I think that the the align="center"
aligns the content, so if you wanted to use that method, you would need to use it in a 'wraper' div - a div that just wraps the rest.
text-align
is doing a similar sort of thing.
left:50%
is ignored unless you set the div's position to be something like relative or absolute.
The generally accepted methods is to use the following properties
width:500px; // this can be what ever unit you want, you just have to define it
margin-left:auto;
margin-right:auto;
the margins being auto means they grow/shrink to match the browser window (or parent div)
UPDATE
Thanks to Meo for poiting this out, if you wanted to you could save time and use the short hand propery for the margin.
margin:0 auto;
this defines the top and bottom as 0 (as it is zero it does not matter about lack of units) and the left and right get defined as 'auto' You can then, if you wan't override say the top margin as you would with any other CSS rules.