How to make top navigation vertically center with the logo? - html

Question

I am trying to make the top menu vertically center without assigning value like margin-top: 50px; because some of my friends say this is not the ideal approach.
/* Nav Section */
.nav {
width: 100%;
padding: 0;
margin: 0;
}
.nav-contain {
width: 1100px;
margin: 0 auto;
padding: 0;
overflow: hidden;
}
.logo {
z-index: 10;
display: inline-block;
background: #2980B9;
padding: 65px 50px 35px 45px;
font-size: 36px;
line-height: 42px;
color: #fff;
text-align: center;
}
.logo a {
color: #FFFFFF;
text-decoration: none;
}
#medical {
display: block;
text-transform: uppercase;
}
.menu {
padding: 0;
margin: 0;
float: right;
display: table-cell;
position: relative;
}
.menu a {
text-decoration: none;
color: #505050;
font-weight: bold;
}
.menu ul {
padding: 0;
margin: 0;
float: left;
top: 50%;
}
.menu ul ul {
padding: 0;
margin: 0;
}
.menu ul li {
float: left;
display: block;
margin-left: 45px;
}
.menu ul ul {
position: absolute;
left: -999px;
}
.menu ul li:hover ul {
left: auto;
}
.menu ul li ul li {
margin-left: 0;
float: none;
margin-top: 15px;
}
<div class="nav">
<div class="nav-contain">
<div class="logo">
<span id="medical">Medical</span><span id="company"> Company</span>
</div>
<!-- Logo -->
<div class="menu">
<ul>
<li>Home</li>
<li>About
<ul class="dropdown">
<li>Sample</li>
<li>Sample</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Gallery</li>
<li>Prices</li>
<li>Contact</li>
</ul>
</div>
<!-- Menu -->
</div>
<!-- Nav Contain -->
</div>
<!-- Nav -->

Answer 1

Remove float:right on .menu, and set both .logo and .menu to this:
.logo, .menu {
display: inline-block;
vertical-align: middle;
}
If you need .menu to stay on far right side, also add this:
.nav-contain {
text-align: justify;
}
.nav-contain:after{
content: '';
display: inline-block;
width: 100%;
}
How it works:
Set text-align: justify; will line up the two inner inline blocks to the left and right edges of the container.
Create an invisible 100% width element by using :after or :before pseudo-element stretching the box to occupy the entire space of the container. Otherwise inline element occupies only the space bounded by the tags that define the inline element.

Answer 2

One easy way to center here is to use Flexbox:
.nav-contain {
/* what is already there */
display: flex;
align-items: center;
}
Beware of browser support (check caniuse.com to see if the compatibility level is acceptable to you).
This is superior to the margin-top solution as it ensures that you won't have to manually change that 50px each time the size of the image or anything else in the navbar changes.

Answer 3

Try:
.menu > ul > li {
min-height:50px;
display: table;
}
.menu > ul > li > a {
display: table-cell;
vertical-align: middle;
}
http://jsfiddle.net/rawat/4h05rq2s/

Answer 4

Since your navbar remains the same height the whole time, I suggest you give the .nav-contain the following code:
.nav-contain {
width: 1100px;
margin: 0 auto;
line-height: 184px;
padding: 0;
overflow: hidden;
}
Note the line-height.
This will, once you smaller the available width of your device, result in a probably not so nice looking huge navigation bar. For this, I suggest media queries.