Setting a 's display as table-cell

Question

I'm trying to set a button's display property as table-cell but it doesn't behave like one.

Any help would be appreciated.

jsFiddle Demo (The demo contains a fixed container height, but I need it to work without it).

No fixed sizes Demo.

DOM:

<div class="container">
    <div class="item"></div>
    <div class="item"></div>
    <button class="item"></button>
</div>

CSS:

.container {
    border: 5px solid blue;
    display: table;
    table-layout: fixed;
}
.item {
    border: 3px solid red;
    display: table-cell;
}

The result:

Edit: I need it to work entirely like a table cell, even without fixed sizes.

Note that some solutions seem to work fine on Chrome but don't work on FF.

Answer 1

How about using a label? That way you get the functionality of the button, but the visibility of the label. Tested in Firefox and Chrome. Updated example for form submission.

• No JavaScript is involved with the clickability of the cell region
• Works without a fixed height on the container
• Works when a different cell has a larger height than the one with the button
• Works with multiple button cells

HTML:

<form onsubmit="alert(); return false;">
    <div class="container">
        <div class="item">1</div>
        <div class="item">2</div>
        <div class="item">3</div>
    </div>
    <div class="container">
        <div class="item">4</div>
        <div class="item">5<br><br><br>Extended cell</div>
        <label class="item">Button 1<button type="submit"></button></label>
        <label class="item">Button 2<button type="submit"></button></label>
    </div>
</form>

CSS:

.container {
    margin: 10px;
    border: 5px solid blue;
    display: table;
    table-layout: fixed;
    width: 300px;
}
.item {
    border: 3px solid red;
    display: table-cell;
}
.item button {
    background-color: transparent;
    position: absolute;
    left: -1000px;
    height: 1px;
    width: 1px;
    overflow: hidden;
}

JSFiddle here.

Answer 2

http://jsfiddle.net/Rhhh7/7/

In this example I've wrapped the button in the div class="item" just like the other div's. But this time, I've styled the button separately to stretch to the height and width of the div.

.item button{
background:transparent;
padding:0;
border:0;
width:100%;
height:100%;
}

EDIT:

Here's the fix http://jsfiddle.net/Rhhh7/10/

To address the Firefox issue.

Add this to the class "item":

.item {
    border: 3px solid red;
    display: table-cell;
    height:100%;
    vertical-align:top;
}

In order for the td to have a height of 100%, the parent must have height of 100% as well. The vertical-align:top then sets the button to the top of the div instead of the default, middle.

Answer 3

You could always just wrap the button in a div.

<div class="container">
   <div class="item"></div>
   <div class="item"></div>
   <div class="item"></div>
</div>
   <div class="container">
   <div class="item"></div>
   <div class="item"></div>
   <div class="item"><button>Button</button></div>
</div>

CSS

button{
   width:100%;
   height:2.75rem;
}

So I guess at the end of the day, the final solution here is it might not be possible cross-browser without a fixed unit of measurement :(

Answer 4

this seems to work: HTML

<div class="container">
    <div class="item">Some text to make the cell bigger</div>
    <div class="item"></div>
    <div class="item"><button class="button-item"></button></div>
</div>

CSS:

.container {
    margin: 10px;
    border: 5px solid blue;
    display: table;
    table-layout: fixed;
    width: 300px;
}
.item {
    border: 3px solid red;
    display: table-cell;
    background: transparent;
}
.button-item{
    border: 5px;
    -moz-border:5px;
    height:100%;
    width: 100%;
}

Fiddle Demo

How it looks on FF:

Answer 5

Wrapping in a div is a solution but I can't understand why you cannot change the display property for button elements like you can all other elements. For example you can make a link tag act like a div tag.

This prevents doing stuff like changing the display order of buttons: http://codepen.io/bakers37/pen/emoKvK

In Chrome/Firefox this doesn't work as expected.

HTML

<div class="wrap">
 <div class="btn bottom">Back</div>
 <div class="btn top">Continue</div>
</div>


<div class="wrap">
 <button class="btn bottom">Back</button>
 <button class="btn top">Continue</button>
</div>

CSS

.wrap {
 display: table;
 margin: 20px 0 30px 0;
 width: 100%;
}

.btn
{
 display: block;
 width: 100%;
 margin: 5px 20px;
 padding: 10px;
 position: relative;
 background: #ccc;
}

.top { 
  display: table-caption; 
}

Answer 6

button.item { width: 100%; height: 50px; }