Align contents inside a div

Html Problem Overview

I use css style text-align to align contents inside a container in HTML. This works fine while the content is text or the browser is IE. But otherwise it does not work.

Also as the name suggests it is used basically to align text. The align property has been deprecated long back.

Is there any other way to align contents in html?

Html Solutions

Solution 1 - Html

text-align aligns text and other inline content. It doesn't align block element children.

To do that, you want to give the element you want aligned a width, with ‘auto’ left and right margins. This is the standards-compliant way that works everywhere except IE5.x.

<div style="width: 50%; margin: 0 auto;">Hello</div>

For this to work in IE6, you need to make sure Standards Mode is on by using a suitable DOCTYPE.

If you really need to support IE5/Quirks Mode, which these days you shouldn't really, it is possible to combine the two different approaches to centering:

<div style="text-align: center">
    <div style="width: 50%; margin: 0 auto; text-align: left">Hello</div>
</div>

(Obviously, styles are best put inside a stylesheet, but the inline version is illustrative.)

Solution 2 - Html

<div class="content">Hello</div>

.content {
    margin-top:auto;
    margin-bottom:auto;
    text-align:center;
}

Solution 3 - Html

Below are the methods which have always worked for me

By using flex layout model:

Set the display of the parent div to display: flex; and the you can align the child elements inside the div using the justify-content: center; (to align the items on main axis) and align-items: center; (to align the items on cross axis).

If you have more than one child element and want to control the way they are arranged (column/rows), then you can also add flex-direction property.

Working example:

.parent {
  align-items: center;
  border: 1px solid black;
  display: flex;
  justify-content: center;
  height: 250px;
  width: 250px;
}

.child {
  border: 1px solid black;
  height: 50px;
  width: 50px;
}

<div class="parent">
  <div class="child"></div>
</div>

2. (older method) Using position, margin properties and fixed size

Working example:

.parent {
  border: 1px solid black;
  height: 250px;
  position: relative;
  width: 250px;
}

.child {
  border: 1px solid black;
  margin: auto;
  top: 0;
  bottom: 0;
  left: 0;
  right: 0;
  height: 50px;
  position: absolute;
  width: 50px;
}

<div class="parent">
  <div class="child"></div>
</div>

Solution 4 - Html

You can do it like this also:

HTML

<body>
    <div id="wrapper_1">
        <div id="container_1"></div>
    </div>
</body>

CSS

body { width: 100%; margin: 0; padding: 0; overflow: hidden; }

#wrapper_1 { clear: left; float: left; position: relative; left: 50%; }

#container_1 { display: block; float: left; position: relative; right: 50%; }

As Artem Russakovskii mentioned also, read the original article by Mattew James Taylor for full description.

Solution 5 - Html

Honestly, I hate all the solutions I've seen so far, and I'll tell you why: They just don't seem to ever align it right...so here's what I usually do:

I know what pixel values each div and their respective margins hold...so I do the following.

I'll create a wrapper div that has an absolute position and a left value of 50%...so this div now starts in the middle of the screen, and then I subtract half of all the content of the div's width...and I get BEAUTIFULLY scaling content...and I think this works across all browsers, too. Try it for yourself (this example assumes all content on your site is wrapped in a div tag that uses this wrapper class and all content in it is 200px in width):

.wrapper {
	position: absolute;
	left: 50%;
	margin-left: -100px;
}

EDIT: I forgot to add...you may also want to set width: 0px; on this wrapper div for some browsers to not show the scrollbars, and then you may use absolute positioning for all inner divs.

This also works AMAZING for vertically aligning your content as well using top: 50% and margin-top. Cheers!

Solution 6 - Html

Here is a technique I use that has worked well:

<div>
    <div style="display: table-cell; width: 100%">&nbsp;</div>
    <div style="display: table-cell; white-space: nowrap;">Something Here</div>
</div>

Solution 7 - Html

All the answers talk about horizontal align.

For vertical aligning multiple content elements, take a look at this approach:

<div style="display: flex; align-items: center; width: 200px; height: 140px; padding: 10px 40px; border: solid 1px black;">
    <div>
        <p>Paragraph #1</p>
        <p>Paragraph #2</p>
    </div>
</div>

Solution 8 - Html

Just another example using HTML and CSS:

<div style="width: Auto; margin: 0 auto;">Hello</div>

Content Type	Original Author	Original Content on Stackoverflow
Question	Hemanshu Bhojak	View Question on Stackoverflow
Solution 1 - Html	bobince	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 2 - Html	krithi k	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 3 - Html	nmak18	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 4 - Html	Mahdi	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 5 - Html	Alexandru	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 6 - Html	Mike Becatti	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 7 - Html	Nicolas	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 8 - Html	Diogo	View Answer on Stackoverflow