Right align child div without expanding a parent with dynamic width - html

I've been having trouble finding this one.
I have a div that is centered in the body margin: 0 auto;.
It contains multiple divs. I want it to expand to the width of it's widest child width: auto;
The problem is I want to have one of the child div's aligned on the right, however this expands my parent to 100%. How would I accomplish this without a fixed width for the parent?

You could do what you are after by setting the wrapper div to inline-block, and setting text-align: center on its parent (instead of using margin: 0 auto;). Here is an example: http://jsfiddle.net/joshnh/6Ake5/
Here is the HTML:
<div class="wrapper">
<div class="foo"></div>
<div></div>
<div></div>
</div>
And the CSS:
body {
text-align: center;
}
div {
border: 1px solid red; /* To see what is going on */
}
.wrapper {
display: inline-block;
text-align: left; /* Resetting the text alignment */
vertical-align: top; /* Making sure inline-block element align to the top */
/* Inline-block fix for IE7 and below */
zoom: 1;
*display: inline;
}
.wrapper div {
float: left;
height: 200px; /* To see what is going on */
margin: 10px; /* To see what is going on */
width: 200px; /* To see what is going on */
}
.foo {
border-color: blue; /* To see what is going on */
float: right;
}​

Related

Two inline-block elements, each 50% wide, do not fit side by side in a single row

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>Width issue</title>
<style type="text/css">
body {
margin: 0;
}
#left {
width: 50%;
background: lightblue;
display: inline-block;
}
#right {
width: 50%;
background: orange;
display: inline-block;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<div id="left">Left</div>
<div id="right">Right</div>
</body>
</html>
JSFiddle: http://jsfiddle.net/5EcPK/
The above code is trying to place the #left div and the #right div, side by side, in a single row. But as you can see in the above JSFiddle URL, this is not the case.
I am able to resolve the issue reducing the width of one of the divs to 49%. See http://jsfiddle.net/mUKSC/ . But this is not an ideal solution because a small gap appears between the two divs.
Another way I am able to solve the problem is by floating both the divs. See http://jsfiddle.net/VptQm/ . This works fine.
But my original question remains. Why when both the divs are kept as inline-block elements, they do not fit side by side?
Update: as it's 2021, use flexbox or even better - CSS grid layout instead of inline-block.
When using inline-block elements, there will always be an whitespace issue between those elements (that space is about ~ 4px wide).
So, your two divs, which both have 50% width, plus that whitespace(~ 4px) is more than 100% in width, and so it breaks. Example of your problem:
body{
margin: 0; /* removing the default body margin */
}
div{
display: inline-block;
width: 50%;
}
.left{
background-color: aqua;
}
.right{
background-color: gold;
}
<div class="left">foo</div>
<div class="right">bar</div>
There is a few ways to fix that:
1. No space between those elements
body{
margin: 0; /* removing the default body margin */
}
div{
display: inline-block;
width: 50%;
}
.left{
background-color: aqua;
}
.right{
background-color: gold;
}
<div class="left">foo</div><div class="right">bar</div>
2. Using HTML comments
body{
margin: 0; /* removing the default body margin */
}
div{
display: inline-block;
width: 50%;
}
.left{
background-color: aqua;
}
.right{
background-color: gold;
}
<div class="left">foo</div><!--
--><div class="right">bar</div>
3. Set the parents font-size to 0, and then adding some value to inline-block elements
body{
margin: 0; /* removing the default body margin */
}
.parent{
font-size: 0; /* parent value */
}
.parent > div{
display: inline-block;
width: 50%;
font-size: 16px; /* some value */
}
.left{
background-color: aqua;
}
.right{
background-color: gold;
}
<div class="parent">
<div class="left">foo</div>
<div class="right">bar</div>
</div>
4. Using a negative margin between them (not preferable)
body{
margin: 0; /* removing the default body margin */
}
div{
display: inline-block;
width: 50%;
margin-right: -4px; /* negative margin */
}
.left{
background-color: aqua;
}
.right{
background-color: gold;
}
<div class="left">foo</div>
<div class="right">bar</div>
5. Dropping closing angle
body{
margin: 0; /* removing the default body margin */
}
div{
display: inline-block;
width: 50%;
}
.left{
background-color: aqua;
}
.right{
background-color: gold;
}
<div class="left">foo</div
><div class="right">bar</div>
<hr>
<div class="left">foo</div><div class="right">
bar</div>
6. Skipping certain HTML closing tags (thanks #thirtydot for the reference)
body{
margin: 0; /* removing the default body margin */
}
ul{
margin: 0; /* removing the default ul margin */
padding: 0; /* removing the default ul padding */
}
li{
display: inline-block;
width: 50%;
}
.left{
background-color: aqua;
}
.right{
background-color: gold;
}
<ul>
<li class="left">foo
<li class="right">bar
</ul>
References:
Fighting the Space Between Inline Block Elements on CSS Tricks
Remove Whitespace Between Inline-Block Elements by David Walsh
How to remove the space between inline-block elements?
As #MarcosPérezGude said, the best way is to use rem, and add some default value to font-size on the html tag (like in HTML5Boilerplate). Example:
html{
font-size: 1em;
}
.ib-parent{ /* ib -> inline-block */
font-size: 0;
}
.ib-child{
display: inline-block;
font-size: 1rem;
}
good answer in css3 is:
white-space: nowrap;
in parent node, and :
white-space: normal;
vertical-align: top;
in div (or other) at 50%
exemple : http://jsfiddle.net/YpTMh/19/
EDIT:
there is another way with :
font-size: 0;
for parent node and override it in child node
EDIT 2021 : personaly, I recommand use flexbox now : https://the-echoplex.net/flexyboxes/
It's because the whitespace between your two divs is being interpreted as a space. If you put your <div> tags in line as shown below the problem is corrected:
<div id="left"></div><div id="right"></div>
Because there is a space between the elements. If you remove all whitespace, they will fit.
<div id="left">Left</div><div id="right">Right</div>
Either make them block instead of inline-block. This will render divs ignoring spaces between them.
display:block;
or remove space between tags
<div id='left'></div><div id='right'></div>
or add
margin: -1en;
to one of the divs in order to mitigate space taken by single space rendered.
Please check below code:
body {
margin: 0;
}
#left {
width: 50%;
background: lightblue;
display: inline-block;
float:left;
}
#right {
width: 50%;
background: orange;
display: inline-block;
float:left;
}
<div id="left">Left</div>
<div id="right">Right</div>
It can be done by adding the css display:inline to the div that holds the inline elements.
While removing the white space using margin with a negative value it becomes necessary to add it to this particular element. As adding it to a class will affect places where this class has been used.
So it would be safer to use display:inline;
Flexbox example - this would be used for the parent class holding the two side by side elements.
.parentclass {
display: flex;
justify-content: center;
align-items: center;
}
Taken from Vertically centering a div inside another div
add float: left; to both div tags.
div {
float: left;
}

