dynamic width for h1 background - html

Question

My CSS:
h1 {
background-color: #f7953d;
color: #FFF;
width: 100%;
padding: 6px 0 6px 10px;
margin-bottom: 10px;
}
My HTML
<h1>Hello World</h1>
The background color is always stretched to 100% of the screen. How do I make the background color stop after "World" in the h1 tag, and not go all the way to the end of the screen?

Answer 1

H1 is by default a block element and so will span the full width of its parent container you want to make it an inline element (much like a span) in order for it to only be as wide as its contents.
There are 2 possible solutions dependent on your compatability needs
display:inline;
will achieve the effect your after however it does mean that whatever follows your H1 could appear on the same line.
display:inline-block;
Has the effect your after while still forcing anything following it to appear below the H1 the only downside to this is it can throw up some issues in IE<8 see quirksmode for more details

Answer 2

You can do this by adding display: inline-block; to the CSS for your <h1>. This will make it use only as much width as its contents and still respect the margin and padding you give it.

Answer 3

I would suggest something like this:
HTML:
<h1>Hello World</h1>
<div class="clear"></div>
<p>Elements after unafected by float</p>​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​
CSS:
h1 {
background-color: #f7953d;
color: #FFF;
padding: 6px 0 6px 10px;
margin-bottom: 10px;
float:left;
}
.clear {
clear:both;
}
This works consistently (unlike inline-block which isn't supported by all browsers).
An inline of the element is probably not what you want since you require padding.