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CSS

Posted by Itai Shin
Itai Shin
9,928 Points

what is "margin"?

Hi I just started to learn css, and I did not understand what max-width : 940px and 0 auto is. Can I have explanation? Thanks :-)

4 Answers

Lee Anderson
Lee Anderson
5,717 Points

Max-widh : 940px means that the maximum with of your element is 940 px, it can be smaller but no bigger than that. No matter the resolution.

Margin clears the area around your element, outside the border. 0 auto margin tells you that there is no margin on top and bottom and auto tells the browser to keep even space on the left and the right sides of your element.

Hope this helps and enjoy learning!

Yaroslav Kleshchev
Yaroslav Kleshchev
8,744 Points
Yaroslav Kleshchev
Yaroslav Kleshchev
8,744 Points

Margin is the spacing between elements. Max width say the the max a element will every be is 940px. Auto means that the browser will calculate the value.

Mark Glissmann
Mark Glissmann
7,225 Points
Mark Glissmann
Mark Glissmann
7,225 Points

Itai, I use Chrome as a browser and the developer tools helped a ton with questions regarding things such as this. You can hover over elements and it will display the padding, margin, border and size of the element.

Tyler Anyan
Tyler Anyan
2,976 Points
Tyler Anyan
Tyler Anyan
2,976 Points

Indeed, the best way to really understand it is to dig in with dev tools, as Mark stated above. Basically, imagine a div (or any block-level container) as a literal box. The content you want to display (text, images, etc..) goes inside the box. Margin would be the space outside the box, as if you were to put an invisible force field that keeps it a certain distance from other boxes; padding would be much like the word implies, the same as if you were to throw some sort of padding, or spacing, on the inside of that box in order to keep the contents a certain distance from the edges, or border, of the containing box.

Tyler Anyan
Tyler Anyan
2,976 Points

Apologies for basing my answer off the title of the post and not the actual meat of the question. A combo of all 3 answers here should give you a good understanding though.