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CSS CSS Layout Basics Page Layout with the Float Property Creating a Horizontal Navigation with Floats

maya sophie
maya sophie
5,754 Points

Using float over inline-block

In the video around the third minute, Guil is using:

.main-nav li { float: left; } I did it using:

.main-nav li { display: inline-block; }

The only difference noticed was more space between blocks when using inline-block. Is Guil's method better ?

2 Answers

Dehn Hunsworth
Dehn Hunsworth
7,189 Points

Not knowing what other css was there...those two lines might have had a similar result but are very different properties. When you set an item to "display: inline-block" it will allow other css properties to apply where "display: inline" blocks many of them. probably why you saw the extra padding between them.

Michael Shields
Michael Shields
12,650 Points

Hi Maya,

That is a main difference when using floats - you won't have to worry about the html whitespace that can appear if you were using the alternative and changing the display value to something like inline-block. Eliminating that whitespace will require additional styling declarations in your css which might seem unnecessary when compared to using float values to build the layout.