Putting Images Inside a BUTTON Element (HTML & CSS) - html

Question

I have a simple button (as shown below) on which I need to display two pictures, one on either side of the button text. Im battling to create the CSS that will work in both Firefox and Internet Explorer! (the button images are coming from a JQuery UI skin file)
CSS
button div{
width:16px;
height:16px;
background-image: url(images/ui-icons_d19405_256x240.png);
}
button div.leftImage{
background-position: -96px -112px;
float: left;
}
button div.rightImage{
background-position: -64px -16px;
float: right;
}
HTML
<button><div class="leftImage"></div><span>Button Text</span><div class="rightImage"></div></button>
Preview
Firefox
Internet Explorer 8

Answer 1

Here is how to do it
The Theory
Block elements (like DIV) although displayed in order of creation, will position themselves adjacent to the previous element or when short of space, on the next line. Because we dont want to give the button a width (we want the button to be automatically sized based on the content of the button) the block elements continued to appear on the next line (see IE8 image in the question above). Using white-space:nowrap forces inline elements (like SPAN and EM) to be displayed on the same line, but is ignored by block elements, hence the solution below.
CSS
button{
margin: 0px;
padding: 0px;
font-family:Lucida Sans MS, Tahoma;
font-size: 12px;
color: #000;
white-space:nowrap;
width:auto;
overflow:visible;
height:28px;
}
button em{
vertical-align:middle;
margin:0 2px;
display:inline-block;
width:16px;
height:16px;
background-image: url(images/ui-icons_3d3d3d_256x240.png);
}
button em.leftImage{
background-position: -96px -112px;
}
button em.rightImage{
background-position: -64px -16px;
}
HTML
<button><em class="leftImage"></em>Button<em class='rightImage'></em></button>
The Result
Internet Explorer 6, 7, 8 and Firefox 1.5, 2, 3

Answer 2

I would use spans not divs for the image containers, since you seem to want the images to appear inline. Using floated divs is just too complex.
In fact, you could probably simplify things further by applying one background image to the button itself, and one to the button-text span, and removing the other two containers altogether.
Another alternative is to simply add the images in as img tags.

Answer 3

try resetting the button css.
button{
border:none;
background:none;
padding:0;
margin:0;
}
And add a space inside an empty DIV see if it works.
<button><div class="leftPic"> </div><span>Button Text</span><div class="rightPic"> </div></button>

Answer 4

I think you can strip off the button tag and use a div tag instead.For other button action use javascript onlick() function and use css to change curser on hover(to make it look like button).For my project I used a similar approach.This may help you :)

Answer 5

I know this is already solved, but just wanted to add that an easy way to put more than 1 image in a button is creating 1 .png with the dimensions of the button you want to create and the to elements together in one file.