What is the best way to center a div on the screen using jQuery?

Question

The title says it all really.

Answer 1

Center it how? Horizontally, vertically, both? Do you want the div itself centered, or just the content?

To center horizontally:

.mydiv { margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; }

Answer 2

Vertically

Answer 3

I like adding functions to jQuery so this function would help:

jQuery.fn.center = function () {
    this.css("position","absolute");
    this.css("top", ( $(window).height() - this.height() ) / 2+$(window).scrollTop() + "px");
    this.css("left", ( $(window).width() - this.width() ) / 2+$(window).scrollLeft() + "px");
    return this;
}

Now we can just write:

$(element).center();

Answer 4

This is untested, but something like this should work.

var myElement = $('#myElement');
myElement.css({
    position: 'absolute',
    left: '50%',
    'margin-left': 0 - (myElement.width() / 2)
});

Answer 5

I put a jquery plugin here http://plugins.jquery.com/project/autocenter

VERY SHORT VERSION

$('#myDiv').css({top:'50%',left:'50%',margin:'-'+($('#myDiv').height() / 2)+'px 0 0 -'+($('#myDiv').width() / 2)+'px'});

SHORT VERSION

(function($){
    $.fn.extend({
        center: function () {
            return this.each(function() {
                var top = ($(window).height() - $(this).outerHeight()) / 2;
                var left = ($(window).width() - $(this).outerWidth()) / 2;
                $(this).css({position:'absolute', margin:0, top: (top > 0 ? top : 0)+'px', left: (left > 0 ? left : 0)+'px'});
            });
        }
    }); 
})(jQuery);

Activated by this code :

$('#mainDiv').center();

PLUGIN VERSION

(function($){
     $.fn.extend({
          center: function (options) {
               var options =  $.extend({ // Default values
                    inside:window, // element, center into window
                    transition: 0, // millisecond, transition time
                    minX:0, // pixel, minimum left element value
                    minY:0, // pixel, minimum top element value
                    withScrolling:true, // booleen, take care of the scrollbar (scrollTop)
                    vertical:true, // booleen, center vertical
                    horizontal:true // booleen, center horizontal
               }, options);
               return this.each(function() {
                    var props = {position:'absolute'};
                    if (options.vertical) {
                         var top = ($(options.inside).height() - $(this).outerHeight()) / 2;
                         if (options.withScrolling) top += $(options.inside).scrollTop() || 0;
                         top = (top > options.minY ? top : options.minY);
                         $.extend(props, {top: top+'px'});
                    }
                    if (options.horizontal) {
                          var left = ($(options.inside).width() - $(this).outerWidth()) / 2;
                          if (options.withScrolling) left += $(options.inside).scrollLeft() || 0;
                          left = (left > options.minX ? left : options.minX);
                          $.extend(props, {left: left+'px'});
                    }
                    if (options.transition > 0) $(this).animate(props, options.transition);
                    else $(this).css(props);
                    return $(this);
               });
          }
     });
})(jQuery);

Activated by this code :

$(document).ready(function(){
    $('#mainDiv').center();
    $(window).bind('resize', function() {
        $('#mainDiv').center({transition:300});
    });
);

is that right ?

Answer 6

The transition component of this function worked really poorly for me in Chrome (didn't test elsewhere). I would resize the window a bunch and my element would sort of scoot around slowly, trying to catch up.

So the following function comments that part out. In addition, I added parameters for passing in optional x & y booleans, if you want to center vertically but not horizontally, for example:

// Center an element on the screen
(function($){
  $.fn.extend({
    center: function (x,y) {
      // var options =  $.extend({transition:300, minX:0, minY:0}, options);
      return this.each(function() {
                if (x == undefined) {
                    x = true;
                }
                if (y == undefined) {
                    y = true;
                }
                var $this = $(this);
                var $window = $(window);
                $this.css({
                    position: "absolute",
                });
                if (x) {
                    var left = ($window.width() - $this.outerWidth())/2+$window.scrollLeft();
                    $this.css('left',left)
                }
                if (!y == false) {
            var top = ($window.height() - $this.outerHeight())/2+$window.scrollTop();   
                    $this.css('top',top);
                }
        // $(this).animate({
        //   top: (top > options.minY ? top : options.minY)+'px',
        //   left: (left > options.minX ? left : options.minX)+'px'
        // }, options.transition);
        return $(this);
      });
    }
  });
})(jQuery);

Answer 7

For some reason he suggests using 300 as the speed parameter which is crazy. When I tried it out I had it set to 5 to get a reasonably smooth effect.

Answer 8

I dont think having an absolute position would be best if you want an element always centered in the middle of the page. You probably want a fixed element. I found another jquery centering plugin that used fixed positioning. It is called fixed center.

Answer 9

you're getting that poor transition because you're adjusting the position of the element every time the document is scrolled. What you want is to use fixed positioning. I tried that fixed center plugin listed above and that seems to do solve the problem nicely. Fixed positioning allows you to center an element once, and the CSS property will take care of maintaining that position for you every time you scroll.