Using display inline-block columns move down

I am trying to use display:inline-block to build 3 columns.
It works fine in the beginning, but when I add content to the first column it affects the rest of the layout and renders the rest of the columns at a lower level.
What can I do to avoid this?
.cont {
width: 500px;
height: 200px;
background: #666666;
}
.col {
display: inline-block;
width: 30%;
background: pink;
}
<div class="cont">
<div class="col">
test<br><br><br>
</div>
<div class="col">
col2
</div>
<div class="col">
col3
</div>
</div>
You should add vertical-align: top; CSS declaration to align the columns vertically at the top:
.cont span {
display: inline-block;
vertical-align: top; /* Vertically align the inline-block elements */
height:100%;
line-height: 100%;
width: 33.33%; /* Just for Demo */
outline: 1px dashed red; /* Just for Demo */
}
Here is a online demo.
Honestly, I'm not a fan of using inline-block to create columns on the page, because of the white spaces between them.
The float was being used for a while, but nowadays flex box or CSS grid can be an option.
You just have to set a width of 33% on the the column, this will constraint it to take up 33% of the entire width of the div.
http://jsfiddle.net/Ge6g7/1/
.cont {
height:60px;
background: #ffff88;
}
.cont span {
display: inline-block;
height:100%;
line-height: 100%;
width: 33%; /* Added Css */
}

Why is vertical-align: middle not working on my span or div?

