Arranging fieldset elements like a typical table-design

Question

I'm trying to arrange the titles for 3 fieldset elements the same way a typical table looks, but I can't get it the way I want. This comes pretty close, however...

<label style="vertical-align:top;">Title1</label>
<fieldset style="display:inline; border:none; padding:0px; margin:0px; vertical-align:middle;">
<input value="Lorem Ipsum" /><br />
<input value="Lorem Ipsum" /><br />
<input value="Lorem Ipsum" />
</fieldset>

<label style="vertical-align:top;">Title2</label>
<fieldset style="display:inline; border:none; padding:0px; margin:0px; vertical-align:middle;">
<input value="Lorem Ipsum" />
</fieldset>

<label style="vertical-align:top;">Title3</label>
<fieldset style="display:inline; border:none; padding:0px; margin:0px; vertical-align:middle;">
Lorem Ipsum
</fieldset>

I may've used tables if there was a way I didn't have to run an if statement in my PHP code for both the title and the fieldset element. Plus, using fieldset for what I'm doing here seems to be a better alternative, in terms of pretty code.

Got any suggestions for anything similar to the code above? Clarification: http://anony.ws/di-FJKD.jpg

Answer 1

what you could do is remove the label's from the flow so they don't get vertically aligned with the inputs/text.. do this by absolutely positioning them.. this will require a parent element to have position: relative; on it - I presume the overall code above is in a form element but for the sake a demo I've just wrapped all your code in a div.

Working Example

HTML:

<div id="form"> 

  <label>Title1</label>
  <fieldset>
    <input value="Lorem Ipsum" /><br />
    <input value="Lorem Ipsum" /><br />
    <input value="Lorem Ipsum" />
  </fieldset>

  <label>Title2</label>
  <fieldset>
    <input value="Lorem Ipsum" />
  </fieldset>

  <label>Title3</label>
  <fieldset>
  Lorem Ipsum
  </fieldset>

</div>

CSS:

#form {
  position: relative; /* labels need this on the their parent element */
}

fieldset {
  margin: 0;
  padding: 0;
  border: 0;
  padding-top: 30px; /* leave a space to position for the labels */
}

fieldset {display: inline-block; vertical-align: middle;}
fieldset {display: inline !ie7; /* IE6/7 need display inline after the inline-block rule */}

label {
   position: absolute; 
   top: 5px; 
   left: auto; 
   margin-left: 5px; 
   font-weight: bold;
}

---

added per comments

because there's not enough room in comments, here's the code I was thinking which doesn't position the label, to do this the label would need to go inside the vertically aligned fieldset

#form {
  position: relative; /* labels need this on the their parent element */
}

fieldset {
  margin: 0;
  padding: 0;
  border: 0;
}

fieldset {display: inline-block; vertical-align: middle; background: #eee;}
fieldset {display: inline !ie7;}


label {
   display: block;
   font-weight: bold;
}

HTML:

<fieldset>
  <label>Title1</label>
  <input value="Lorem Ipsum" /><br />
  <input value="Lorem Ipsum" /><br />
  <input value="Lorem Ipsum" />
</fieldset>


<fieldset>
  <label>Title2</label>
  <input value="Lorem Ipsum" />
</fieldset>


<fieldset>
  <label>Title3</label>
  Lorem Ipsum
</fieldset>