css position need help

Question

html

<div class="navigation">
   <a class="active" href="index.html">1</a>
   <a href="index.html">2</a>
   <a href="index.html">3</a>
   <a href="index.html">4</a>
</div>

CSS

.navigation {
  float: left;
  height: 160px;
  position: relative;
  width: 24px;
}    
.navigation a {
  display: block;
}

Can anyone help me how to make <a> vertically center inside <div class="navigation">. Number of <a>s ranges so I can't just do padding-top on <div class="navigation">.

Please help. Thanks.

Answer 1

text-align: center

.navigation {
  float: left;
  height: 160px;
  position: relative;
  width: 24px;
  text-align: center;
}    
.navigation a {
  display: block;
}

EDIT If you want it to be vertically centered as well you will need to add another bounding box to be vertically centered:

<style type='text/css'>
.navigation {
  float: left;
  height: 160px;
  position: relative;
  width: 24px;
  border: 3px solid black;
  text-align: center;
  display: table;
}    
.wrapper {
    vertical-align: middle;
    display: table-cell;
}
.navigation a {
  display: block;
}
</style>
<div class="navigation">
<div class='wrapper'>
   <a class="active" href="index.html">1</a>
   <a href="index.html">2</a>
   <a href="index.html">3</a>
   <a href="index.html">4</a>
</div>
</div>

Answer 2

Try this

.navigation {
  float: left;
  height: 160px;
  position: relative;
  width: 24px;
  vertical-align: middle;
}    
.navigation a {
  display: block;
}

Answer 3

In any case. If you wanted it VERTICALLY and HORIZONTALLY aligned (in all browsers including IE6, maybe no IE5.5 MAC):

See it in action.

.navigation {
  float: left;
  height: 160px;
  position: relative;
  width: 24px;
  text-align: center;
  display: table;
  _position: relative; 
  overflow: hidden;
}
.navigation_inner {
  _position: absolute; 
  _top: 50%; 
  display: table-cell; 
  vertical-align: middle;
}    
.navigation a {
  display: block;
}

HTML

<div class="navigation"> 
<div class="navigation_inner"> 
   <a class="active" href="index.html">1</a>
   <a href="index.html">2</a>
   <a href="index.html">3</a>
   <a href="index.html">4</a> 
</div> 
</div>​