I'm trying to vertically center a span or div element within another div element. However when I put vertical-align: middle, nothing happens. I've tried changing the display properties of both elements, and nothing seems to work.
This is what I'm currently doing in my webpage:
.main {
height: 72px;
vertical-align: middle;
border: 1px solid black;
padding: 2px;
}
.inner {
vertical-align: middle;
border: 1px solid red;
}
.second {
border: 1px solid blue;
}
<div class="main">
<div class="inner">
This box should be centered in the larger box
<div class="second">Another box in here</div>
</div>
</div>
Here is a jsfiddle of the implementation showing that it doesn't work: http://jsfiddle.net/gZXWC/
Using CSS3:
<div class="outer">
<div class="inner"/>
</div>
Css:
.outer {
display : flex;
align-items : center;
}
use "justify-content: center;" to align elements horizontally
Note: This might not work in old IE's
This seems to be the best way - some time has passed since my original post and this is what should be done now:
.main {
display: table;
/* optional css start */
height: 90px;
width: 90px;
/* optional css end */
}
.inner {
border: 1px solid #000000;
display: table-cell;
vertical-align: middle;
}
<div class="main">
<div class="inner"> This </div>
</div>
Try this, works for me very well:
/* Internet Explorer 10 */
display:-ms-flexbox;
-ms-flex-pack:center;
-ms-flex-align:center;
/* Firefox */
display:-moz-box;
-moz-box-pack:center;
-moz-box-align:center;
/* Safari, Opera, and Chrome */
display:-webkit-box;
-webkit-box-pack:center;
-webkit-box-align:center;
/* W3C */
display:box;
box-pack:center;
box-align:center;
Setting the line-height to the same height as it's containing div will align content in the middle vertically;
DEMO http://jsfiddle.net/kevinPHPkevin/gZXWC/7/
.inner {
line-height:72px;
border: 1px solid #000000;
}
In case you cannot rely on flexbox... Place .child into .parent's center. Works when pixel sizes are unknown (in other words, always) and no problems with IE9+ too.
.parent { position: relative; }
.child {
position: absolute;
top : 50%;
left: 50%;
-ms-transform: translate(-50%, -50%);
transform : translate(-50%, -50%);
}
<div class="parent" style="background:lightyellow; padding:6em">
<div class="child" style="background:gold; padding:1em">—</div>
</div>
You should put vertical-align: middle on the inner element, not the outer element. Set the line-height property on the outer element to match the height of the outer element. Then set display: inline-block and line-height: normal on the inner element. By doing this, the text on the inner element will wrap with a normal line-height. Works in Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and IE 8+
.main {
height: 72px;
line-height:72px;
border: 1px solid black;
}
.inner {
display: inline-block;
vertical-align: middle;
line-height: normal;
}
<div class="main">
<div class="inner">Vertically centered text</div>
</div>
Fiddle
I used this to align everything in the center of the wrapper div in case it helps anyone - I found it simplest:
div.wrapper {
/* --- This works --- */
display: flex;
/* Align Vertically */
align-items: center;
/* Align Horizontally */
justify-content: center;
/* --- ---------- ----- */
width: 100%;
height:100px;
background-color: blue;
}
div.inner {
width: 50px;
height: 50px;
background-color: orange;
}
<div class="wrapper">
<div class="inner">
</div>
</div>
This is a modern approach and it utilizes the CSS Flexbox functionality.
You can now vertically align the content within your parent container by just adding these styles to the .main container
.main {
display: flex;
flex-direction: column;
justify-content: center;
align-items: center; // To center align it horizontally as well
}
You can also use CSS Grids ( a two-dimensional grid-based layout system).
.main {
display: grid;
justify-content: center;
align-content: center;
}
Below is a Shorthand approach but browser support is still low - https://caniuse.com/?search=place-items.
.main {
display: grid; // flex - works for both
place-items: center;
}
And you are good to go!
HTML
<div id="myparent">
<div id="mychild">Test Content here</div>
</div>
CSS
#myparent {
display: table;
}
#mychild {
display: table-cell;
vertical-align: middle;
}
We set the parent div to display as a table and the child div to display as a table-cell. We can then use vertical-align on the child div and set its value to middle. Anything inside this child div will be vertically centered.
Here you have an example of two ways of doing a vertical alignment. I use them and they work pretty well. One is using absolute positioning and the other using flexbox.
Vertical Align Example
