p>
<label>Password:</label>
<input id="password" type="password" placeholder="Password" required>
</p>
</fieldset>
<fieldset id="actions">
</fieldset>
</div>
<p>
<input type="submit" id="submit" value="Register">
</p>
</form>
<form>
<div>
<label for='username'>UserName</label>
<input type='text' name='username' id='username' value=''>
</div>
</form>
In the CSS you have to declare both label and input as display: inline-block and give width according to your requirements. Hope this will help you. :)
Simply add
<form align="center ></from>
Just put align in opening tag.
I have a simple form like this:
<form method="post" action="/registration">
<label for="alias">Alias:</label>
<input type="text" name="alias" id="alias">
<br>
<label for="email">E-mail:</label>
<input type="text" name="email" id="email">
<br>
<input type="button" value="registger">
</form>
It works fine, but the I have found out that <br> shouldn't be used for this purpose, as it is only intended to be used with text.
If I remove the <br>, then everything will be rendered on a single line, which I do not want.
What is the correct, most clean way to display name-input pairs in a form with CSS, like this:
Alias: [__field__]
E-mail: [__field__]
[SUBMIT BUTTON]
I'd use divs, which will put the labels and inputs into their own block.
<form method="post" action="/registration">
<div>
<label for="alias">Alias:</label>
<input type="text" name="alias" id="alias">
</div>
<div>
<label for="email">E-mail:</label>
<input type="text" name="email" id="email">
</div>
<input type="button" value="registger">
</form>
I typically would put the input inside of the label (so when you click the label, it focuses the input), and then tell the label to be display: block;.
So,
<form method="post" action="/registration">
<label for="alias">
Alias: <input type="text" name="alias" id="alias">
</label>
<label for="email">
E-mail: <input type="text" name="email" id="email">
</label>
<input type="button" value="registger">
</form>
Then do:
label[for], // just selects labels that have the "for" attribute.
input[type="button"] {
display: block;
// And a bottom margin for good measure :)
margin: 0 0 10px; // shorthand for margin-bottom
}
And that should get you what you want.
You could use divs with corresponding CSS:
.myFrm {
width: 250px;
}
input[type=text] {
float: right;
}
.form-group {
margin-bottom: 10px;
}
.form-group::after {
content: "";
clear: both;
display: table;
}
<form method="post" action="/registration">
<div class="myFrm">
<div class="form-group">
<label for="alias">Alias:</label>
<input type="text" name="alias" id="alias">
</div>
<div class="form-group">
<label for="email">E-mail:</label>
<input type="text" name="email" id="email">
</div>
</div>
<input type="button" value="registger">
</form>
I would just use a bit of css to do the trick. Give each of the labels a display:block;
label {
display: block;
}
You can use container divs around the label and input to group them or else make sure "display: block" is added to the label and input elements.
If you need the label to the left of the input then wrap both with a container div and to give you more control on the positioning you could float the label and input to the left or use flexbox.
You ask:
What is the correct, most clean way to display name-input pairs in a
form with CSS
I interpret your question to be related to matters of performance, code efficiency and maintainability. Since just changing the HTML structure does not address responsiveness in different view-ports, adding bits of CSS may have render blocking features but it does nevertheless makes your application ready for mobile responsiveness. This is how I see it:
form {
display: inline-block;
}
label {
margin: 10px;
font-weight: 600;
}
input{
position: absolute;
left: 15%;
}
input[type=button]{
top: 4%;
}
Note that for mobile viewports you may want to adjust the relative measures with media queries. So the question here is not about writing less code but the main requirements of the application.
Get a plunk for this here
What you have there is a list.
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn/HTML/Introduction_to_HTML/HTML_text_fundamentals#Lists
http://reisio.com/temp/form1.html
I am trying to get a better handle on CSS positioning by using only basic positioning properties. The goal is to get an HTML5 input and it's associated label to line up horizontally, one pair on each row, with the label on the left and input on the right. Essentially there will appear to be two columns, one for labels and the other for inputs.
I also want each column to be left-justified, which is where I'm currently stuck.
Using the CSS below I can get the two-column look I want, however none of the input elements are justified correctly.
If I set the position of the input elements to absolut, however (the thinking that adjusting the left property will align each element the same pixel length from the left containing edge), each element justifies properly, however all on the same row.
Any hints as to how to accomplish the two-column/left-justified layout w/o using tables or grid-column?
Fiddle: http://jsfiddle.net/fjwy3Lov/
CSS
/*Styles for basic form label and input elements*/
.basicForm{
margin: 10px 0 10px 10px;
}
.basicForm label{
float:left;
clear:left;
margin:inherit;
}
.basicForm input{
position:relative;
left:100px;
float:left;
margin: inherit;
}
HTML
<!DOCTYPE html>
<head>
<title>Form Validation Demo</title>
<link href="form.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />
</head>
<body>
<h1>HTML 5 Input Types and Form Validation</h1>
<form class="basicForm">
<label for="UserName">User Name:</label>
<input type="text" id="UserName" required="required">
<label for="Password">Password:</label>
<input type="password" id="Password" required="required" />
<label for="UserEmail">Email:</label>
<input type="email" id="UserEmail">
<label for="PhoneNumber">Phone Number:</label>
<input type="tel" id="PhoneNumber">
<label for="Website">Homepage:</label>
<input type="url" id="Website">
<label for="Quantity">Quantity:</label>
<input type="number" id="Quantity" min="1" max="10" step="1" pattern="/\d/">
<label for="StartDate">Start Date:</label>
<input type="date" id="StartDate" min="2000-01-02" max="2016-01-01">
<label for="FavColor">Favorite Color:</label>
<input type="color" id="FavColor">
<label for="CurrentMonth">Current Month:</label>
<input type="month" id="CurrentMonth">
<label for="CurrentWeek">Current Week:</label>
<input type="week" id="CurrentWeek">
<label for="CurrentTime">Current Time:</label>
<input type="time" id="CurrentTime">
<input type="button" id="submit" value="submit">
</form>
</body>
</html>
This happens because as per your CSS all input elements are 150px to the left of the corresponding label but those are not the same width, so your inputs are not aligned.
