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I expect following code to put my span to the top-left corner of the button, but it doesn't. Why is that?
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" >
<head>
<style type='text/css'>
</style>
</head>
<body>
<button style='height:100px;width:100px;position:relative;'>
<span style='position:absolute;top:0;left:0;'>text</span>
</button>
</body>
</html>
<span> is placed relative to the vertical-middle line (with 3px padding I can't explain).
Replacing <button> with <div> does places <span> at the top-left corner.
Question: why does absolute positioning within button (with position:relative) behaves differently from layout using <div>? And how do I fix it?
Background: I use two absolutely positioned div's within button to create a floating-width button with rounded corners.
EDIT: IMPORTANT IE 8.0 works exactly as I expect it (span in the top-left corner), the problem I see is in Firefox (3.6.6).
805
Set everything up as you would if you want to position: absolute inside a position: relative container, and then create a new fixed position div inside the div with position: absolute , but do not set its top and left properties. It will then be fixed wherever you want it, relative to the container.
An element with position: absolute; is positioned relative to the nearest positioned ancestor (instead of positioned relative to the viewport, like fixed). However; if an absolute positioned element has no positioned ancestors, it uses the document body, and moves along with page scrolling.
If you position it as relative , then you're moving it from its "normal" place (according to the page's flow). If you position it as absolute , then you're positioning it relative to its closest ancestor which is fixed or relative ... Clearly, nothing can be absolute and relative at the same time.
As long as you structure your HTML so that the elements follow a logical order that makes sense when rendered without CSS, there is no reason why using absolute positioning should be considered bad practice.
I advice against using a <button> this way. It is really difficult to style and you'll end up having to write specific styles for different browsers.
I needed to achieve something very similar and after dealing with a large amount of exceptions and fiddly positioning to accommodate different browser rendering, I went for this structure instead:
<div class="button">
<span>
<button>Text</button>
</span>
</div>
With the button tag reset this way:
button {
background:none repeat scroll 0 0 transparent;
border:0 none;
font-family:inherit;
font-size:inherit;
font-weight:inherit;
margin:0;
overflow:visible;
padding:0;
position:relative;
}
You can even use js to wrap the <button> on page load. This system has turned out to be much more solid and reliable. Requiring less css and almost no browser specific styling.
Update:
As I commented below, the wrapping element should not be an <a> tag. Remember that we need the <button> to keeps its functionality, we just need it to be text only (form will still submit on enter).
You can still re-use any css that you may be using to turn standard links into expandable button widgets only in this case it;s a <div> instead of an <a>.
190
answered Oct 07 '22 10:10
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