Using flexbox, you can align an element by itself inside another element with display: flex; using align-self. If you need to align it also horizontally, you can use align-items and justify-content in the container.
If you don't want to use flexbox, you can use the position property. If you make the container relative and the content absolute, the content will be able to move freely inside the container. So if you use top: 0; and left: 0; in the content, it will be positioned at the top left corner of the container.
Then, to align it, you just need to change the top and left references to 50%. This will position the content at the container center from the top left corner of the content.
So you need to correct this translating the content half its size to the left and top.
here is a great article of how to vetical align..
I like the float way.
http://www.vanseodesign.com/css/vertical-centering/
The HTML:
<div id="main">
<div id="floater"></div>
<div id="inner">Content here</div>
</div>
And the corresponding style:
#main {
height: 250px;
}
#floater {
float: left;
height: 50%;
width: 100%;
margin-bottom: -50px;
}
#inner {
clear: both;
height: 100px;
}
It's simple. Just add display:table-cell in your main class.
.main {
height: 72px;
vertical-align: middle;
display:table-cell;
border: 1px solid #000000;
}
Check out this jsfiddle!
Here is the latest simplest solution - no need to change anything, just add three lines of CSS rules to your container of the div where you wish to center at. I love Flex Box #LoveFlexBox
.main {
/* I changed height to 200px to make it easy to see the alignment. */
height: 200px;
vertical-align: middle;
border: 1px solid #000000;
padding: 2px;
/* Just add the following three rules to the container of which you want to center at. */
display: flex;
flex-direction: column;
justify-content: center;
/* This is true vertical center, no math needed. */
}
.inner {
border: 1px solid #000000;
}
.second {
border: 1px solid #000000;
}
<div class="main">
<div class="inner">This box should be centered in the larger box
<div class="second">Another box in here</div>
</div>
<div class="inner">This box should be centered in the larger box
<div class="second">Another box in here</div>
</div>
</div>
Bonus
the justify-content value can be set to the following few options:
flex-start, which will align the child div to where the flex flow starts in its parent container. In this case, it will stay on top.
center, which will align the child div to the center of its parent container. This is really neat, because you don't need to add an additional div to wrap around all children to put the wrapper in a parent container to center the children. Because of that, this is the true vertical center (in the column flex-direction. similarly, if you change the flow-direction to row, it will become horizontally centered.
flex-end, which will align the child div to where the flex flow ends in its parent container. In this case, it will move to bottom.
space-between, which will spread all children from the beginning of the flow to the end of the flow. If the demo, I added another child div, to show they are spread out.
space-around, similar to space-between, but with half of the space in the beginning and end of the flow.
Since vertical-align works as expected on a td, you could put a single celled table in the div to align its content.
<div>
<table style="width: 100%; height: 100%;"><tr><td style="vertical-align: middle; text-align: center">
Aligned content here...
</td></tr></table>
</div>
Clunky, but works as far as I can tell. It might not have the drawbacks of the other workarounds.
Just put the content inside a table with height 100%, and set the height for the main div
<div style="height:80px;border: 1px solid #000000;">
<table style="height:100%">
<tr><td style="vertical-align: middle;">
This paragraph should be centered in the larger box
</td></tr>
</table>
</div>
To vertically center a span or div element within another div, add position relative to parent div and position absolute to the child div.Now the child div can be positioned anywhere inside the div.Example below centers both horizontally and vertically.
<div class="parent">
<div class="child">Vertically and horizontally centered child div</div>
</div>
css:
.parent{
position: relative;
}
.child{
position: absolute;
top: 0;
bottom: 0;
left: 0;
right: 0;
margin: auto;
}
set below CSS
/*Parent*/
display: table;
/*immediate child*/
display: table-cell;
vertical-align: middle;
~Rahul Daksh
THIS IS THE ANSWER:
vertical-align aligns elements relative to the dimensions of the line the element appears in.
reference: https://christopheraue.net/design/why-vertical-align-is-not-working
The question was "WHY?".
The answer: vertical-align only works in certain conditions
in the "display: table-cell;"

