Distributing Inline Elements Using CSS - css

Question

Is there an easy way to distribute inline elements within a parent block container using CSS? Setting margins to auto doesn't work since the margins between inline elements are set to 0 and I don't want to mess around with percentages as the content is dynamic.
In particular, I have several anchor elements (a) within a paragraph (p) that spans 80% of its container and I'm looking for an easy way to distribute them evenly within the paragraph.
EDIT (#cletus): The paragraph will not wrap and the anchors are the only thing in the paragraph. By distribute evenly, I mean that the space between the left (right) edge and first (last) element and the elements themselves is equidistant.

Answer 1

Unfortunately, this is not possible with CSS. However, in the special case where your elements are of equal width, this CSS hack makes it fairly easy.
With equidistant spacing between variable-width elements even specifying widths in percentages for each element's container will not suffice. This would still create a variable width between the elements.
This is probably possible to do with JavaScript on most modern browsers. Here is an example page demonstrating a poorly implemented JavaScript hack and proof that attempting to use text justification to solve this problem will not work reliably.

Answer 2

If CSS3 is acceptable (ie, if how it looks in IE6 is not of primary importance), you can use the display property values of "table" and "table-cell" to use the table display model with any type of element; "inline-block" is also something to consider, which acts like a block without breaking a new line.

Answer 3

Hmmm, sounds to me like you're creating a menu? You might want to use a list to hold your anchors and style the list accordingly. This is the commonly accepted best practice.
As for even distribution of elements, I was looking yesterday for something similar, I was hoping it would be in the CSS3 spec, but it's not (at least I can't find it) which seems like a major f*ckup if you ask me. Anyway...
Which leaves two options. CSS, and Javascript.
With CSS, use the margin-right property for each element. It's a good idea to create a .last class that sets margin-right to zero which prevents your last element from breaking the layout.
There's a bunch of javascripts out there that will do this for you. I prefer only to use JS when absolutely essential, so I couldn't comment on which one is best.
... there is one last thing you could try, but... you didn't hear this from me ok?
You could use a table. That is the quickest (and dirtiest) way to get what you want.
IMHO, and you probably don't want to hear this, but the design is probably flawed. It's common knowledge that distributing items evenly across a layout with CSS is a pain, so designers should avoid it.
UPDATE: You could also try
.link_container { text-align: center; }
.link_container a { margin-right: 10x; }
.last { margin-right: 0; }
then use something like this
<div class='link-container'>
<a href='...'>Some line</a>
<a href='...'>Some line</a>
<a href='...'>Some line</a>
<a class='last' href='...'>Some line</a>
</div>
That might get you close.

Answer 4

Best solution I've found is to center align the containing div then give each of the links a fixed and reasonable left and right padding that can accommodate both the long links and short ones. While this won't evenly space your links all the way across the top bar it will provide a visually pleasing effect.
<div style='text-align:center'>
<a style='padding-left:10px;padding-right:10px'>Link 1</a>
<a style='padding-left:10px;padding-right:10px'>Link 2</a>
<a style='padding-left:10px;padding-right:10px'>Link 3</a>
</div>

Answer 5

It's a bit unclear what you mean by "distributing evenly"; Could it be that you want to justify the contents of the paragraph?
p { text-align: justify; }

Answer 6

do your anchors have specific widths set? i think that might be necessary for any margin auto's to work.

Answer 7

using display: table on the container and display: table-cell on the items within seems to do the trick for me. It even works in IE8
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<!-- insert reset CSS here -->
<style type="text/css">
#header {
width: 940px;
margin: 0 auto;
background-color: #E6EFE6;
}
#main_nav {
width: 100%;
display: table;
}
#main_nav .nav-item {
display: table-cell;
text-align:center;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<div id="header">
<ul class="" id="main_nav">
<li class="nav-item first">
Item 1
</li>
<li class="nav-item">
Item 2
</li>
<li class="nav-item">
Item 2
</li>
<li class="nav-item">
Item 2
</li>
<li class="nav-item">
Item 2
</li>
<li class="nav-item">
Item 2
</li>
<li class="nav-item last">
Item 3
</li>
</ul>
</div>
<body>
</html>