270

I have a working code here: http://jsfiddle.net/WVm5d/ (you might need to make the result window bigger to see the align center effect)

Question

The code works fine but I don't like to have display: table;. It's the only way I could make the wrap-class align center. I think it would be better if there was a way to use display: block; or display: inline-block;. Is it possible to solve the align center another way?

Adding a fixed with to the container is not an option for me.

I will also paste my code here if the JS Fiddle link gets broken in the future:

body { background: #bbb; } .wrap { background: #aaa; margin: 0 auto; display: table; overflow: hidden; } .sidebar { width: 200px; float: left; background: #eee; } .container { margin: 0 auto; background: #ddd; display: block; float: left; padding: 5px; } .box { background: #eee; border: 1px solid #ccc; padding: 10px; margin: 5px; float: left; } .box:nth-child(3n+1) { clear: left; }
<div class="wrap"> <div class="sidebar"> Sidebar </div> <div class="container"> <div class="box"> Height1 </div> <div class="box"> Height2<br /> Height2 </div> <div class="box"> Height3<br /> Height3<br /> Height3 </div> <div class="box"> Height1 </div> <div class="box"> Height2<br /> Height2 </div> <div class="box"> Height3<br /> Height3<br /> Height3 </div> </div> <div class="sidebar"> Sidebar </div> </div>

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9 Answers 9

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291

Try this. I added text-align: center to body and display:inline-block to wrap, and then removed your display: table

body { background: #bbb; text-align: center; } .wrap { background: #aaa; margin: 0 auto; display: inline-block; overflow: hidden; }
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3 Comments

@zack divs work like text when displayed as inline-block. You can use stuff like white-space: nowrap; on them too.
and what if I don't want ALL of my elements placed in body to be text-aligned center?? this sounds like a huge overkill to me
@Blauhirn, just make a block wrapper arround inline-block element and then set css property text-align:center; he use body tag as example.
126

The accepted solution wouldn't work for me as I need a child element with display: inline-block to be both horizontally and vertically centered within a 100% width parent.

I used Flexbox's justify-content and align-items properties, which respectively allow you to center elements horizontally and vertically. By setting both to center on the parent, the child element (or even multiple elements!) will be perfectly in the middle.

This solution does not require fixed width, which would have been unsuitable for me as my button's text will change.

Here is a CodePen demo and a snippet of the relevant code below:

.parent { display: flex; justify-content: center; align-items: center; }
<div class="parent"> <a class="child" href="#0">Button</a> </div>

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6 Comments

This question was created before Flexbox but now this approach is better so, I accepted it as the answer.
@JensTörnell the use of inline-block is useless in this case it can be removed
This is much better than using text-align center. That implementation just leaks text-centering to all child components. Don't do it.
@TemaniAfif was right - thanks. I didn't need to have a display: inline-block; rule in there (I thought it was integral, but it indeed isn't) so I've removed that.
This isn't an inline block anymore though? It is centering a flex item which is a different question altogether.
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79

If you have a <div> with text-align:center;, then any text inside it will be centered with respect to the width of that container element. inline-block elements are treated as text for this purpose, so they will also be centered.

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1 Comment

How about display:inline elements? I tested it is not working the way I am expecting it to be
32

This will horizontally center an inline-block element without needing to modify its parent's styles:

 display: inline-block; position: relative; /* Move the element to the right by 50% of the container's width */ left: 50%; /* Calculates 50% of the element's width, and moves it by that */ /* amount across the X-axis to the left */ transform: translateX(-50%);
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15

You can also do this with positioning, set parent div to relative and child div to absolute. 

.wrapper { position: relative; } .childDiv { position: absolute; left: 50%; transform: translateX(-50%); }
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1

You don't need to use "display: table". The reason your margin: 0 auto centering attempt doesn't work is because you didn't specify a width.

This will work just fine:

.wrap { background: #aaa; margin: 0 auto; width: some width in pixels since it's the container; }

You don't need to specify display: block since that div will be block by default. You can also probably lose the overflow: hidden.

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-4

I just changed 2 parameters:

.wrap { display: block; width:661px; }

Live Demo

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3 Comments

Setting a fixed with is not an option for me. Found another solution. Thanks anyway.
So what was it?
It is not a responsive centering of inline blocks.
-6

Great article i found what worked best for me was to add a % to the size

.wrap { margin-top:5%; margin-bottom:5%; height:100%; display:block;}
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-10

Just use:

line-height:50px

Replace "50px" with the same height as your div.

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3 Comments

Please be more specific in where to add line-height.
The original question was about horizontal centering, as indicated by the use of text-align: center;. Adjusting line-height is a solution for vertical centering, though not a very robust solution for an inline-block.
This doesn't even relate.

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