Center align my large photos, without a negative margin

I created a tumblr theme, where everything is centered and 660px wide.
However, I also post large imagery that is 940px wide, and have been centering that by giving it a negative margin of -140px (940-660/2), but this is not ideal because I then have to post all images as this dimension, or they are just aligned way left.
Scroll to the bottom of my site to see the images that are not aligned properly: http://seans.ws
The css:
section {display: block; clear: both; margin: 0 auto;width: 660px;}
article img {clear: both; max-width: 940px; margin-left: -140px;}
Thanks for any help!
You can choose between these two solutions:
Markup:
<div id="content">
<div class="a"><div class="b">
<img src="http://placekitten.com/100/100">
</div></div>
<div class="a"><div class="b">
<img src="http://placekitten.com/2000/100">
</div></div>
Common css:
#content {
width: 300px;
margin: 0 auto;
border: 1px solid blue;
}
.a {
/* extend image area */
margin-left :-9999px;
margin-right:-9999px;
/* but without scrollbars */
position: relative;
left: -9999px;
}
.a .b {
/* undo scrollbar-removing positioning */
position: relative;
left: 9999px;
}
The display: table way:
http://jsfiddle.net/ZhEku/3/
.a .b {
display: table; /* shrink-wrap to content (= the image) */
width: 300px; /* content width, acts as min-width when display:table */
margin: 0 auto; /* center inside the (2*9999+300)px area */
}
The display: inline-block way:
http://jsfiddle.net/ZhEku/4/
.a {
/* center content (= the image wrapped into .b) */
text-align: center;
}
.a .b {
display: inline-block; /* shrink-wrap to content (= the image) */
min-width: 300px; /* content width */
text-align: left; /* if image is smaller than the content */
}
​Enjoy :)
Here's the infinite scroll js: http://static.tumblr.com/q0etgkr/ytzm5f1ke/infinitescrolling.js
Here is my margin-left script for images larger than the default width of containers:
<!--Dynamicaly center big images-->
<script>
$(window).load(function() {
$(function() {
$('img').css('marginLeft', function(index, value){
if($(this).width() > 660) {
return -($(this).width() - 660)/2;
}
return value;
});
});
});
</script>
The only thing I need to figure out is how to do this same function on images that dynamically load because I have infinite scroll (like the bottom images are not loaded until you go down the page.

100% Height <div> based on floating sibling

I have a container div with a floating left-hand navigation pane and a content pane to the right:
<div id="header"></div>
<div id="container">
<div id="leftnav"></div>
<div id="content"></div>
<div class="clearfix"></div>
</div>
<div id="footer"></div>
CSS:
body
{
text-align: center; /* IE center div fix */
}
#container
{
width: 800px; /* site width */
background-color: red; /* so I can see it */
text-align: left; /* undo text-align: center; */
margin: 0 auto; /* standards-compliant centering */
}
#leftnav
{
float: left;
width: 200px;
}
#content
{
height: 100%;
width: 600px;
margin-left: 200px;
background-color: green; /* so I can see it */
}
.clearfix { clear: both; }
The #container div stretches to the full height of the floating #leftnav div, but the contained #content div does not stretch to 100% of the height. I've read elsewhere that this is due to the parent #container not having a specified height (defaults to auto) and therefore the 100% is not based on that container; however, I can't specify the height because the left navigation pane height isn't constant.
How can I get the #content div to be 100% of the height of the #container div when the #container div's height is defined by the floating #leftnav?
This is similar to the 3 column liquid "holy grail" CSS layout that has been plaguing people for years (though has been solved in the past couple years, though many of the solutions required browser hacks or Javascript to function).
I'd highly suggest you not reinvent the wheel here as it is difficult to get CSS to perform exactly as you're describing. Here is a good resource for this layout and many other similar liquid layouts:
http://matthewjamestaylor.com/blog/perfect-2-column-left-menu.htm
The easy way would be to use JS to set the height of #content to the height of #leftnav. You can use faux columns on #container and make a slice/gif of the green background and repeat it vertically on #container along with the red however you have it but I'm not sure if it fits your needs.
try this CSS
body
{
text-align: center; /* IE center div fix */
}
#container
{
width: 800px; /* site width */
background-color: red; /* so I can see it */
text-align: left; /* undo text-align: center; */
margin: 0 auto; /* standards-compliant centering */
}
#leftnav
{
float: left;
width: 200px;
}
#content
{
height: 100%;
width: 600px;
background-color: green; /* so I can see it */
float:right;
}
.clearfix { clear: both; }
I would also suggest using a line break with a clear both rather than a div.