Right align and left align ul li elements in horizontal navigation bar

Question

I am coding a horizontal navigation bar for my site. The html is as follows:

        <nav>
            <ul>
                <li class="special_text"><a href="#">Hello1</a></li>
                <li><a href="#">Hello2</a></li>
                <li><a href="#">Hello3</a></li>
            </ul>
        </nav>

The css is as follows:

* {
    margin: 0;
    padding: 0;
}

body {
    background-color: white;
    margin: 15px auto;
    border: 1px solid black;
}

header {

}

ul {
    list-style: none;
    padding: 1em 0;
    border-bottom: 2px solid #61f231;
    border-top: 2px solid #61f231;
}

li {
    display: inline;
    padding: 0 1.5em;
    border-left: 2px solid #61f231;
}

li.special_text {
    font-size: 200%;
    font-weight: bold;
    color: black;
    font-family: "Arial Black";
}

li.special_text a {
    text-decoration: none;
}

I would like to have some <li> elements aligned left while others align right. When I try to float the ones that I want left or right there is a problem with the vertical alignment (the elements are no longer vertically aligned within the <ul> element.

Part of the problem arises from the fact that the first <li> element uses a different size font.

Any suggestions?

Thank you

Answer 1

All you need to do is wrap what you want in divs and float them left and right :

<nav>
        <ul><div class="floatleft">
                <li class="special_text"><a href="#">Hello1</a></li>
            </div>
            <div class="floatright">
                <li><a href="#">Hello2</a></li>
                <li><a href="#">Hello3</a></li>
            </div>
        </ul>
</nav>

and add to your css:

.floatleft {
    float:left;
}
.floatright {
    float:right;
}

To fix the issue with vertical aligning, you need to mess around with line-height with the affected li elements

Check out the fiddle

Answer 2

It's not entirely clear to me what you are trying to achieve so here are two possibilities based on my interpretation(s) of your requirements:

To Have Left and Right Columns:

You could use CSS3 Columns so long as you're okay with it falling-back to a regular (non-columned) ul or polyfilling for crappy browsers (ahem <=IE9)

 nav ul { -webkit-column-count: 2; -moz-column-count: 2; column-count: 2; -webkit-column-width: 50%; -moz-column-width: 50%; column-width: 50%; -webkit-column-gap: 4em; -moz-column-gap: 4em; column-gap: 4em; } 

 <nav> <ul> <li>item 1</li> <li>item 2</li> <li>item 3</li> <li>item 4</li> <li>item 5</li> </ul> </nav> 

See:
http://caniuse.com/#feat=multicolumn
http://css-tricks.com/guide-responsive-friendly-css-columns/

---

To Range The Text:

 * { margin: 0; padding: 0; } body { background-color: white; margin: 15px auto; border: 1px solid black; } header { } ul { list-style: none; display:table; width:100%; padding: 1em 0; border-bottom: 2px solid #61f231; border-top: 2px solid #61f231; } li { display: table-cell; padding: 0 1.5em; border-left: 2px solid #61f231; vertical-align:middle; text-align:center; } li.special_text { font-size: 2em; font-weight: bold; color: black; font-family: "Arial Black"; text-align:left; } li.range_left { text-align:left; } li.range_right { text-align:right; } li.special_text a { text-decoration: none; } 

 <nav> <ul> <li class="special_text"><a href="#">Hello1</a></li> <li class="range_left"><a href="#">Hello2</a></li> <li><a href="#">Hello3</a></li> <li class="range_right"><a href="#">Hello4</a></li> </ul> </nav> 

Answer 3

If your items will not have more than one line of text you can use line-height to set the vertical algnment. Try this:

ul {
    list-style: none;
    border-bottom: 2px solid #61f231;
    border-top: 2px solid #61f231;
    line-height:2.5em;
}

/*Remove the padding*/

Check this Demo Fiddle

Answer 4

Alternatively you can add padding like this: li:first-child{padding-right: 150px;}

See my fiddle