Nope. Divs assume the width

pr0gr4mm3r — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 13:11:14 +0000

Nope. Divs assume the width of the element it's in unless you specify otherwise.

Is there any way to center a

kamaldeeps — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 12:01:12 +0000

Is there any way to center a div without using a width?

If you don't want to assign

demonhale — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 01:40:58 +0000

If you don't want to assign widths, assign margins to inner divs, or paddings to the wrapper divs... That's will adjust the overall width of the page depending on the resolution of the monitor or size of the browser window...

I avoid using "hacks" to set

decibel.places — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 19:15:38 +0000

I avoid using "hacks" to set styles for specific browsers, like IE

They might work today, but watch out on the next release, they might just stop working.

Best to use standards-compliant css for all browsers (even if there are slight variations)

In a pinch, I might use a browser-sniffing script to set a style on the fly - at least that will not degrade in a new browser release!

By the way: IE (can't

JeevesBond — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 18:47:10 +0000

By the way: IE (can't remember if it's just six or version seven too) treats width the same way standards-compliant browsers treat min-width.

So, if you put min-width in your main style sheet, then width in your IE-specific style sheet you'll get the same behaviour from all browsers. Hope that makes sense.

The thing to remember about span tags is that they are inline level elements. So they can only contain other inline elements like text (and probably pictures, if I remember correctly). No paragraphs, lists, divs or whatnot may go inside a span tag.

You will probably need to

decibel.places — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 18:40:57 +0000

You will probably need to assign a width to the container unless you want it to be 100%

I imagine a scenario like:

<div style="text-align: center">
<div style="width: 50%">
</div>
</div>

I usually just use spans when I want to style a very small chunk, a word in a sentence for example. They can get messy when used for big elements...

to center the inner div - yes, you do need a width, the browser cannot read your mind (yet)

But as pr0gr4mm3r rightly

greg — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 16:58:55 +0000

But as pr0gr4mm3r rightly said, if a div has no specified width, it stretches the full width of the area it's in. so any form of center align/margins auto etc will make no difference.

I will have a play sith spans, never really used them that much to be honest, perhaps that might resolve my issue, otherwise I'm stuck with min-width or not centered

hmmm seems like you need to

decibel.places — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 16:47:44 +0000

hmmm

seems like you need to put the div in a container and set the property of the parent/container to center it

the text-align:center property can work, but not always

using <div align="center"> can also center the content, sometimes this works when the css property doesn't.

You will probably need to assign a width to the container unless you want it to be 100%

Remember that width properties can be percent as well as em (relative to the doc font size) for a more fluid effect...

A div will fill the largest

pr0gr4mm3r — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 15:38:07 +0000

A div will fill the largest possible width unless you tell it something different. I believe that a span tag won't stretch to the width of the page, but I don't know if one can be placed outside a div tag.