Have a look at this fiddle- it should solve everything you've asked for
HTML
<div>
<span>tab1</span>
<span>tab2</span>
<span>tabx</span>
</div>
CSS
div {
display: table;
table-layout: fixed;
width: 100%;
max-width: 100%;
}
span {
border: 1px solid grey;
padding: 0 20;
overflow: hidden;
text-overflow: ellipsis;
white-space: nowrap;
display: table-cell;
}