Vertical align table-cell don't work with position absolute

Jens Törnell picture Jens Törnell · Jan 17, 2012 · Viewed 31.2k times · Source

http://jsfiddle.net/fQv97/

HTML

<div class="table-cell">
    My text, should be align middle
</div>

CSS

.table-cell {
    height: 200px;
    width: 200px;
    vertical-align: middle;
    background: #eee;
    display: table-cell;
    position: absolute;
}

Problem

The text should be placed in the middle of my "table cell". Everything works as expected until I add "position: absolute". Now it can't place my content in the middle any more? Why not? It still knows my height and width because I set it in my CSS.

Any clever workaround for this?

Answer

thirtydot picture thirtydot · Jan 17, 2012

Everything works as expected until I add "position: absolute". Now it can't place my content in the middle any more? Why not?

position: absolute forces display: block, read number two here.

As for a workaround, I think you'll have to wrap it in another element:

<div class="table-cell-wrapper">
    <div class="table-cell">
        My text, should be align middle
    </div>
</div>

.table-cell-wrapper {
    position: absolute;
}
.table-cell {
    height: 200px;
    width: 200px;
    vertical-align: middle;
    background: #eee;
    display: table-cell;
}