How do I center floated elements?

Question

I\'m implementing pagination, and it needs to be centered. The problem is that the links need to be displayed as block, so they need to be floated. But then, text-alig

Answer 1

Centering floats is easy. Just use the style for container:

.pagination{ display: table; margin: 0 auto; }

change the margin for floating elements:

.pagination a{ margin: 0 2px; }

or

.pagination a{ margin-left: 3px; }
.pagination a.first{ margin-left: 0; } 

and leave the rest as it is.

It's the best solution for me to display things like menus or pagination.

Strengths:

• cross-browser for any elements (blocks, list-items etc.)

• simplicity

Weaknesses:

• it works only when all floating elements are in one line (which is usually ok for menus but not for galleries).

@arnaud576875 Using inline-block elements will work great (cross-browser) in this case as pagination contains just anchors (inline), no list-items or divs:

Strengths:

• works for multiline items.

Weknesses:

• gaps between inline-block elements - it works the same way as a space between words. It may cause some troubles calculating the width of the container and styling margins. Gaps width isn't constant but it's browser specific (4-5px). To get rid of this gaps I would add to arnaud576875 code (not fully tested):

  .pagination{ word-spacing: -1em; }

  .pagination a{ word-spacing: .1em; }

• it won't work in IE6/7 on block and list-items elements