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HTML How to Make a Website CSS: Cascading Style Sheets Style the Basic Elements

Alex Cleanthous
Alex Cleanthous
1,658 Points
Posted by Alex Cleanthous
Alex Cleanthous
1,658 Points

Center a page using the margin?

I am stuck on a challenge.

How do I center a page using the margin? I have 0 as the value, and also tried center.

css/main.css 
#wrapper {
  text-decoration: none;
  max-width: 940px;
  margin: 0;

}
index.html 
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <meta charset="utf-8">
    <title>Nick Pettit | Designer</title>
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="css/normalize.css">
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="css/main.css">
  </head>
  <body>
    <header>
      <a href="index.html" id="logo">
        <h1>Nick Pettit</h1>
        <h2>Designer</h2>
      </a>
      <nav>
        <ul>
          <li><a href="index.html" class="selected">Portfolio</a></li>
          <li><a href="about.html">About</a></li>
          <li><a href="contact.html">Contact</a></li>
        </ul>
      </nav>
    </header>
    <div id="wrapper">
      <section>
        <ul>
          <li>
            <a href="img/numbers-01.jpg">
              <img src="img/numbers-01.jpg" alt="">
              <p>Experimentation with color and texture.</p>
            </a>
          </li>
          <li>
            <a href="img/numbers-02.jpg">
              <img src="img/numbers-02.jpg" alt="">
              <p>Playing with blending modes in Photoshop.</p>
            </a>
          </li>
          <li>
            <a href="img/numbers-06.jpg">
              <img src="img/numbers-06.jpg" alt="">
              <p>Trying to create an 80's style of glows.</p>
            </a>
          </li>
          <li>
            <a href="img/numbers-09.jpg">
              <img src="img/numbers-09.jpg" alt="">
              <p>Drips created using Photoshop brushes.</p>
            </a>
          </li>
          <li>
            <a href="img/numbers-12.jpg">
              <img src="img/numbers-12.jpg" alt="">
              <p>Creating shapes using repetition.</p>
            </a>
          </li>
        </ul>
      </section>
      <footer>
        <a href="http://twitter.com/nickrp"><img src="img/twitter-wrap.png" alt="Twitter Logo"></a>
        <a href="http://facebook.com/nickpettit"><img src="img/facebook-wrap.png" alt="Facebook Logo"></a>
        <p>&copy; 2014 Nick Pettit.</p>
      </footer>
    </div>
  </body>
</html>

2 Answers

Tobias Helmrich
Tobias Helmrich
31,603 Points
Tobias Helmrich
Tobias Helmrich
31,603 Points

Hey Alex,

if you give the wrapper a margin of 0 it will just apply a margin of 0 on every side. You have to give it the value of auto on the left and right side to center it.

Like so:

#wrapper {
  max-width: 940px;
  margin: 0 auto;
}

This is a shorthand value for the margin where 0 is applied to the top and bottom and auto to the left and the right side.