aligning elements in their containers and the containers on the line

Question

I've got several elements that I am trying to group together and then center them on page like so:

                                         |
                                         |
              Username:                  |                 
              ________________           |                 IMG 1
              Password:                  |                 
              ________________           |                 IMG 2
                  login                  |
                                         |
                                         |

I don't want Username and password centered, I still want to those to be at the very left side of the input boxes.

Right now it looks something like this:

                                         |
 Username                              IM|G 2  
                                         |                 
         _______________                 |                 IMG 1
         _______________             Pass|word:                 
                                         |                 
                  login                  |
                                         |
                                         |

I've got IMG 1, the login button and the vertical line in a good spot but the form is just all over the place. I've tried playing around with a lot of different things to get the rest of the login form and IMG 2 in the right spot but I am stuck. Here is the basic layout of my html file:

<div id="center-wrapper">
    <div id="img1">
        <img src="img1.png" />
    </div>
    <br>
    <div id="img2">
        <img src="img2.png" />
    </div>

    <div id="line"></div>

    <form id="form-wrapper" action="/login/" method="post" style="width:40%;">
    {% csrf_token %}
    {% for field in form %}
    <br>
        {% if field.errors %}
            <div class="form-group has-error">
                <label class="col-sm-2 control-label" for="id_{{ field.name }}">
                {{ field.label }}</label>
                <div class="col-sm-10">
                    {{ field|attr:"class:form-control" }}
                    <span class="help-block">
                        {% for error in  field.errors %}{{ error }}{% endfor %}
                    </span>
                </div>
            </div>
        {% else %}
            <div class="form-group">
                <label class="col-sm-2 control-label" for="id_{{ field.name }}">{{ field.label }}</label>
                <div class="col-sm-10">
                    {{ field|attr:"class:form-control" }}
                    {% if field.help_text %}
                        <p class="help-block"><small>{{ field.help_text }}</small></p>
                    {% endif %}
                </div>
            </div>
        {% endif %}
        <br>
    {% endfor %}
    <div class="form-group">
        <div class="col-sm-offset-2 col-sm-10">
            <br>
            <button type="submit" class="btn btn-primary" value="Log In">{% trans "Log In" %}</button><br>
            <br>Don't have an account? <a href="/signup/">Sign Up</a>
        </div>
    </div>
    </form>
</div>

My button is inside my form so I am not sure why that one is being centered properly and the rest of the form is not. Also, the <br> is not putting IMG 2 under IMG 1. My CSS is this:

#center-wrapper {
    text-align: center;
    margin: auto;
    width: 60%;
    height: 100%;
}

#form-wrapper {
    width: 50%;
}

#img1 {
    height: 220px;
    width: 274px;
    background: none;
    z-index: 30;
    float: right;
    position: absolute;
    margin-top: 0;
}

#img2 {
    height: 85px;
    width: 274px;
    background: none;
    z-index: 30;
    float: right;
    position: absolute;
    margin-bottom: 0;
}

#line {
    height: 305px;
    width: 2px;
    background-color: #8a8a8a;
    top: 200px;
    left: 50%;
    z-index: 30;
    position: absolute;
}

I don't think my question is very hard, but I have been struggling over getting this format right for so long and I just want some suggestions! I am using Django forms, which are pretty tricky to format (formatting them with widget-tweaks), but I don't think that should matter for moving its position around.

this may give you some places to start: https://jsfiddle.net/exh3s8vz/1/ — ryantdecker, Jun 10 '16 at 21:47
@RachelGallen I've added all the html for my form, as I said Django forms are tricky to format, so that might be the source of some of my problems — Catherine, Jun 10 '16 at 21:48
@ryantdecker that helps a little but ideally I would like to have the form, line and image not overlap when you shrink the window — Catherine, Jun 10 '16 at 21:55
@AdamBuchananSmith yours is also very helpful but I would like for the images to stay the same size when you enlarge/shrink the window size — Catherine, Jun 10 '16 at 21:57
Flexbox is well-suited for aligning elements on a line... http://stackoverflow.com/a/32122011/3597276 — Michael Benjamin, Jun 11 '16 at 02:07

score 6 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 10 '16 at 21:40

Please avoid the use of absolute positions for this kind of layouts that will break your view at some point.

I suggest the use of other CSS methods. Check this snippet examples if you have more questions you can ask:

Display - Table

* {
  margin: 0;
  padding: 0;
  box-sizing: border-box
}
html,
body {
  height: 100%;
}
#center-wrapper {
  height: 100%;
  width: 100%;
  display: table;
}
#center-wrapper > div {
  width: 50%;
  display: table-cell;
  vertical-align: middle;
  text-align: center;
}
#center-wrapper > div:first-child {
  border-right: 2px solid red;
}
#form-wrapper {
  width: 70%;
  display: inline-block;
}
label,
input {
  width: 100%;
  text-align: left;
  display: block;
}

<div id="center-wrapper">
  <div>
    <form id="form-wrapper">
      <label>User</label>
      <input type="text">
      <label>Pass</label>
      <input type="text">
      <button type="submit" value="Log In">Log In</button>
    </form>
  </div>
  <div>
    <img src="http://placehold.it/200" />
    <img src="http://placehold.it/200" />
  </div>
</div>

Inline-block

* {
  margin: 0;
  padding: 0;
  box-sizing: border-box
}
html,
body {
  height: 100%;
}
#center-wrapper {
  height: 100%;
  width: 100%;
}
#center-wrapper > div {
  width: 48%;
  display: inline-block;
  vertical-align: middle;
  text-align: center;
}
#center-wrapper > div.line {
  width:2%;
  height:100%;
  background:purple;
}
#form-wrapper {
  width: 70%;
  display: inline-block;
}
label,
input {
  width: 100%;
  text-align: left;
  display: block;
}

<div id="center-wrapper">
  <div>
    <form id="form-wrapper">
      <label>User</label>
      <input type="text">
      <label>Pass</label>
      <input type="text">
      <button type="submit" value="Log In">Log In</button>
    </form>
  </div>
  <div class="line"></div>
  <div>
    <img src="http://placehold.it/200" />
    <img src="http://placehold.it/200" />
  </div>
</div>

_{Note : Other methods like flex will work also, but this here will give you an idea}

I really like these results! How would I go about making the red line shorter? — Catherine, Jun 10 '16 at 22:18
Nevermind I got it: `#center-wrapper{ height: 40%; padding-top: 300px; }` — Catherine, Jun 10 '16 at 22:31
Scratch that I made `padding-top: 25%` and now it looks perfect! — Catherine, Jun 10 '16 at 22:39

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 10 '16 at 21:58

No need to use position just use like that, HTML

<form id="form-wrapper">
    <label for="username">
        Username:
        <input type="text" name="username">
    </label>
    <br>
    <label for="password">
        Password:
        <input type="text" name="password">
    </label>
    <br>
    <button type="submit" value="Log In">Login</button>
</form>

<div id="imgs">
    <img src="img1.png" alt="Img 1" />
    <br>
    <img src="img2.png" alt="Img 2" />
</div>

I Just change some code of yours. CSS

#center-wrapper {
  margin: auto;
  width: 60%;
  padding-top: 50px;
}
#form-wrapper{
  border-right: 2px dashed gray;
}
#form-wrapper, #imgs {
  width: 49.5%;
  float: left;
  height: 200px;
  padding-top: 50px;
  text-align: center;
}
  #form-wrapper input{
  border: none;
}
#form-wrapper label{
  border-bottom: 1px solid;
}
button {
  border: none;
  background: none;
}

aligning elements in their containers and the containers on the line

2 Answers2