CSS text-align not working

Question

I have this css code here

.navigation{
    width:100%;
    background-color:#7a7a7a;
    font-size:18px;
}

.navigation ul {
    list-style-type: none;
    margin: 0;
}

.navigation li {
    float: left;
}


.navigation ul a {
    color: #ffffff;
    display: block;
    padding: 0 65px 0 0;
    text-decoration: none;
}

What I am trying to do is center my class navigation. I tried using text-align:center; and vertical-align:middle; but neither of them worked.

and here is the HTML Code

<div class="navigation">
<ul>
<li><a href="http://surfthecurve.ca/">home</a></li>
<li><a href="http://surfthecurve.ca/?page_id=7">about</a></li>
<li><a href="http://surfthecurve.ca/?page_id=9">tutors</a></li>
<li><a href="http://surfthecurve.ca/?page_id=11">students</a></li>
<li><a href="http://surfthecurve.ca/?page_id=13">contact us</a></li>
</ul>
</div><!--navigation-->

When I say its not working, I mean the text is aligned to the left.

Answer 1

Change the rule on your <a> element from:

.navigation ul a {
    color: #000;
    display: block;
    padding: 0 65px 0 0;
    text-decoration: none;
}​

to

.navigation ul a {
    color: #000;
    display: block;
    padding: 0 65px 0 0;
    text-decoration: none;
    width:100%;
    text-align:center;
}​

Just add two new rules (width:100%; and text-align:center;). You need to make the anchor expand to take up the full width of the list item and then text-align center it.

jsFiddle example