You need to make all labels the same width:
.basicForm label{
float:left;
clear:left;
min-width:150px;
}
.basicForm input{
float:left;
}
Instead of min-width you could also use width, whichever you prefer.
If you insist on using absolute positioning, you could wrap each label/input pair in a div so you don't need to position each element individually, check this example:
.input-group {
position: relative;
height:2em;
}
.input-group label {
position: absolute;
top: 0;
left: 0;
}
.input-group input {
position: absolute;
top: 0;
left: 100px;
}
<div class="input-group">
<label>Label 1</label>
<input type="text">
</div>
<div class="input-group">
<label>longer Label</label>
<input type="text">
</div>
<div class="input-group">
<label>short</label>
<input type="text">
</div>
I am trying to create a form to create a new user for my website. I would like to have the form fields horizontally aligned, to make it look nicer. I have tried doing this using some simple CSS, but I cannot get it to work*.
<html>
<form name="newUserForm" method="post" action="createUserScript.php">
<p>Username: <input name="username" type="text" autofocus class="formField"> </p>
<p>E-mail: <input name="email" type="text" class="formField"> </p>
<p>Password: <input name="password" type="text" class="formField"> </p>
<p>Repeat password: <input name="passwordRepeat" type="text" class="formField"> </p>
<p>Administrator: <input type="checkbox" name="isAdmin" class="formField"> </p>
</form>
</html>
And the CSS for the .formField class is
.formField {
margin-left: 150px;
width: 200px;
}
The whole thing is located in a <div> with the following properties (I dont know if this has anything to say)
#content {
padding: 10px;
margin-left: 250px;
font-family: arial;
}
Currently it seems to be making the margin from where the text ends, but I am not sure. What am I missing here?
*I could probably find some crazy workaround to make it work, but I cannot think of anything that seems reasonable.
Another thing you can do is use table alignment. That way you don't have to pick a width:
<form>
<p><label>Username:</label><input>
<p><label>Password:</label><input>
<p><label>Shoe size:</label><input>
<p><label>Favorite color:</label><input>
</form>
CSS:
form {
display: table;
}
form > p {
display: table-row;
}
form > p > label, form > p > input {
display: table-cell;
}
label {
font-weight: bold;
font-family: sans-serif;
text-align: right;
padding: 0 5px 0 5px;
}
Here's a CodePen. You can also do this with a <ul> if you've got some name/value pairs outside of a form:
<ul class=pairs>
<li><label>Whatever:</label><p>Some stuff ...
<li><label>Something Else:</label><p>More stuff ...
</ul>
The <ul> would be the table, each <li> is a row, and the <label> and <p> elements are the cells.
This is what I'd do (using labels):
<html>
<style type="text/css">
label{display:block; float:left; width:130px;}
.formFeild{width:200px;}
p{clear:both; margin-bottom:5px;}
</style>
<form name="newUserForm" method="post" action="createUserScript.php">
<p><label>Username:</label><input name="username" type="text" autofocus class="formField"> </p>
<p><label>E-mail:</label><input name="email" type="text" class="formField"> </p>
<p><label>Password:</label><input name="password" type="text" class="formField"> </p>
<p><label>Repeat password:</label><input name="passwordRepeat" type="text" class="formField"> </p>
<p><label>Administrator:</label><input type="checkbox" name="isAdmin" class="formField"> </p>
</form>
</html>
I have a very simple HTML layout I'm trying to implement. It is something like this:
A Label: [Input ]
Another Label: [Input ]
The Last Label: [Input ]
In the past, I'd just go ahead and use a table for this. Otherwise, it's a pain getting the input controls to line up correctly.
Can anyone suggest a simple and reliable way to implement this layout without using a table?
Thanks.
You can use display: inline-block
<style type="text/css">
label { display: inline-block; width: 200px; }
ul { list-style: none; }
</style>
<ul>
<li><label for="input1">A Label:</label> <input type="text" name="input1" id="input1"></li>
<li><label for="input2">Another Label:</label> <input type="text" name="input2" id="input2"></li>
<li><label for="input3">The Last Label:</label> <input type="text" name="input3" id="input3"></li>
</ul>
However, in order for this to line up vertically, you either have to wrap the label-input pairs in another tag (such as <li> or <div>) or put linebreaks after the inputs.
<style>
label { width: 200px; float:left; clear:left; }
input { float:left;}
</style>
<form>
<label for="fullname">Full Name:</label>
<input type="text" name="fullname" id="fullname">
<label for="email">Email Address:</label>
<input type="text" name="email" id="email">
</form>
With the added benefit that, if the horizontal space isn't sufficient, the inputs will wrap below the labels.
http://jsbin.com/anuziq (narrow down your browser window)
If you don't actually want them to wrap around, I suggest this approach:
<style>
label { white-space: nowrap; }
span { width: 200px; display: inline-block; }
</style>
<form>
<label>
<span>Full Name:</span>
<input type="text" name="fullname">
</label>
<label>
<span>Email Address:</span>
<input type="text" name="email">
</label>
</form>
From my experience, structuring the HTML like that usually allows for any layout you can possibly think of. Want the inputs always below the label? Use display:block on the span elements. Want the text to the right of the input? Just use float:right on the span.
Bonus here is that you don't need the for and id attributes to connect the label with the input. They're only really necessary, if you can't put the label right next to the input, like in 2 separate table cells.