Center a 'div' in the middle of the screen, even when the page is scrolled up or down?

Question

Change the position attribute to fixed instead of absolute.

Change position:absolute; to position:fixed;

Quote: I would like to know how to display the div in the middle of the screen, whether user has scrolled up/down.

Change

position: absolute;

To

position: fixed;

---

W3C specifications for position: absolute and for position: fixed.

I just found a new trick to center a box in the middle of the screen even if you don't have fixed dimensions. Let's say you would like a box 60% width / 60% height. The way to make it centered is by creating 2 boxes: a "container" box that position left: 50% top :50%, and a "text" box inside with reverse position left: -50%; top :-50%;

It works and it's cross browser compatible.

Check out the code below, you probably get a better explanation:

jQuery('.close a, .bg', '#message').on('click', function() {
  jQuery('#message').fadeOut();
  return false;
});

html, body {
  min-height: 100%;
}

#message {
  height: 100%;
  left: 0;
  position: fixed;
  top: 0;
  width: 100%;
}

#message .container {
  height: 60%;
  left: 50%;
  position: absolute;
  top: 50%;
  z-index: 10;
  width: 60%;
}

#message .container .text {
  background: #fff;
  height: 100%;
  left: -50%;
  position: absolute;
  top: -50%;
  width: 100%;
}

#message .bg {
  background: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.5);
  height: 100%;
  left: 0;
  position: absolute;
  top: 0;
  width: 100%;
  z-index: 9;
}

<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/jquery/3.3.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<div id="message">
  <div class="container">
    <div class="text">
      <h2>Warning</h2>
      <p>The message</p>
      <p class="close"><a href="#">Close Window</a></p>
    </div>
  </div>
  <div class="bg"></div>
</div>