How to place <span> elements side by side?

Question

I have a small problem with these <span> elements in a <div>.

http://jsfiddle.net/kkzLW/179/

Here is the section of CSS code that I'm working with:

.rightRapper {
  border-style: dotted;
  margin-left: 105px;
  margin-top: 0px;
  height: 90px;
  width: 100px;
  display: block;
}

.leftRapper {
  border-style: dotted;
  margin-left: 0px;
  height: 90px;
  width: 100px;
  display: block;
}

Here is the HTML section:

<div id="battleBox">
  <span class="leftRapper">
    <span id="buttonColumn">         
      <span id="container3" class="topButton">
        <a href="" id="linktomouseover">+</a>   
      </span>
      <span id="container4" class="bottomButton">
        <a href="" id="linktomouseover2">-</a>
      </span>
    </span>
  </span>
  <span class="rightRapper">
    <span id="buttonColumn">         
      <span id="container" class="topButton">
        <a href="" id="linktomouseover3">+</a>   
      </span>
      <span id="container2" class="bottomButton">
        <a href="" id="linktomouseover4">-</a>
      </span>
    </span>
  </span>
</div>

I'm trying to get the <span> .leftRapper and .rightRapper to be side by side in the <div> battleBox. However, when I set the CSS display property to inline, the <span>s get squished into a smaller shape for some reason. When I set the display to block, it turns them into the size I want but it doesn't display them the way I want, because they're not displayed inline.

What is causing the <span>s to have a smaller size?

Answer 1

Add or replace the properties below in the following CSS classes/selectors:

#battleBox {  
  width: 216px; /* increasing width from 210 to 216 because your border takes 6 extra px*/
}

.rightRapper {
  margin: 0px; /* remove all margins to fit two divs in the container */
  display: inline-block; /* display block elements in one line */
}

.leftRapper {
  margin: 0px;
  display: inline-block;
}

Example

Answer 2

You could/should add a float: left to .leftRapper.

Other options are e.g. adding a negative right margin to .leftRapper.