Ben C said:
It sounds like you want a centered, shrink-to-fit container for the
floats.
The only ways to do centered and shrink-to-fit we could come up with the
other day (see recent thread called something like "Centering a float")
are with a table or display: inline-block (or inline-table would also
work), but inline-block is not supported by FF.
Indeed, I have been thinking of using a table (simple as that) if
I go the way I was wanting yesterday. On reflection, it seems
silly not to for some display purposes. Your description "a
centered, shrink-to-fit container" is nice and apt.
But I am also considering another plan - you might pardon me for
diverging - where the whole width of the browser window can be
utilised for these floats unrestricted by a left navigation bar.
The wider the space, the less noticeable any uneven sides become.
In this plan, it becomes more pressing or tempting to have a
dropdown strip menu at top. There is one I like at
http://www.grc.com/menu2/invitro.htm? but it would bother me if I
could not make it work in iCab for sentimental reasons. I might
contact iCab... or the makers of the dropdown... they took some
trouble to make it comply with modern browsers.