I have a #header
div that is 100% width
and within that div I have an unordered list. I have applied margin: 0 auto
to the unordered list but it won't center it within the header div.
Can anybody please tell me why? I thought that if I define the width of the parent div, then the unordered list should be able to center itself with margin: 0 auto
. What am I missing?
Here is my code:
<style>
* {
margin: 0;
padding: 0;
}
#header {
width: 100%;
background-color: #333;
min-height: 160px;
font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
}
#sitename {
font-size: 50px;
width: 620px;
margin:0 auto;
padding-top: 35px;
color:#999;
}
#header ul {
float: right;
margin: 0 auto;
}
#header ul li {
float: left;
padding-right: 20px;
list-style-type: none;
font-size: 20px;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<div id="header">
<h1 id="sitename">Photography Auction Site</h1>
<ul>
<li>List of Photos</li>
<li>Image Gallery</li>
<li>Contact Us</li>
</ul>
</div>
</body>
</html>
You need to define the width of the element you are centering, not the parent element.
#header ul {
margin: 0 auto;
width: 90%;
}
Edit: Ok, I've seen the testpage now, and here is how I think you want it:
#header ul {
list-style:none;
margin:0 auto;
width:90%;
}
/* Remove the float: left; property, it interferes with display: inline and
* causes problems. (float: left; makes the element implicitly a block-level
* element. It is still good to use display: inline on it to overcome a bug
* in IE6 and below that doubles horizontal margins for floated elements)
* The styles below is the full style for the list-items.
*/
#header ul li {
color:#CCCCCC;
display:inline;
font-size:20px;
padding-right:20px;
}
Why not?
#header {
text-align: center;
}
#header ul {
display: inline;
}
I don't know why the first answer is the best one, I tried it and not working in fact, as @kalys.osmonov said, you can give text-align:center
to header
, but you have to make ul
as inline-block
rather than inline
, and also you have to notice that text-align
can be inherited which is not good to some degree, so the better way (not working below IE 9) is using margin
and transform
. Just remove float right
and margin;0 auto
from ul
, like below:
#header ul {
/* float: right; */
/* margin: 0 auto; */
display: inline-block;
margin-left: 50%; /* From parent width */
transform: translateX(-50%); /* use self width which can be unknown */
-ms-transform: translateX(-50%); /* For IE9 */
}
This way can fix the problem that making dynamic width of ul
center if you don't care IE8 etc.
An inline-block covers the whole line (from left to right), so a margin left and/or right won't work here. What you need is a block, a block has borders on the left and the right so can be influenced by margins.
This is how it works for me:
#content {
display: block;
margin: 0 auto;
}
We can set the width for ul tag then it will align center.
#header ul {
display: block;
margin: 0 auto;
width: 420px;
max-width: 100%;
}
Source: Stackoverflow.com