how to evenly distribute elements in a div next to each other?

Question

This is meant for a menu.
For example I have a div element with 3 spans in it, all of which have some margin, max-width and float (left or right).
It is positioned s

Answer 1

.container {
  padding: 10px;
}
.parent {
  width: 100%;
  background: #7b7b7b;
  display: flex;
  justify-content: space-between;
  height: 4px;
}
.child {
  color: #fff;
  background: green;
  padding: 10px 10px;
  border-radius: 50%;
  position: relative;
  top: -8px;
}

<div class="container">
  <div class="parent">
    <span class="child"></span>
    <span class="child"></span>
    <span class="child"></span>
    <span class="child"></span>
    <span class="child"></span>
    <span class="child"></span>
    <span class="child"></span>
    <span class="child"></span>
    <span class="child"></span>
    <span class="child"></span>
  </div>
</div>

Answer 2

In the 'old days' you'd use a table and your menu items would be evenly spaced without having to explicitly state the width for the number of items.

If it wasn't for IE 6 and 7 (if that is of concern) then you can do the same in CSS.

<div class="demo">
    <span>Span 1</span>
    <span>Span 2</span>
    <span>Span 3</span>
</div>

CSS:

div.demo {
    display: table;
    width: 100%;
    table-layout: fixed;    /* For cells of equal size */
}
div.demo span {
    display: table-cell;
    text-align: center;
}

Without having to adjust for the number of items.

Example without table-layout:fixed - the cells are evenly distributed across the full width, but they are not necessarily of equal size since their width is determined by their contents.

• http://jsfiddle.net/w3dx/ULQwf/

Example with table-layout:fixed - the cells are of equal size, regardless of their contents. (Thanks to @DavidHerse in comments for this addition.)

• http://jsfiddle.net/kqHWM/

If you want the first and last menu elements to be left and right justified, then you can add the following CSS:

div.demo span:first-child {
    text-align: left;
}
div.demo span:last-child {
    text-align: right;
}

Answer 3

If someone wants to try a slightly different approach, they can use FLEX.

HTML

<div class="test">
    <div>Div 1</div>
    <div>Div 2</div>
    <div>Div 3</div>
    <div>Div 4</div>
</div>

CSS

.test {
    display: flex;
    flex-flow: row wrap;
    justify-content: space-around;
}
.test > div {
    margin-top: 10px;
    padding: 20px;
    background-color: #FF0000;
}

Here is the fiddle: http://jsfiddle.net/ynemh3c2/ (Try adding/removing divs as well)

Here is where I learned about this: https://css-tricks.com/snippets/css/a-guide-to-flexbox/

Answer 4

This is the quick and easy way to do it

<div>
    <span>Span 1</span>
    <span>Span 2</span>
    <span>Span 3</span>
</div>

css

div{
    width:100%;
}
span{
    display:inline-block;    
    width:33%;
    text-align:center;
}

Then adjust the width of the spans for the number you have.

Example: http://jsfiddle.net/jasongennaro/wvJxD/

Answer 5

I have managed to do it with the following css combination:

text-align: justify;
text-align-last: justify;
text-justify: inter-word;

Answer 6

You just need to display the div with id #menu as flex container like this:

#menu{
    width: 800px;
    display: flex;
    justify-content: space-between;
}