CSS - place-content: A Friendly Guide for Beginners

Hello there, future web design superstar! ? Ready to dive into the wonderful world of CSS? Today, we're going to explore a nifty little property called place-content. Trust me, it's going to make your life so much easier when you're trying to align things in your web layouts. So, grab a cup of coffee (or tea, if that's your thing), and let's get started!

CSS - Place Content

What is place-content?

Imagine you're arranging furniture in a room. You want everything to look just right, but moving each piece individually is a pain. That's where place-content comes in - it's like having a magic wand that helps you arrange elements in your web page with ease!

The place-content property is a shorthand for setting both align-content and justify-content in one go. It's like killing two birds with one stone (but don't worry, no birds were harmed in the making of this CSS property ?).

Possible Values

Oh boy, we've got quite a few options here! Let's break them down in a nice, easy-to-read table:

Value	Description
center	Centers the content both vertically and horizontally
start	Aligns content to the start of the container
end	Aligns content to the end of the container
flex-start	Similar to start, but for flex containers
flex-end	Similar to end, but for flex containers
baseline	Aligns content along the baseline
space-between	Distributes items evenly with space between them
space-around	Distributes items evenly with space around them
space-evenly	Distributes items with equal space between and around them

Don't worry if these seem overwhelming - we'll go through each one with examples!

Applies To

Before we dive into the nitty-gritty, it's important to know where we can use place-content. This property applies to:

Grid containers
Flex containers

So, if you're working with grids or flexbox (which, trust me, you will be), place-content is your new best friend!

Syntax

The basic syntax for place-content is super simple:

.container {
  place-content: <align-content> <justify-content>;
}

You can use one or two values. If you use one, it applies to both alignment directions. If you use two, the first is for align-content (vertical alignment) and the second is for justify-content (horizontal alignment).

Now, let's look at some specific examples!

CSS place-content - center start Value

.container {
  display: grid;
  place-content: center start;
  height: 200px;
  border: 2px solid #333;
}

In this example, the content will be centered vertically but aligned to the start (left side in left-to-right languages) horizontally. It's like pushing all your furniture to one side of the room but keeping it in the middle vertically.

CSS place-content - start center Value

.container {
  display: flex;
  place-content: start center;
  height: 200px;
  border: 2px solid #333;
}

Here, we're doing the opposite - aligning content to the top but centering it horizontally. Think of it as lining up all your furniture along the top wall but spacing it out evenly from left to right.

CSS place-content - end right Value

.container {
  display: grid;
  place-content: end right;
  height: 200px;
  border: 2px solid #333;
}

This will push all your content to the bottom-right corner of the container. It's like shoving all your furniture into one corner of the room (not that I recommend doing that in real life ?).

CSS place-content - flex-start center Value

.container {
  display: flex;
  place-content: flex-start center;
  height: 200px;
  border: 2px solid #333;
}

Similar to start center, but specifically for flex containers. Your content will be at the top (or left in column direction) and centered horizontally.

CSS place-content - flex-end center Value

.container {
  display: flex;
  place-content: flex-end center;
  height: 200px;
  border: 2px solid #333;
}

This is like flex-start center, but aligns to the end of the flex container instead of the start.

CSS place-content - last baseline Value

.container {
  display: grid;
  place-content: last baseline;
  height: 200px;
  border: 2px solid #333;
}

This one's a bit tricky. It aligns the content along the baseline of the last line of text. It's like making sure all your text sits neatly on an invisible line.

CSS place-content - space-between Value

.container {
  display: flex;
  place-content: space-between;
  height: 200px;
  border: 2px solid #333;
}

This distributes items evenly, with the first item at the start and the last at the end. Imagine placing furniture in a room with equal space between each piece, but pushed to the edges.

CSS place-content - space-around Value

.container {
  display: grid;
  place-content: space-around;
  height: 200px;
  border: 2px solid #333;
}

Similar to space-between, but it also adds space before the first and after the last item. It's like giving each piece of furniture its own little area in the room.

CSS place-content - space-evenly Value

.container {
  display: flex;
  place-content: space-evenly;
  height: 200px;
  border: 2px solid #333;
}

This distributes items with equal space between and around them. It's the most balanced approach, like spacing out your furniture perfectly in the room.

And there you have it! You've just learned about the place-content property and its various values. Remember, practice makes perfect, so don't be afraid to experiment with these in your own projects. Before you know it, you'll be aligning content like a pro!

Keep coding, keep learning, and most importantly, have fun with it! ??‍??‍?

Credits: Image by storyset