INLINE BLOCK

yayyyy I fixed it!

It should work with "inline-block" - can you share the code? Sometimes I've had problems with a width set to 100% keeping the inline-block from working, and of course there are almost always typos that can mess things up (sometimes on the line before or after...)

to show you my code, do i just copy and paste???

Hey, this tutorial will show you how to properly post your code within the forum https://teamtreehouse.com/community/posting-code-to-the-forum

nav {
    text-align:center;
    padding: 10px 0;
    margin:  20px 0 0;
}

nav ul {
  list-style: none;
  margin: 0 auto;
  padding: 0;
}

nav ul li {
  display: inline-block;
}

here is what i put

I tried this out with an HTML file that looks like:

  <nav>
    <ul>
      <li>Item 1</li>
      <li>Item 1</li>
      <li>Item 1</li>
      <li>Item 1</li>
      <li>Item 1</li>
    </ul>
  </nav>

And it seems to work just fine. In the videos I remember "nav" was a class rather than an element though, in which case you need to use ".nav" in your css instead.

<nav>
        <ul id="gallery" >
        <li><a href="index.html" class="selected">Portfolio</a></li>
         <li><a href="about.html">About</a></li>
         <li><a href="contact.html">contact</a></li>
        </ul>
      </nav>

is there anything here in my html that could be causing the problem??

Not that I can see, when I try running your code in my browser it lines up fine. Maybe double check the link for the css file, a typo there might be keeping the page from "seeing" your css.