Hey, developers! In this quick solution, we'll dive into the common issue of the margin-top property not behaving as expected. Many developers face confusion when applying margin-top to a div tag within another div tag, noticing that while other values work fine, the margin-top value seems to be ignored.
Let's first take a look at the code provided by the developer who encountered this problem.
Problem code
<head>
<style>
.parent {
width: 600px;
height: 350px;
background-color: rgb(252, 53, 53);
margin: auto;
display: block;
}
.child {
background: #111;
margin: 100px 120px 50px 10px;
margin-top: 100px !important;
/* 100px is not working */
padding: 10px;
color: white;
display: block;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<div class="parent">
<div class="child">
Does not work margin-top property in child element.
</div>
</div>
</body>
Salutation
While there are lots of ways to solve this problem, we'll just talk about four that are simple and fast.
Way 1:
One simple fix is to use the border property in the parent element. This solves the problem neatly and is quite interesting!
<head>
<style>
.parent {
width: 600px;
height: 350px;
border: solid;
background-color: rgb(252, 53, 53);
margin: 100px auto;
display: block;
}
.child {
background: #111;
margin: 100px 120px 50px 10px;
padding: 10px;
color: white;
display: block;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<div class="parent">
<div class="child">
This time Working margin-top property.
</div>
</div>
</body>
Way 2:
Another method is to use the display: inline-block property on a child element. This action enables the margin-top property to start working effectively.
<head>
<style>
.parent {
width: 600px;
height: 350px;
background-color: rgb(252, 53, 53);
margin: 100px auto 0 auto;
}
.child {
background: #111;
color: white;
margin: 100px 120px 50px 10px;
padding: 10px;
display: inline-block;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<div class="parent">
<div class="child">
This time Working margin-top property.
</div>
</div>
</body>
Way 3:
Another approach is to use the overflow: hidden property in the parent element. Many coders commonly use this straightforward method to resolve such issues.
<head>
<style>
.parent {
width: 600px;
height: 350px;
background-color: rgb(252, 53, 53);
margin: 100px auto 0 auto;
overflow: hidden;
}
.child {
background: #111;
color: white;
margin: 100px 120px 50px 10px;
padding: 10px;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<div class="parent">
<div class="child">
This time Working margin-top property.
</div>
</div>
</body>
Way 4:
One more way to address this is by setting the parent element to "position: relative" and the child element to "position: absolute". This enables the margin-top property to function properly.
<head>
<style>
.parent {
width: 600px;
height: 350px;
background-color: rgb(252, 53, 53);
margin: 100px auto 0 auto;
position: relative;
}
.child {
background: #111;
color: white;
margin: 100px 120px 50px 10px;
padding: 10px;
position: absolute;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<div class="parent">
<div class="child">
This time Working margin-top property.
</div>
</div>
</body>
Next time, whenever you face a situation where the top margin is not working, you can use any of the methods we have given above to solve such a problem.
We have given a question box below that you can use to submit your question when you are stuck on any related web development problem and need a solution.