evenly distribute li items

Question

hope this is self explanatory:

HTML:

<ul class="steps">
<li class="step1 first">
    <div class="icon basket"></div>
    1.Warenkorb
</li>
<li class="step2">
    <div class="icon registration"></div>
    2.Adresse
</li>
<li class="step3">
    <div class="icon payment"></div>
    3.Zahlungsart
</li>
<li class="step4">
    <div class="icon order"></div>
    4.Bestätigen
</li>
<li class="step5 last">
    <div class="icon thankyou last"></div>
    5.Danke
</li>
<div style="clear:both"></div>

CSS:

.steps {
width:100%;
list-style-type: none;
padding:0;
margin:0 auto;
background:url(http://tnsdev.cloudapp.net/dev/steps_slice.png) repeat-x;
 }

 .steps li {
width:20%;
float:left;

}

.steps li .icon {
background:url(http://tnsdev.cloudapp.net/dev/steps_icon.png) no-repeat;
height:44px;
width:44px;
}

http://jsfiddle.net/HYYwn/1/

how can i achieve that the distances between the bubbles are all the same and the bubble of step5 is on the far right? i am constraint to have 5 different li's and to use % so it stays responsive.

can't get around this myself at the moment playing with it for a while already!

EDIT:

the result should look like this

 O--O--O--O--O 

and not like

--O--O--O--O--O  

or

O--O--O--O--O--  

or

--O--O--O--O--O--

Answer 1

Here is one way of doing it using text-align: justify.

The advantage of this approach is that the circle/bubble motifs are evenly spaced and you can also control the justification of the labels beneath then.

You first need to wrap the labels in a container, I used a <p> tag, and add a terminating <li> element, equivalent to the clearing element.

<ul class="steps">
    <li class="step1 first">
        <div class="icon basket"></div>
        <p>1.Warenkorb</p>
    </li>
    <li class="step2">
        <div class="icon registration"></div>
        <p>2.Adresse</p>
    </li>
    <li class="step3">
        <div class="icon payment"></div>
        <p>3.Zahlungsart</p>
    </li>
    <li class="step4">
        <div class="icon order"></div>
        <p>4.Bestätigen</p>
    </li>
    <li class="step5 last">
        <div class="icon thankyou last"></div>
        <p>5.Danke</p>
    </li>
    <li class="filler"></li>
</ul>

For the CSS:

.steps {
    width:100%;
    list-style-type: none;
    padding:0;
    margin:0 auto;
    background:url(http://tnsdev.cloudapp.net/dev/steps_slice.png) repeat-x;
    text-align: justify;
    line-height: 0;
}
.steps li {
    width: auto;
    display: inline-block;
    margin: 0;
    padding: 0;
    line-height: 1.5;
    position: relative;
    text-align: center;
}
.steps li .icon {
    background:url(http://tnsdev.cloudapp.net/dev/steps_icon.png) top center no-repeat;
    height:44px;
    width:44px;
}
.steps li p {
    position: absolute;
    width: 100px;
    top: 50px;
    left: -22px;
    margin: 0;
}
.steps li.first p {
    text-align: left;
    left: 0;
}
.steps li.last p {
    text-align: right;
    left: auto;
    right: 0;
}
.steps li.filler {
    width: 100%;
    height: 0;
    font-size: 0;
    vertical-align: top;
}

See demo at jsFiddle

First, I used text-align: justify on the parent container to evenly distribute the li elements which are inline-blocks that shrink to fit the square .icon elements.

The .filler line forces a new 100% width line that allows the text-justify to work. I set the vertical-align: top (and line-height: 0 in the parent) to get rid of a orphan with space that is created by the filler element.

I then take the labels out of the flow using absolute positioning, and the adjust the text-alignment for the first and last list items and position them using a negative margin to center the labels.

The one limitation is that there the width is specified for the labels, so you should add a min-width to the parent container as you see fit.

You have plenty of room here to adjust things as needed.

Answer 2

See this Fiddle

I'm using the calc function for the width of the 4 first lis.

this is working like this.

the 4 first will look like O------ and the 5'th will look like O.

width: calc((100% - 44px)/4);

Explanation: the fifth li takes exactly 44px, so the 4 first lis divide the rest between them equally.