text-align and Netscape

[shank]

Is there a reason why text-align:center would not work with NS 7.1 ? I have
text-align:center on the body tag that works fine for centering <DIV> and
<TABLE> in the body in IE. But NS shows those objects as being left aligned.

What do I need to change?

 

[PeterMcC]

Is there a reason why text-align:center would not work with NS 7.1 ?
I have text-align:center on the body tag that works fine for
centering <DIV> and <TABLE> in the body in IE. But NS shows those
objects as being left aligned.

What do I need to change?

It's Netscape that gets it right, the correct method is to set the margins,
left and right, to auto.

Because IE 5x and 6 in quirks mode don't implement this, the
text-align:center is used for them. You can combine the two methods. Auto
margins for compliant browsers and the text-align:center for IE5x. You have
to remember to left align the text in anything that inherits the centering
where it's inappropriate.

Have a look at:
http://bluerobot.com/web/css/center1.html

 

[Steve Pugh]

Is there a reason why text-align:center would not work with NS 7.1 ? I have
text-align:center on the body tag that works fine for centering <DIV> and
<TABLE> in the body in IE. But NS shows those objects as being left aligned.

Because Netscape gets CSS right and IE doesn't.

text-align: center; should center inline content, not blocks or tables
themselves.

Use margin-left: auto; and margin-right: auto; to center blocks in
standards compliant browsers. Keep on using text-align: center; for
IE5 but remember to add text-align: left; on the child elements so
that the text within those elements is not centered.

Steve

 

[Leif K-Brooks]

Is there a reason why text-align:center would not work with NS 7.1 ? I have
text-align:center on the body tag that works fine for centering <DIV> and
<TABLE> in the body in IE. But NS shows those objects as being left aligned.

IE is broken and centers block-level elements with text-align. Put
margin:auto on the block-level elements instead.

 

[Toby A Inkster]

Is there a reason why text-align:center would not work with NS 7.1 ?

It does work. "text-align:center" aligns text to the centre -- just what
it said on the tin.

If you want to align blocks to the centre, you have to use a different
method, usually setting left and right margins to "auto".

See:
http://www.goddamn.co.uk/tobyink/scratch/centre

 

[DU]

Is there a reason why text-align:center would not work with NS 7.1 ? I have
text-align:center on the body tag that works fine for centering <DIV> and
<TABLE> in the body in IE. But NS shows those objects as being left aligned.

What do I need to change?

Everyone told you that MSIE gets it wrong but MSIE 6 for windows in
standards compliant rendering mode gets it right by supporting
margin:0 auto;
accordingly.
So the first thing to do is to trigger standards compliant rendering
mode in MSIE 6 for windows and you'll not have to write any
cross-browser code to center block-level elements and/or to center
inline elements in the table (text-align is a CSS1 property inherited
and inheritable) or within any block-level elements.

MSIE 6 for windows supports both margin:0 auto and
text-align:left|center|right according to W3C CSS1... as long as the
document triggers standards compliant rendering mode.

DU