I have written code that automatically creates CSS sprites based on the IMG tags in a page and replaces them with DIV's with (what I thought was) appropriate CSS to position the sprite image as a background letting the appropriate part show through -- the problem is that I cannot get DIVs to behave as drop in replacements for IMGs.
If I leave the default 'display' value set to 'block' then if the original IMG was positioned at the end of some text, the replacement DIV will jump down to the next line after text (which of course is what I would expect something with display: block to do).
If I change the 'display' to inline, then the DIV stays on the same line as the text but it ignores the 'width' and 'height' I have set and collapses. I've tried putting 's inside the DIV but it then only takes up enough width to contain the nbsp.
I've tried experimenting with setting display to all possible values (including the "obscure" ones like 'table-row', 'run-in', 'compact', etc) but all with no luck. Is it even possible to create a DIV with the same layout behavior as an IMG?
I am open to having something more complicated than just a single DIV, however I've tried the obvious things there (one DIV inside another where the inner DIV is set to display: block with the outer set to display: inline) but I haven't found a combination there that works either.
There are always specific things I can do outside of the replaced IMG/DIV to get the layout I want, but my goal is to have a generic auto-CSS-sprite mechanism that works regardless of the rest of the HTML.
Did you try display: inline-block; ?
you may have to also use display: -moz-inline-block; for firefox2
Images have an equivalent of "display: inline-block". This was not originally included in CSS but was added in part to address the fact that images behave this way.
The issue is that all browsers are just now supporting it. If you want to support browsers from even a year ago, you are stuck.
Another, but not as great, solution is floating the div ("float: left").
inline-block : Introduced in CSS 2.1. This causes the element to generate a block element box that will be flowed with surrounding content as if it were an single inline box (behaving much like a replaced element [meaning an image] would.).
Source Mozilla Developer Center
Display: inline-block is supposed to work in this situation. Did you try it?
Related
I'm trying to write a CSS class that allows me to sit form elements (mixed button and text inputs) in a line so that they abut. I'm using display:table on a parent, and wrapping each element in a container with display:table-cell, and it works fine except for one bug that I can't figure out a way around.
So for example, parent is control-group, the element wrappers are control-group-item, and the elements themselves are control-group-input.
.control-group
.control-group-item
.control-group-input{type: "text"}
.control-group-item
.control-group-input{type: "submit"}
CSS of this (I've normalized font size/line height/padding/browser weirdness and all form elements are inline-blocked etc.):
.control-group {
display: table;
.control-group-item {
display:table-cell;
}
gives this, which is OK:
However, I ideally need it to fill a grid column of undetermined size, rather than the browser deciding how big my elements should be. If apply width:100% on .control-group, this happens:
The orange is a background colour applied to the table cell control-group-item. The issue seems to be with the 'submit' input: the submit stays the size it should be but browsers universally add extra space next to it within the table cell. So if I apply width:100% to each .control-group-input, I get this:
Which is OK, but stretches the ‘submit’ button. I can live with that, but is there any way to get it like the second image (but without the random space) using my current approach, or should I sack that off & try something different?
Edit I do not know the sizes of the inputs in advance: I can't set a width on them, which effectively rules out most inline block/float methods. I ideally need IE 8/9 support, which is why display:table was tried.
Edit 2: here are versions on Codepen: http://codepen.io/DanielCouper/pen/knDmC
After rewriting the code there, I realise my question is: how is the width of the table cells being calculated? It's specifically the cell with the submit button that has the extra space. The extra space seems random.
Here's a working version in codepen: http://codepen.io/mkleene/pen/ldqDH
The summary is that you need to remove the width: 100% on the submit button and then give the second table cell element width: 100%. You also need to make the textbox take up its entire parent with a 100% width.
You also need to make sure that the table element is using an auto table layout.
nm, spoke too soon. Thought I had solved it, hadn't, was getting effects from some other CSS.
When you set a button element to display:block it dominates its vertical space like a block while still calculating its size based on its contents like an inline-block. This seems like a really useful behavior. Is it possible to make other elements behave this way?
Example
I can accomplish a similar method of display using floats and clears, but it causes havoc on nearby content that isn't tailored to it.
I can accomplish it more sanely by wrapping each element and making the outer element display:block while the inner element is display:inline-block. This requires extra markup though.
Sounds like you want display: table.
Such a “table” shrinks to just fit its content, and if the content is not a display: table-row or display: table-cell then it is just treated as if it were inside a single-cell table. You can also center it horizontally using auto margins.
I changed block to table in your example and it did exactly what I think you want.
(If you've thinking about the advice “don't use tables for layout” — that is referring to using tables written in HTML markup, not any CSS facilities.)
Since I am having trouble with Firefox about positioning a block element by nature (header) to be inline by using display:run-in; i'm asking you for your help ! been searching for quite some time now and I cant find which CSS method could be used instead of just applying display:run-in; to the element, which is supported in all the major browsers. It is crucial that i position the element this way.
Anyone knows a method how to do this ?
If you'd like to display your element as a block element, but would position it inline, then
display: inline-block;
will do the trick for you.
The MDN still lists run-in as an experimental value, so we shouldn't be too surprised if it doesn't fully function in Firefox at this time.
As for options, there are at least two you could use: display: inline and display: inline-block.
Inline might suffice if you don't need the properties of a block element on your header. Inline-block keeps it as a block element, so you can still do nice things like give it width, height, margin and so on.
View them on JSFiddle.
Alright i found a solution ! :) Using display:inline; in a combination with float:left; will make a block element by nature use space only as much as he needs, not full 100% of its parent element.
There is just one problem with this tecnhique if you are using bigger font for lets say a heading and want to add a paragraph right after it (on the same line). If the headings font-size is a bit bigger, heading could take 2 or even more lines of space in height where paragraphs text should be,and you will have a small gap between header and another row of paragraph under it. The solution is to add display:block; and margin-top:Xpx; to the paragraph element to align it as needed.
Example #JsFiddle
Why does the grey box wrapping the blue boxes not scale with them? I have tried many different combinations of attributes for the elements, but I cannot get it to work properly.
The effect is not bad actually, but not what I want. An explanation of why this happens would be helpful. Thanks in advance! :)
PS: I am on Mozilla Firefox 15.0.1
Your a elements have their display property set to inline. This essentially means that they are treated as text and thus any 'block' type properties applied to them will not work as you would expect them to as you would if it was say, a div.
Learning about the display property is a massive part of CSS, but for this example you want the links to be inline but also a block so you would use:
a { display: inline-block; }
Now the outer div will take into account the size of the inline-block elements whereas before it would not as it was treating your links as if they were just text.
I have emoticons in a css sprite image that I want to display within text, so I have spans inserted with background definitions but as these spans are inline elements I can not define the width and height.
The only thing I could think of is make them block elements and float left, but I'm not sure if this is the best approach. What do you think is the best way to do this?
try to use the css property and value display: inline-block
I do not think that display: inline-block is supported enough to rely on. Obviously I am talking about <=IE7, and possibly other mobile devices. Which unfortunately are still in use. However there comes a point when one stops supporting IE.
I would try using a div floated, with background attributes set. Failing that a single image.