Centering a Twitter Bootstrap button

Question

I'm making a form with Twitter Bootstrap, and am having a really difficult time centering the button. It's contained inside a div with a span of 7. Below is the HTML, and the button is at the very bottom. Any recommendations on how to center this thing?

<div class="form span7">
  <div id="get-started">
    <div id="form-intro">
      <strong><h1>1. Get Started: Some basics</h1></strong>
    </div>
    <form class="form-horizontal">
      <div class="control-group">
        <label class="control-label" for="inputSaving">What are you saving for?</label>
        <div class="controls">
          <input class="span4" type="text" id="inputSaving" placeholder="e.g. Swimming Lessons, Birthday Party, College Fund, etc.">
        </div>
      </div>
      <div class="control-group">
        <label class="control-label" for="description">Add a short description</label>
        <div class="controls">
          <textarea class="span4" id="description" rows="4" placeholder="Describe in your own words the saving goal for this piggybank"></textarea>
        </div>
      </div>
      <div class="control-group">
        <label class="control-label" for="categoryselect">Choose a Category</label>
        <div class="controls">
          <select class="span4" id="categoryselect">
            <!-- Add some CSS and JS to make a placeholder value-->
            <option value="Kittens">Kittens</option>
            <option value="Keyboard Cat">Keyboard Cat</option>
            <option value="Twitter Bird">Twitter Bird</option>
          </select>
        </div>
      </div>
      <div class="control-group">
        <label class="control-label" for="imageselect">Choose an image</label>
        <div class="controls span4">
          <img src="piggyimage.png" id="imageselect" alt="image-select" />
        </div>
      </div>
      <div class="control-group">
        <label class="control-label" for="goal">Your Saving Goal</label>
        <div class="controls">
          <input type="text" class="span4" id="goal" placeholder="$1337">
        </div>
      </div>
      <button class="btn btn-large btn-primary" type="button">Submit</button>
    </form>
  </div>
</div>

Solution 1

Bootstrap has it's own centering class named text-center.

<div class="span7 text-center"></div>

Solution 2

If you don't mind a bit more markup, this would work:

<div class="centered">
    <button class="btn btn-large btn-primary" type="button">Submit</button>
</div>

With the corresponding CSS rule:

.centered
{
    text-align:center;
}

I have to look at the CSS rules for the btn class, but I don't think it specifies a width, so auto left & right margins wouldn't work. If you added one of the span or input- rules to the button, auto margins would work, though.

Edit:

Confirmed my initial thought; the btn classes do not have a width defined, so you can't use auto side margins. Also, as @AndrewM notes, you could simply use the text-center class instead of creating a new ruleset.

Solution 3

Wrap in a div styled with "text-center" class.

Solution 4

Question is a bit old, but easy way is to apply .center-block to button.

Solution 5

Since you want to center the button, and not the text, what I've done in the past is add a class, then use that class to center the button:

<button class="btn btn-large btn-primary newclass" type="button">Submit</button>

and the CSS would be:

.btn.newclass {width:25%; display:block; margin: 0 auto;}

The "width" value is up to you, and you can play with that to get the right look.

Steve

View more solutions

Comments

[Chris Everitt]

This worked for me, my button will remain centered even with the viewport causes Bootstrap to put the button on the nextline. ' <div class="col-sm-1 text-center"> <input type="submit" value="Search Again" class="btn btn-primary"/> </div>'

[mildog8]

Even better you could use bootstraps text-center class and not have to write any css yourself. for example <div class="text-center"><button class="btn btn-large btn-primary" type="button">Submit</button></div>

[scrowler]

Problem is that this makes the button width fill its container as well

[rakeden]

Why force the element to appear block-level. Better use Bootstraps build in solutions

[Subtubes]

Best answer uses the API

[Malkierian]

This worked just fine for me, but only when using a form <button>. Applying the btn classes to a <div> filled the parent element.

[TOPKAT]

Just too bad that it doesn't work with <div class="btn-group btn-group-lg span7"> !