How to center a tooltip horizontally on top of a link

Question

I'm trying to get a tooltip box to be inserted on top and centered of an a tag. I have this working for small Text, but I can't seem to get it to center on large text.

I understand it has to do with positioning the box and the arrow but I can't seem to find the right combination to get the arrow centered under the box and the box centered above the a tag.

I'm hoping to accomplish this with just CSS alone.

HTML:

<div> 
    <a class="tooltip" href="#" title="tooltip">
        <span>Text</span>    
    </a>

</div>
<div> <a class="tooltip" href="#" title="tooltip">
        <span>TextTextText</span>    
    </a>

</div>

CSS:

div {
    padding: 150px;
    display: inline-block;
    background-color: red;
}
.tooltip{
    display: inline;
    position: relative;
}
.tooltip:hover:after{
    background: #333;
    background: rgba(0,0,0,.8);
    border-radius: 5px;
    bottom: 26px;
    color: #fff;
    content: attr(title);
    padding: 10px;
    left: -50%;
    position: absolute;
    z-index: 98;
}
.tooltip:hover:before{
    border: solid;
    border-color: #333 transparent;
    border-width: 6px 6px 0 6px;
    bottom: 20px;
    content: "";
    left: 30%;
    position: absolute;
    z-index: 99;
}

And here is the fiddle.

I really would appreciate any help I can get.

Answer 1

If the tooltip doesn't have an explicit width, you could align that horizontally center, by using a negative translateX as follows:

.tooltip:hover:after {
    left: 50%;
    transform: translateX(-50%);
    /* other styles ... */
}

.tooltip:hover:before {
    left: 50%;
    transform: translateX(-50%);
    /* other styles ... */
}

div {
  padding: 150px;
  display: inline-block;
  background-color: red;
}

.tooltip {
  display: inline;
  position: relative;
}

.tooltip:hover:after {
  background: #333;
  background: rgba(0, 0, 0, .8);
  border-radius: 5px;
  bottom: 26px;
  color: #fff;
  content: attr(title);
  text-decoration: none;
  padding: 10px;
  left: 50%;
  transform: translateX(-50%);
  position: absolute;
}

.tooltip:hover:before {
  border: solid;
  border-color: #333 transparent;
  border-width: 6px 6px 0 6px;
  bottom: 20px;
  content: "";
  left: 50%;
  transform: translateX(-50%);
  position: absolute;
}

<div>
  <span class="tooltip" title="tooltip">
    <a href="#">Work</a>    
  </span>
</div>
<div>
  <span class="tooltip" title="tooltip">
    <a href="#">Doesn't Work as hoped</a>    
  </span>
</div>