Center DIV?

[Axel Dahmen]

Hi,

I've posted this question a few months ago but didn't get a truly satisfying
answer then. So I'd like to post my question again:

How can I center a DIV? The content in the DIV should be left-aligned, but
the DIV itself should be centered, like:

----------------------------------
| |
| =============== ==== |
| | Foo | |
| | Another foo | |
| | Still a foo-bar | |
| =============== ==== |
| |
| |
----------------------------------

There should be no fixed widths. The width of the DIV should be the width of
the content.

TIA,
Axel Dahmen

[logic_earth]

center works in FF and IE: margin: 0 auto;

[Axel Dahmen]

> You most certainly did, no less than 33 replies.

You surely have noticed that they only supposed solutions having a fixed
width, didn't you?

[Axel Dahmen]

> You're right on this one. As I said, I didn't check the link and read

the replies.
You should. It ended up in an OT discussion like this one... :/

I'd be willing to bet, however, that there are at least a
couple of good methods discussed in those 33 replies.

Nope. Actually there was... wait a moment, let me count... there was only
one. And it used a fixed with div.

So here we go... This thread again only contains one single useful reply.
Thanks to Phil!

[Axel Dahmen]

> what works in IE: (doesnt work in gecko based browsers !)

<center> [ - snip - ] </center>

Thanks, Martin, for trying to help. Actually, <CENTER> has been deprecated
as of HTML 4.0.

[Axel Dahmen]

Applause! You provided two really elaborated solutions indeed. I
particularly love your second solution. You've created a true work of art...
;)

Actually I'm using the One-Cell-Table solution myself as a workaround. But
in my opinion it's too much ado to create a TABLE infrastructure just to get
a centered DIV.

But I think Martin has a good solution there....

Regards,
Axel

-------------
<ph*******@tree fic.com> schrieb im Newsbeitrag
news:11******** *************@c 13g2000cwb.goog legroups.com...

How can I center a DIV? The content in the DIV should be

left-aligned,

but the DIV itself should be centered
There should be no fixed widths. The width of the DIV should be the

width

of the content.

It's really hard. The key problem is that DIVs with width:auto
normally expand to occupy the available width in their container, so
putting margin-left/right: auto on them doesn't have the effect that
you want. It's quite a surprise that CSS doesn't have a natural way to
do this.

So you need to get a DIV whose width is the width of its contents. I
know of 3 ways to do this: tables, floats and position:absolu te.
Unpleasant solutions include these two:

- Use a one-cell table:

<table style="margin: 0 auto; border: 1px solid green;"><tr><td >
<p>gergheriu heguiherg uierhgui rehg</p>
<p>uefheruifg hergfuiehr uehrg ueirgher</p>
</td></tr></table>

- Use a float, then jump through hoops to center it:

<div style="border: 1px solid red; position:relati ve; left:50%;">
<div style="border: 1px solid blue; float:left;">
<div style="border: 1px solid green; margin-left:-50%;
margin-right:50%;">
<p>gehrguirhg euigher uigh</p>
<p>gfheruig hguiergh reguerh g</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>

It works like this: the float in the middle forms a div that is based
on the width of its content rather than its container. The outer div
shifts this right so that its left edge is at the center of the page.
The inner div then shifts it back to the left by half of its width,
leaving it centered.

I don't know how cross-browser this is. I suspect it needs some
tweaking to work with IE (add text-align:center somewhere?). You will
need clear:left on the following content.
Can anyone simplify this?

--Phil.

[Axel Dahmen]

> <div style="display: table; width: 0%; margin-left: auto; margin-right:

auto; border: 2px solid black;">
blabla<br>
ölrkgölgkad<br>
blabla<br>
</div>

I think this is it! It seems a correct solution. I guess it's a bug for IE
not using the correct layout if the "width: 0%" is missing. But as width is
ignored for "display: table" according to
http://www.w3.org/TR/2003/WD-CSS21-2...o-table-layout,
it doesn't break the code anyway.

Thank you for helping me with this great idea! :)

Regards,
Axel

[Gus Richter]

Axel Dahmen wrote:

You're right on this one. As I said, I didn't check the link and read
the replies.

You should. It ended up in an OT discussion like this one... :/

I'd be willing to bet, however, that there are at least a
couple of good methods discussed in those 33 replies.

