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 want to apply some css styling on my labels for my web page but have no idea how to make it work. At first, I thought I could type
label{text-align: center} but it's not giving my any styling at all. What should I type to style my labels? This is my code:
<label for="fname"><b>First Name</b></label>
<input type="text" placeholder="Enter First Name" name="fname" id="fname" required>
Thanks in advance everyone!
Ok, text-align:center didn't work because basically the label elements are inline
inline elements are elements who their display is set to inline , explicitly or by default
these elements won't accept any width or height and only get ENOUGH width and height for their content
they even don't accept vertical margins...
so your label here is as small as it's content and there is no room to change your text's alignment...
you can change it's display to make it's text centered
Here You can see what I said, I've added another label and changed it's display and colored the labels so you can see diffrence
<style>
label{
background: khaki;
}
.lname{
display:block;
text-align:center;
}
.test{
display: block;
}
</style>
<label class="fname" for="fname">First Name</label>
<input type="text" placeholder="Enter First Name" name="fname" id="fname" >
<label class="lname" for="lname">Last Name</label>
<input type="text" placeholder="Enter Last Name" name="lname" id="lname" required>
<label class="test" for="test">Test</label>
<input type="text" placeholder="Enter Test" name="test" id="test" required>
I think what you want is the middle one
========%%%%=======%%%%=========
Ok Based On Your comment and image
it's not label who you want to center, it's your input
<style>
input{
display:block;
text-align:center;
width: 100%;
}
input::placeholder{
text-align: center;
}
</style>
<label class="fname" for="fname">First Name</label>
<input type="text" placeholder="Enter First Name" name="fname" id="fname" >
input {
width: 100%;
text-align: center;
}
.box{
margin: 0 auto;
width:400px //you can set it in %.
height: 600px;
padding:20px;
background:#f9f9f9;
border:4px solid #333;
}
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<title>Forms</title>
</head>
<body>
<center>
<div class="box">
<img src="1.png" align="right">
<h1>Form Updation</h1>
<form name="first" method="get" action="https://www.mi.com/in/">
First name : <input type="text" name="fname" size="15" maxlength="25"><br><br>
Last name : <input type="text" name="Lname" size="15" maxlength="25"><br><br>
Password : <input type="password" name="Password" size="10" maxlength="15"><br><br>
Nationalaity : <input type="text" name="Country" size="15" maxlength="25"><br><br>
Phone Number : <input type="text" name="Phone" size="15" maxlength="25"><br><br>
</form>
</div>
</center>
</body>
</html>
output -
[Phone number is not in proper arrangemnt with the above one i need to come with phone number in arrangement like all in centre and onething is that i want these 5 should come up with by another eans there is some space which is left out in other work all the fillup section must come with space index.]
It's hard to get what you want but i guess your question is how can I align texts and inputs in a nice order.
So we can think a way to do that in your code.
Firstly think your text and input parts as an one. We can take the text in a div and give that a width like 50% or 33%. After that we can define another div for input and give it the remaining width or directly give the remaining width to input.
Up to now
*{
box-sizing:border-box;
}
#form{
width:50%
}
#form div,
#form input{
display:inline-block;
}
#form div{
width:35%;
}
#form input{
width:65%;
}
<form id="form" name="first" method="get" action="https://www.mi.com/in/">
<div>First name : </div><input type="text" name="fname" size="15" maxlength="25"><br><br>
<div>Last name : </div><input type="text" name="Lname" size="15" maxlength="25"><br><br>
<div>Password : </div><input type="password" name="Password" size="10" maxlength="15"><br><br>
<div>Nationalaity : </div><input type="text" name="Country" size="15" maxlength="25"><br><br>
<div>Phone Number : </div><input type="text" name="Phone" size="15" maxlength="25"><br><br>
</form>
But don't forget to make your components box-sizing to border-box. If you don't when you give to 33% and 66% width or anything that sums 100% won't work as side by side. Your input will get new line.So we give our form a width that we want, after that we made our input and div inline-block to get side by side nad then give the widths. If you want to center your text you can add text-align:left to your divs.
#form div{
width:35%;
text-align:left;
}
#form represent our form with it's id that we gave, #form div represent the divs that inside that form( you can check combinators) and so on. Here is a link for combinators either.
Combinators in CSS
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 have my forms float right, so that it looks neat when everything is placed next to each other, and it works fine, EXCEPT for the first 2? That is what weirds me out? It works great after the first 2. Here is a screenshot that says it all and my HTML code
<head>
<title>New user</title>
<style type="text/css">
#form_container {
width: 25%;
}
#form_container input {
float: right;
clear: both;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<div id="form_container">
<form action="" method="post">
Username: <input type="text" name="username" value="" /><br />
Password: <input type="text" name="username" value="" /><br />
Password again: <input type="text" name="username" value="" /><br />
Password triple: <input type="text" name="username" value="" /><br />
</form>
</div>
</body>
Why is there that "space" between the first and second ones?
Thanks on advance everyone!
It's simply because you are asking for a password 3 times.. the markup doesn't like that and throws a random gap at you.
In all seriousness, there are a few ways to fix this.. the easiest is to set clear:both on the br.. that was causing the gap.
jsFiddle example
br {
clear:both;
}
Also, remove clear:both from #form_container input as that isn't needed anymore.
#form_container input {
float: right;
}
I'd also suggest adding a label to each input for validation purposes.
Restructure your markup a bit to add labels (which you could have anyway), and you can ditch the <br>'s completely. Working example here: http://jsfiddle.net/designingsean/rWfek/1/
HTML:
<div id="form_container">
<form action="" method="post">
<label>Username</label>
<input type="text" name="username" value="" />
<label>Password</label>
<input type="text" name="username" value="" />
<label>Password again</label>
<input type="text" name="username" value="" />
<label>Password triple</label>
<input type="text" name="username" value="" />
</form>
</div>
The important bit of CSS:
label {
float:left;
width:50%;
}
The first answer is fine, but I also suggest wrapping everything in label.
The advantage is that when you click on the label text, 'Username: ', it will automatically put focus in the input box. While this might seem small, it really helps on touch devices, and especially on radio inputs -- try tapping the little 10x10 radio box. Much nicer and more intuitive with label.
<label>Username: <input type="text" name="username" value="" /></label>
and in the CSS:
#form_container label {
display:block;
clear:both;
}
Also, if you didn't already know this, I suggest using <input type="password"/> for passwords.
See this JSFiddle.