CSS: Centering elements vertically - css

Question

I'm trying to develop my first responsive website but I'm having some trouble (of course).
I need an element (sort of a menu) to contain 4 row of elements and each element has an image to the left and some text to the right. Now, the issue I'm having is that I can't seem to be able to make the elements center vertically correctly. I've tried several methods that seem to work for a lot of people so I thought I'ld ask if anybody knows why nothing seems to work for me.
This is what the image CSS looks like:
.tablaBuscadorElementos > img {
position: relative;
width: 20px;
height:20px;
left:0;
right:0;
top:0;
bottom:0;
margin:0 auto;
float:left;}
Here is the fiddle: http://jsfiddle.net/mampy3000/9JZdZ/1/
Appreciate any help!

Answer 1

since your elements are inline-block , you can inject an inline-block pseudo-element 100% height and vertical-align:middle it to img and span : DEMO
basicly (+ below update of your CSS):
.tablaBuscadorElementos:before {
content:'';
height:100%;
display:inline-block;
vertical-align:middle;
}
.tablaBuscadorElementos {
height:22%;/* instead min-height so value can be used for pseudo or direct child */
border: 1px solid black;
padding:0px;
width:100%;
}
.tablaBuscadorElementos > span {
font-size:20px;
width:80%;
vertical-align:middle; /* align to next inline-block element or baseline*/
border:1px solid black;
display:inline-block;/* layout*/
}
.tablaBuscadorElementos > img {
vertical-align:middle; /* align to next inline-block element or baseline*/
width: 20px;
height:20px;
}
.tablaBuscador, .tablaBuscadorElementos{
display:block;
}
.tablaBuscadorElementos:before {
content:'';
height:100%;/* calculated from 22% parent's height */
display:inline-block;/* layout*/
vertical-align:middle;/* align to next inline-block element or baseline*/
}

Answer 2

You can do this by adding this css to .tablaBuscador
position: fixed;
top: 50%;
margin-top:-100px; /* half of height */
More info here: How to center a table of the screen (vertically and horizontally)
The newer option would be to use calc() but you might run into browser support issues.
position: fixed;
top:calc(50% - 100px).
Here are which browsers support calc(): http://caniuse.com/#feat=calc

Answer 3

Your code needs a major tune-up. You are floating elements, using vertical-align on them, positioning them relatively with left, right, top, and bottom set to 0. None of these make any sense. Here's a cleaned up fiddle: http://jsfiddle.net/jL2Gz/.
And here's a tuned up code:
* {
padding: 0;
margin: 0;
}
body {
height:100%;
}
.tablaBuscador {
font-family: "Maven Pro", sans-serif;
height:200px;
width:40%;
}
.tablaBuscador > div {
border: 1px solid black;
padding: 10px 0;
}
.tablaBuscador > div > span {
font-size:20px;
width:80%;
border:1px solid black;
}
.tablaBuscador > div > img {
width: 20px;
height: 20px;
}
.tablaBuscador > div > * {
display: inline-block;
vertical-align: middle;
}