How can I align the items in my navbar to the center?

Question

How would you align the items in the navbar? I tried using text-align: center but to no avail

body {
  font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
}

.navbar {
  overflow: hidden;
  background-color: #333;
}

.navbar a {
  float: left;
  font-size: 16px;
  color: white;
  text-align: center;
  padding: 14px 16px;
  text-decoration: none;
}

.dropdown {
  float: left;
  overflow: hidden;
}

.dropdown .dropbtn {
  font-size: 16px;
  border: none;
  outline: none;
  color: white;
  padding: 14px 16px;
  background-color: inherit;
  font-family: inherit;
  margin: 0;
}

.navbar a:hover,
.dropdown:hover .dropbtn {
  background-color: red;
}

.dropdown-content {
  display: none;
  position: absolute;
  background-color: #f9f9f9;
  min-width: 160px;
  box-shadow: 0px 8px 16px 0px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2);
  z-index: 1;
}

.dropdown-content a {
  float: none;
  color: black;
  padding: 12px 16px;
  text-decoration: none;
  display: block;
  text-align: left;
}

.dropdown-content a:hover {
  background-color: #ddd;
}

.dropdown:hover .dropdown-content {
  display: block;
}

<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/font-awesome/6.2.1/css/all.min.css" integrity="sha512-MV7K8+y+gLIBoVD59lQIYicR65iaqukzvf/nwasF0nqhPay5w/9lJmVM2hMDcnK1OnMGCdVK+iQrJ7lzPJQd1w==" crossorigin="anonymous" referrerpolicy="no-referrer" />


<div class="navbar">
  <div class="dropdown" id="one">
    <button class="dropbtn">A
      <i class="fa fa-caret-down"></i>
    </button>
    <div class="dropdown-content">
      <a href="#">Link 1</a>
      <a href="#">Link 2</a>
      <a href="#">Link 3</a>
    </div>
  </div>
  <div class="dropdown" id="two">
    <button class="dropbtn">B
      <i class="fa fa-caret-down"></i>
    </button>
    <div class="dropdown-content">
      <a href="#">Link 1</a>
      <a href="#">Link 2</a>
      <a href="#">Link 3</a>
    </div>
  </div>
  <div class="dropdown" id="three">
    <button class="dropbtn">C
      <i class="fa fa-caret-down"></i>
    </button>
    <div class="dropdown-content">
      <a href="#">Link 1</a>
      <a href="#">Link 2</a>
      <a href="#">Link 3</a>
    </div>
  </div>
</div>

Does this answer your question? [How can I horizontally center an element?](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/114543/how-can-i-horizontally-center-an-element) — isherwood, Jan 17 '23 at 15:23

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Jan 17 '23 at 15:17

Protip: Don't use floats. They're a dated and troublesome technique with very few legitimate modern uses.

Instead, use text alignment, automatic side margins, or flexbox.

See https://css-tricks.com/snippets/css/a-guide-to-flexbox.

body {
  font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
}

.navbar {
  overflow: hidden;
  background-color: #333;
  display: flex; /* <---------------------------------- HERE */
  justify-content: center; /* <------------------------ HERE */
}

.navbar a {
  font-size: 16px;
  color: white;
  text-align: center;
  padding: 14px 16px;
  text-decoration: none;
}

.dropdown {
  overflow: hidden;
}

.dropdown .dropbtn {
  font-size: 16px;
  border: none;
  outline: none;
  color: white;
  padding: 14px 16px;
  background-color: inherit;
  font-family: inherit;
  margin: 0;
}

.navbar a:hover,
.dropdown:hover .dropbtn {
  background-color: red;
}

.dropdown-content {
  display: none;
  position: absolute;
  background-color: #f9f9f9;
  min-width: 160px;
  box-shadow: 0px 8px 16px 0px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2);
  z-index: 1;
}

.dropdown-content a {
  color: black;
  padding: 12px 16px;
  text-decoration: none;
  display: block;
  text-align: left;
}

.dropdown-content a:hover {
  background-color: #ddd;
}

.dropdown:hover .dropdown-content {
  display: block;
}

<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/font-awesome/6.2.1/css/all.min.css" integrity="sha512-MV7K8+y+gLIBoVD59lQIYicR65iaqukzvf/nwasF0nqhPay5w/9lJmVM2hMDcnK1OnMGCdVK+iQrJ7lzPJQd1w==" crossorigin="anonymous" referrerpolicy="no-referrer" />

<div class="navbar">
  <div class="dropdown" id="one">
    <button class="dropbtn">A
      <i class="fa fa-caret-down"></i>
    </button>

    <div class="dropdown-content">
      <a href="#">Link 1</a>
      <a href="#">Link 2</a>
      <a href="#">Link 3</a>
    </div>
  </div>