Nope. Actually there was... wait a moment, let me count... there was only
one. And it used a fixed with div.

So here we go... This thread again only contains one single useful reply.
Thanks to Phil!

The previous thread mentioned is understandably of not much help since
it offers no real solution, is full of verbal diarrhea and verbal abuse
just as this thread here, affectionately referred to in this newsgroup
as "discussion ".

I will restrict response to conforming methods and not to deprecated
elements such as <center> or the use of any <table>. In order to avoid
any misguided "discussion ", be advised that I offer no solution for all,
but just what I can pass on. If this is not enough, click out now.

Centering is no problem, but where the difficulty appears is with the
requirement of a flexible width div. I see only one *conforming* way
with display:inline-block but it is only supported by Opera at this
time. The /closest/ I can come otherwise is to use display:inline with
left and right percentage margins (text is not properly centered).

..wrapper {text-align:center;bo rder:1px solid blue;}
..base {display:inline-block;text-align:left;bord er:1px solid red;}

..wrapper1 {margin:0 40%;border:1px solid blue;}
..base1 {margin:auto;di splay:inline;te xt-align:left;bord er:1px solid red;}

<div class="wrapper" >
<div class="base">
Foo<br>
Another foo<br>
Still a foo-bar<br>
</div>
</div>

<div class="wrapper1 ">
<div class="base1">
Foo<br>
Another foo<br>
Still a foo-bar<br>
</div>
</div>

--
Gus

[Gus Richter]

Axel Dahmen wrote:

<div style="display: table; width: 0%; margin-left: auto; margin-right:
auto; border: 2px solid black;">
blabla<br>
ölrkgölgkad<b r>
blabla<br>
</div>

I think this is it! It seems a correct solution. I guess it's a bug for IE
not using the correct layout if the "width: 0%" is missing. But as width is
ignored for "display: table" according to
http://www.w3.org/TR/2003/WD-CSS21-2...o-table-layout,
it doesn't break the code anyway.

Thank you for helping me with this great idea! :)

Regards,
Axel

Works great for me except for one small item that has to be noted. On an
interword space a new line is generated, so &nbsp; must be used instead.

--
Gus

[Spartanicus]

"Axel Dahmen" <NO*****@NoOneK nows.invalid> wrote:

You most certainly did, no less than 33 replies.

You surely have noticed that they only supposed solutions having a fixed
width, didn't you?

That wasn't part of the original question, you can't expect a correct
answer if you omit that. If you then start a new thread instead of
making this clear in the original thread, whilst complaining that your
earlier question wasn't answered properly you can expect the response
you got.

The correct answer (a FAQ in this group btw) is that the proper method
to achieve what you want is to use an inline-block element, like so:

<div style="text-align:center">
<div style="display: inline-block;text-align:left">
Foo<br>
Another foo<br>
Still a foo-bar<br>
</div>
</div>

This is currently supported by Opera (buggy), iCab and Safari, it can be
hacked to work in IE, but it's not supported in Gecko based browsers.

For a single instance of the inner box you could use a css table, but
this is not supported by IE at all.

Although it's probably possible to create something that works in all
modern browsers + IE, the solution would be so convoluted that you are
better of scrapping the idea, or use html tables.

--
Spartanicus

[Christoph Paeper]

*Axel Dahmen* <NO*****@NoOneK nows.invalid>:

How can I center a DIV?
You certainly already know about 'auto' margins and the 'text-align'
workaround for IE, because that's a FAQ.
There should be no fixed widths.
To horizontally center anything, there have to be some widths known, i.e.
either specified or calculatable.
The width of the DIV should be the width of the content.

Thus if it's text, there's only one line. Block widths are 100% of the
available by default. There are ways in CSS to make that the required
width only. Unfortunately they are either hackish or poorly supported, or
both.

Floats are shrink-wrapped since CSS*2.1 and in many browsers already, but
that would be the most hackish way. The other major approach is 'display'
with a value of 'inline', 'inline-block', 'inline-table' or even 'table'.
Multiple consecutive rules with these values may make this work in most
CSS capable browsers. 'text-align' or 'margin' have to be used accordingly.

Anyway, a concrete example page would help. For example to decide, whether
'div' should be used at all.

--
"The squeaking wheel doesn't always get the grease.
Sometimes it gets replaced."
Vic Gold