How do I center align horizontal menu?

Question

I need to center align a horizontal menu.
I've tried various solutions, including the mix of inline-block / block / center-align etc., but haven't succeeded.

Here is my code:

<div class="topmenu-design">
    <!-- Top menu content: START -->
    <ul id="topmenu firstlevel">                                                                                       
      <li class="firstli" id="node_id_64"><div><a href="#"><span>Om kampanjen</span></a></div></li>
      <li id="node_id_65"><div><a href="#"><span>Fakta om inneklima</span></a></div></li>
      <li class="lastli" id="node_id_66"><div><a href="#"><span>Statistikk</span></a></div></li>
    </ul>
    <!-- Top menu content: END -->
</div>

UPDATE

I know how to center align the ul within the div. That can be accomplished using Sarfraz's suggestion. But the list items are still floated left within the ul.

Do I need Javascript to accomplish this?

Answer 1

Generally speaking the way to center a black level element (like a <ul>) is using the margin:auto; property.

To align text and inline level elements within a block level element use text-align:center;. So all together something like...

ul {
    margin:auto;
}
ul li {
    text-align:center;
    list-style-position:inside; /* so that the bullet points are also centered */
}
ul li div {
    display:inline; /* so that the bullet points aren't above the content */
}

... should work.

The fringe case is Internet Explorer6... or even other IEs when not using a <!DOCTYPE>. IE6 incorrectly aligns block level elemnts using text-align. So if you're looking to support IE6 (or not using a <!DOCTYPE>) your full solution is...

div.topmenu-design {
    text-align:center;
}
div.topmenu-design ul {
    margin:auto;
}
div.topmenu-design ul li {
    text-align:center;
    list-style-position:inside; /* so that the bullet points are also centered */
}
div.topmenu-design ul li div {
    display:inline; /* so that the bullet points aren't above the content */
}

As a footnote, I think id="topmenu firstlevel" is invalid as an id attribute can't contain spaces... ? Indeed the w3c recommendation defines the id attribute as a 'name' type...

ID and NAME tokens must begin with a letter ([A-Za-z]) and may be followed by any number of letters, digits ([0-9]), hyphens ("-"), underscores ("_"), colons (":"), and periods (".").

Answer 2

.topmenu-design
{
    display: inline-table;
}

That all!

Answer 3

Like so many of you, I've been struggling with this for a while. The solution ultimately had to do with the div containing the UL. All suggestions on altering padding, width, etc. of the UL had no effect, but the following did.

It's all about the margin:0 auto; on the containing div. I hope this helps some people, and thanks to everyone else who already suggested this in combination with other things.

.divNav
{
    width: 99%;
    text-align:center;
    margin:0 auto; 
}

.divNav ul
{ 
    display:inline-block; 
    list-style:none;
    zoom: 1;
}

.divNav ul li 
{
    float:left;
    margin-right: .8em;       
    padding: 0; 
}

.divNav a,  #divNav a:visited
{
    width: 7.5em;
    display: block; 
    border: 1px solid #000;
    border-bottom:none;
    padding: 5px; 
    background-color:#F90;
    text-decoration: none;
    color:#FFF;
    text-align: center;
    font-family:Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif;
    font-size:1em;
}

Answer 4

i use jquery code for this. (Alternative solution)

    $(document).ready(function() { 
       var margin = $(".topmenu-design").width()-$("#topmenu").width();
       $("#topmenu").css('margin-left',margin/2);
    });

Answer 5

ul{margin-left:33%}

Is a decent approximation on big screens. Its not good, but a good dirty fix.

Answer 6

Try this:

div.topmenu-design ul
{
  display:block;
  width:600px; /* or whatever width value */
  margin:0px auto;
}