  <div class="dropdown" id="two">
    <button class="dropbtn">B
      <i class="fa fa-caret-down"></i>
    </button>

    <div class="dropdown-content">
      <a href="#">Link 1</a>
      <a href="#">Link 2</a>
      <a href="#">Link 3</a>
    </div>
  </div>

  <div class="dropdown" id="three">
    <button class="dropbtn">C
      <i class="fa fa-caret-down"></i>
    </button>

    <div class="dropdown-content">
      <a href="#">Link 1</a>
      <a href="#">Link 2</a>
      <a href="#">Link 3</a>
    </div>
  </div>
</div>

score 0 · Answer 2 · edited Jan 18 '23 at 14:56

Make a div named center and make it an inline-block

.center{
  display: inline-block;
}

Then cover all your drop downs with it like here bellow

  <div class="center">
    <div class="dropdown" id="one">
      <button class="dropbtn">
        A
        <i class="fa fa-caret-down"></i>
      </button>
      <div class="dropdown-content">
        <a href="#">Link 1</a>
        <a href="#">Link 2</a>
        <a href="#">Link 3</a>
      </div>
    </div>
    <div class="dropdown" id="two">
      <button class="dropbtn">
        B
        <i class="fa fa-caret-down"></i>
      </button>
      <div class="dropdown-content">
        <a href="#">Link 1</a>
        <a href="#">Link 2</a>
        <a href="#">Link 3</a>
      </div>
    </div>
    <div class="dropdown" id="three">
      <button class="dropbtn">
        C
        <i class="fa fa-caret-down"></i>
      </button>
      <div class="dropdown-content">
        <a href="#">Link 1</a>
        <a href="#">Link 2</a>
        <a href="#">Link 3</a>
      </div>
    </div>
  </div>

then add to your css text align center to .navbar

  .navbar {
    overflow: hidden;
    background-color: #333;
    text-align:center

  }

now it will center the div class .center and your dropdown menu items wil always be centered

there are other ways to do it but this looks like the best if you dont declare the width of your div

Under here is the correct full code snippet

body {
  font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
}

.center {
  display: inline-block;
}

.navbar {
  overflow: hidden;
  background-color: #333;
  text-align: center
}

.navbar a {
  float: left;
  font-size: 16px;
  color: white;
  text-align: center;
  padding: 14px 16px;
  text-decoration: none;
}

.dropdown {
  float: left;
  overflow: hidden;
}

.dropdown .dropbtn {
  font-size: 16px;
  border: none;
  outline: none;
  color: white;
  padding: 14px 16px;
  background-color: inherit;
  font-family: inherit;
  margin: 0;
}

.navbar a:hover,
.dropdown:hover .dropbtn {
  background-color: red;
}

.dropdown-content {
  display: none;
  position: absolute;
  background-color: #f9f9f9;
  min-width: 160px;
  box-shadow: 0px 8px 16px 0px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2);
  z-index: 1;
}

.dropdown-content a {
  float: none;
  color: black;
  padding: 12px 16px;
  text-decoration: none;
  display: block;
  text-align: left;
}

.dropdown-content a:hover {
  background-color: #ddd;
}

.dropdown:hover .dropdown-content {
  display: block;
}

<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/font-awesome/6.2.1/css/all.min.css" integrity="sha512-MV7K8+y+gLIBoVD59lQIYicR65iaqukzvf/nwasF0nqhPay5w/9lJmVM2hMDcnK1OnMGCdVK+iQrJ7lzPJQd1w==" crossorigin="anonymous" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"
/>

<div class="navbar">
  <div class="center">
    <div class="dropdown" id="one">
      <button class="dropbtn">
        A
        <i class="fa fa-caret-down"></i>
      </button>
      <div class="dropdown-content">
        <a href="#">Link 1</a>
        <a href="#">Link 2</a>
        <a href="#">Link 3</a>
      </div>
    </div>
    <div class="dropdown" id="two">
      <button class="dropbtn">
        B
        <i class="fa fa-caret-down"></i>
      </button>
      <div class="dropdown-content">
        <a href="#">Link 1</a>
        <a href="#">Link 2</a>
        <a href="#">Link 3</a>
      </div>
    </div>
    <div class="dropdown" id="three">
      <button class="dropbtn">
        C
        <i class="fa fa-caret-down"></i>
      </button>
      <div class="dropdown-content">
        <a href="#">Link 1</a>
        <a href="#">Link 2</a>
        <a href="#">Link 3</a>
      </div>
    </div>
  </div>
</div>

FYI, the CSS panel should not contain HTML (the style tag). You'd also remove the closing style tag from the HTML panel. — isherwood, Jan 18 '23 at 14:56

How can I align the items in my navbar to the center?

2 Answers2