How to center a div with Bootstrap2?

Question

http://twitter.github.com/bootstrap/scaffolding.html

I tried like all combinations:

<div class="row">
  <div class="span7 offset5"> box </div>
</div>

or

<div class="container">
  <div class="row">
    <div class="span7 offset5"> box </div>
  </div>  
</div>

changed span and offset numbers...

But I cant get a simple box perfectly centered on a page :(

I just want a 6-column-wide box centered...

---

edit:

did it with

<div class="container">
  <div class="row" id="login-container">
    <div class="span8 offset2">
       box
    </div>
  </div>
</div>

But the box is too wide, is there any way I can do it with span7 ?

span7 offset2 gives extra padding to the left span7 offset3 extra padding to the right...

Answer 1

besides shrinking the div itself to the size you want, by reducing span size like so... class="span6 offset3", class="span4 offset4", etc... something as simple as style="text-align: center" on the div could have the effect you're looking for

you can't use span7 with any set offset and get the span centered on the page (Because total spans = 12)

Answer 2

Bootstrap's spans are floated to the left. All it takes to center them is override this behavior. I do this by adding this to my stylesheet:

.center {
     float: none;
     margin-left: auto;
     margin-right: auto;
}

If you have this class defined, just add it to the span and you're good to go.

<div class="span7 center"> box </div>

Note that this custom center class must be defined after the bootstrap css. You could use !important but that isn't recommended.

Answer 3

Bootstrap3 has the .center-block class that you can use. It is defined as

.center-block {
  display: block;
  margin-left: auto;
  margin-right: auto;
}

Documentation here.

Answer 4

If you want to go full-bootstrap (and not the auto left/right way) you need a pattern that will fit within 12 columns e.g. 2 blanks, 8 content, 2 blanks. That's what this setup will do. It only covers the -md- variants, I tend to snap it to full size for small by adding col-xs-12

<div class="container">
  <div class="col-md-8 col-md-offset-2">
     box
  </div>
</div>

Answer 5

Sounds like you just wanted to center align a single container. The bootstrap framework might be overcomplicating that one example, you could have just had a standalone div with your own styling, something like:

<div class="login-container">
  <!-- Your Login Form -->
</div>

and style:

.login-container {
  margin: 0 auto;
  width: 400px; /* Whatever exact width you are looking for (not bound by preset bootstrap widths) */
}

That should work fine if you are nested somewhere within a bootstrap .container div.

Answer 6

add the class centercontents

/** Center the contents of the element **/
.centercontents {
    text-align: center !important;
}

Answer 7

@ZuhaibAli code kind of work for me but I changed it a little bit:

I created a new class in css

.center {
     float: none;
     margin-left: auto;
     margin-right: auto;
}

then the div become

<div class="center col-md-6"></div>

I added col-md-6 for the width of the div itself which in this situation meant the div is half the size, there are 1 -12 col md in bootstrap.

Answer 8

Follow this guidance https://getbootstrap.com/docs/3.3/css/

Use .center-block

.center-block {
  display: block;
  margin-left: auto;
  margin-right: auto;
}