Twitter Bootstrap: Center Pills

Question

My question is how you can center the pills?

I\'ve tried to add center block around and also to change the float:left to float:center but n

Answer 1

Bootstrap 4 solution is very easy:

<ul class="nav justify-content-center">

https://getbootstrap.com/docs/4.0/components/navs/

Answer 2

If you want the pills to be centered instead of left aligned you will need to change the css. You will need to specifiy a width and change the margin to be auto.

For example:

.tabs, .pills {
    margin: 0 auto;
    padding: 0;
    width: 400px;
}

Answer 3

This has gotten much simpler! You just need to use the text-center class on the container, and apply display:inline-block to the ul. Just make sure you have a line break or paragraph tag separating the nav from any other elements within the container.

Done! 2 class additions, 1 line of CSS (don't modify the bootstrap css file!).

HTML:

<div class="col-md-12 text-center">
    <p>Copyright stuff</p>
    <ul class="nav nav-pills center-pills">
        <li><a href="#">Footer nav link</a></li>
        <li><a href="#">Footer nav link</a></li>
    </ul>
</div>

CSS:

.center-pills { display: inline-block; }

Edit 2015: As Artur Beljajev has brought up, Flexbox support is now common enough that you may want to use that instead:

.center-pills {
    display: flex;
    justify-content: center;
}

Answer 4

While the answer of @minaz works for a list with a known width, i'd propose a different solution which actually works even if you change the content of the list:

.tabs, .pills {
  text-align: center;
}

.tabs li, .pills li {
  float: none;
}

Or in SCSS:

.tabs, .pills {
  text-align: center;
  li { float: none; }
}

This will center the text inside the list, and resets the float property for the list items so they are affected by the text-align property.

Answer 5

A simple solution with Bootstrap 4 Use justify-content-center at <ul> nav

Example:

@import url('https://stackpath.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/4.1.3/css/bootstrap.min.css')

<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://stackpath.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/4.1.3/js/bootstrap.min.js"></script>
<div class="mt-5">
  <ul class="nav nav-pills mb-3 justify-content-center" id="pills-tab" role="tablist">
    <li class="nav-item">
      <a class="nav-link active" id="pills-home-tab" data-toggle="pill" href="#pills-home" role="tab" aria-controls="pills-home" aria-selected="true">Home</a>
    </li>
    <li class="nav-item">
      <a class="nav-link" id="pills-profile-tab" data-toggle="pill" href="#pills-profile" role="tab" aria-controls="pills-profile" aria-selected="false">Profile</a>
    </li>
    <li class="nav-item">
      <a class="nav-link" id="pills-contact-tab" data-toggle="pill" href="#pills-contact" role="tab" aria-controls="pills-contact" aria-selected="false">Contact</a>
    </li>
  </ul>
  <div class="tab-content" id="pills-tabContent">
    <div class="tab-pane fade show active" id="pills-home" role="tabpanel" aria-labelledby="pills-home-tab">
      <div class="card text-white bg-success mb-3 mx-2 px-2">
        <h1>Hi</h1>
      </div>
    </div>
    <div class="tab-pane fade" id="pills-profile" role="tabpanel" aria-labelledby="pills-profile-tab">
      <div class="card text-white bg-info mb-3 mx-2 px-2">
        <h1>Hi</h1>
      </div>
    </div>
    <div class="tab-pane fade" id="pills-contact" role="tabpanel" aria-labelledby="pills-contact-tab">
      <div class="card text-white bg-danger mb-3 mx-2 px-2">
        <h1>Ni Hao</h1>
      </div>
    </div>
  </div>
</div>

Answer 6

If you'd like variable width pills in a variable width container, I'd suggest using the inline-block display type and adding a class to the pill container.

Here is how I extended bootstrap for centering pills.

CSS:

.centered-pills { text-align:center; }
.centered-pills ul.nav-pills { display:inline-block; }
.centered-pills li { display:inline; }
.centered-pills a { float:left; }
* html .centered-pills ul.nav-pills { display:inline; } /* IE6 */
*+html .centered-pills ul.nav-pills { display:inline; } /* IE7 */

HTML:

<div class="row">
  <div class="span12 centered-pills">
    <ul class="nav nav-pills">
      <li><a href="#">derek</a></li>
      <li><a href="#">brooks</a></li>
      <li><a href="#">is</a></li>
      <li><a href="#">super</a></li>
      <li class="active"><a href="#">awesome</a></li>
    </ul>
  </div>
</div>