Question

Given the following menu structure:

<div id="smoothmenu1" class="ddsmoothmenu">
    <ul>
        <li><a href="Default.aspx">Home</a></li>
        <li><a href="About.aspx">About Us</a></li>
        <li>
            <a href="#">Automotives</a>
            <ul>
                <li><a href="#">Masking Film</a></li>
                <li><a href="#">Promo Items</a></li>
                <li><a href="#">Accessories</a></li>
                <li><a href="#">External Protection</a></li>
                <li><a href="#">Internal Protection</a></li>
            </ul>
        </li>
        <li>
            <a href="#">Packaging</a>
            <ul>
                <li>
                    <a href="#">Cardboard boxes</a>
                    <ul>
                        <li><a href="#">Big Boxes</a></li>
                        <li><a href="#">Small Boxes</a></li>
                        <li><a href="#">Medium Boxes</a></li>
                    </ul>
                </li>
                <li><a href="#">Paper bags</a></li>
                <li><a href="#">Polythene bags</a></li>
                <li><a href="#">Polythene layflat tubing</a></li>
                <li><a href="#">Postall bags & packaging</a></li>
                <li><a href="#">Protective Packaging</a></li>
                <li><a href="#">Refuse sacks</a></li>
                <li><a href="#">Retail</a></li>
                <li><a href="#">Strapping</a></li>
                <li><a href="#">Tapes</a></li>
            </ul>
        </li>
        <li>
            <a href="#">Eco Friendly</a>
            <ul>
                <li><a href="#">Recycled bags</a></li>
                <li><a href="#">Degradable bags</a></li>
                <li><a href="#">Random bags</a></li>
                <li><a href="#">Cotton bags</a></li>
                <li><a href="#">Compostable bags</a></li>
            </ul>
        </li>
        <li><a href="Design.aspx">Design Service</a></li>
        <li><a href="Contact.aspx">Contact Us</a></li>
        <li><a href="Offers.aspx">Offers</a></li>
    </ul>
    <br style="clear: left" />
</div>

All the menu buttons look great, but they are left aligned in the container. I can’t work out how to have them centered within the menu bar so that no matter how wide the browser window, they are always in the middle.

Relevant CSS is:

.ddsmoothmenu {
    font: bold 12px Verdana;
    background: #2773A0;
    /*background of menu bar (default state)*/
    width: 100%;
    background-image: url(../images/menuBG.jpg);
    z-index: 9999;
}

.ddsmoothmenu ul {
    z-index: 9999;
    margin: 0;
    padding: 0;
    list-style-type: none;
}

/*Top level list items*/
.ddsmoothmenu ul li {
    position: relative;
    display: inline;
    float: left;
    z-index: 9999;
}

/*Top level menu link items style*/
.ddsmoothmenu ul li a {
    display: block;
    color: white;
    padding: 8px 10px;
    border-right: 1px solid #ffffff;
    color: #2d2b2b;
    text-decoration: none;
    padding: 10px 30px 10px 30px;
    font-size: 18px;
    font-family: Arial;
    font-weight: normal;
    z-index: 9999;
}

* html .ddsmoothmenu ul li a {
    /*IE6 hack to get sub menu links to behave correctly*/
    display: inline-block;
    z-index: 9999;
}

.ddsmoothmenu ul li a:link, .ddsmoothmenu ul li a:visited {
    color: white;
}

.ddsmoothmenu ul li a.selected {
    /*CSS class that's dynamically added to the currently active menu items' LI A element*/
    background: #2773A0;
    color: white;
    z-index: 9999;
}

.ddsmoothmenu ul li a:hover {
    background: #4FA2D2;
    /*background of menu items during onmouseover (hover state)*/;
}

    /*1st sub level menu*/
.ddsmoothmenu ul li ul {
    position: absolute;
    left: 0;
    display: none;
    /*collapse all sub menus to begin with*/
    visibility: hidden;
    z-index: 9999;
}

/*Sub level menu list items (undo style from Top level List Items)*/
.ddsmoothmenu ul li ul li {
    display: list-item;
    float: none;
    background: #2773A0;
    /*background of menu items (default state)*/
    z-index: 9999;
    border-right: 0px;
}

/*All subsequent sub menu levels vertical offset after 1st level sub menu */
.ddsmoothmenu ul li ul li ul {
    top: 0;
    border-right: 0px;
    z-index: 9999;
}

/* Sub level menu links style */
.ddsmoothmenu ul li ul li a {
    font: normal 13px Verdana;
    width: 200px;
    /*width of sub menus*/
    padding: 10px;
    margin: 0;
    border-right: 0px;
}

    /* Holly Hack for IE \*/
* html .ddsmoothmenu {
    height: 1%;
} /*Holly Hack for IE7 and below*/


/* ######### CSS classes applied to down and right arrow images  ######### */

.downarrowclass {
    position: absolute;
    top: 17px;
    right: 7px;
}

.rightarrowclass {
    position: absolute;
    top: 14px;
    right: 5px;
}

/* ######### CSS for shadow added to sub menus  ######### */

.ddshadow {
    position: absolute;
    left: 0;
    top: 0;
    width: 0;
    height: 0;
    background: silver;
    z-index: 89;
}

.toplevelshadow {
    /*shadow opacity. Doesn't work in IE*/
    opacity: 0.8;
    z-index:89;
    filter:alpha(opacity=80);
}

Answer 1

Here you go, now stop using tables for layout. That technique belongs in the wastepaper bin of history. Go educate yourself on why you really should not use tables here. Now on how to center this. Have a look at this jsfiddle: http://jsfiddle.net/ezsZb/

The technique is basically what is described here: http://www.tightcss.com/centering/center_variable_width.htm. Nothing much to it, it’s a fairly common technique.

---

The plugin’s code is horrid, so we’re just going to play around with CSS and HTML here instead. Assuming this HTML structure:

<div id="smoothmenu1">
    <div id="wrapper">
        <ul id="innerul">
        ...
        </ul>
    </div>
    <br style="clear: left" />
</div>

Using this configuration:

mainmenuid: "wrapper", //menu DIV id

And swapping the CSS styles around:

#smoothmenu1 { /* This used to be .ddsmoothmenu */
  font: bold 12px Verdana;
  background: #414141; /*background of menu bar (default state)*/
  width: 100%;
}

#wrapper {
  position: relative;
  float: left;
  left: 50%;
}

#innerul {
  position: relative;
  left: -50%;
}

You will get the result you need. See: http://jsbin.com/anaho/.

PS: Considering using another plugin. The code quality for this one is very bad, and it’s not very flexible.