How to center a div containing floated elements

I am having an issue with a div that contains floated links. Despite setting the property and value of 'width:auto' to the div, it seems to be taking up the entire line instead of adjusting to the total width of the floated elements. Can anyone spot what I might be doing wrong?

JSFIDDLE: http://jsfiddle.net/X9anU/3/

CSS:

#user-links {
margin-right: auto;
margin-left: auto;
height: auto;
width: auto;
padding: 0px 0px 0px 0px;
overflow: auto;
}

.user-link {
float: left;
margin: 0px 0px 0px 0px;
padding: 0px 10px 0px 10px;
}

.user-link a {
text-decoration: none;
font-family: calibri;
font-size: 16px;
color: #fff;
}

.user-link a:hover {
text-decoration: underline;
}
htmlcss

Answer №1

Don't assume that setting the margins to auto will automatically collapse your div.

Even floated children won't cause it to collapse horizontally.

To properly center the links, consider using display: inline-block; for the links, removing floats, and adding text-align: center; to the #user-links div.

Here's an example:

#user-links {
    margin-right: auto;
    margin-left: auto;
    height: auto;
    width: auto;
    padding: 0px 0px 0px 0px;
    overflow: auto;
    text-align: center;
}
.user-link {
    display: inline-block;
    margin: 0px 0px 0px 0px;
    padding: 0px 10px 0px 10px;
}

Check out this working example: http://jsfiddle.net/X9anU/13/

Answer №2

By default, block-level elements will always take up 100% width unless a specific width is specified, regardless of the display settings of their child elements. Additionally, centering an element using auto left/right margins requires a specified width.

To resolve this issue, provide an explicit width for #user-links.

Check out this example for more information: http://jsfiddle.net/X9anU/6/

Answer №3

A <div> is typically a block-level element that will automatically fill the width of its parent container unless otherwise specified. In this case, using width: auto assumes the width of the parent container.

To ensure that the #user-links element only takes up the width of its content and is centered within its container, you can add display: table to the #user-links declaration in your CSS:

#user-links {
    display: table;
    margin: 0 auto;
}

Check out the updated fiddle here: http://jsfiddle.net/X9anU/16/

For a list of browsers that support display: table, visit: http://caniuse.com/css-table

Answer №4

Experiment:

width: 960px;

Most website designers opt for a width of 960px, especially when using photoshop's grid system, as it can adapt to various monitor sizes. Of course, other widths are also feasible.

When elements are placed inside a div with a fixed width, they will automatically be centered due to the use of margin-left and margin-right set to auto.

A quick look at this jsfiddle example utilizing width: 500px; to highlight the difference.

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