Question

On my page I have two elements in a header area. I would like the first element to be centered in the middle of the header area and a second element that is pushed all the way to the right side of the header area. I achieved the desired effect using this code:

<div id="header-area" style="text-align:center;width:100%;">
  <div id="partition1" style="display:inline-block;width:33%;"></div>
  <div id="partition2" style="display:inline-block;width:33%;">
    <div id="element1" style="display:inline;width:400px;height:100px;">
      <h3 style="display:inline;width:400px;">Main title Goes Here</h3><br/><br/>
      <p style="display:inline;width:400px;">Subtitle goes here</p>
    </div>
  </div>
  <div id="partition3" style="display:inline-block;width:33%;text-align:right;">
    <div id="Element2" style="display:inline;width:150px;vertical-align:middle;">
      <button onclick="history.back();" style="height:45px;width:100px;">
      Back</button>
    </div>
  </div>
</div>

You will notice I partitioned the header-area into three spaces and aligned the element1 & element2 within their respective partitions. How can I achieve the same layout without partitioning the header-area?

Answer 1

There’s several ways to do this. Here are two:

Option #1: Float

The HTML:

<div id="header">
    <div class="right">Element on right end</div>
    <div class="center">Center-Aligned Element</div>
</div>

The CSS:

#header {
    text-align: center;
}

#header div.center {
    margin: 0 auto;
    text-align: center;
    width: 30%;
}

#header div.right {
    float: right;
    text-align: right;
}

Option #2: Position absolute

The HTML:

<div id="header">
    <div>Center-Aligned Element</div>
    <div class="right">Element on right end</div>
</div>

The CSS:

#header {
    text-align: center;
}

#header div {
    text-align: center;
    width: 30%;
    margin: 0 auto;
}

#header div.right {
    position: absolute;
    top: 0;
    right: 0;
    text-align: right;
}

Example Using Your Elements:

The HTML:

<div id="header">
    <h3>Main Title Goes Here</h3>
    <p>Subtitle Goes Here</h3>
    <button>Element on right end</button>
</div>

The CSS:

#header {
    text-align: center;
}

#header h3,
#header p {
    margin: 0 auto;
    text-align: center;
    width: 30%;
}

#header button {
    position: absolute;
    top: 0;
    right: 0;
}