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Yuya Hirano
Yuya Hirano

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How to Solve Unexpected Margins in HTML and CSS

Introduction

While working on web development, have you ever encountered unexpected margins appearing and disrupting your layout? How do you handle such a situation? Today, I'm going to introduce a handy CSS trick for addressing this kind of issue.

Margin Issues and How to Deal With Them

Firstly, take a look at the image below. It's a webpage layout displaying news articles, but you can see some margin on the right side.

sample2

This margin is caused by certain elements spreading beyond the width of the page. But how can we identify which element is causing the problem?

The solution is to add an outline to all elements. The following image shows the result.

sample3

This red outline is applied with the following CSS code:

*{
    outline: 1px solid red;
}
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This code adds an outline to all elements on the page. This way, it's easy to see which elements are overflowing on the right side.

Conclusion

This CSS technique is a great tool for identifying the cause of unexpected margins in your layout. Once you've identified the problematic element, you can solve the issue by adjusting the styling for that element.

However, remember that this CSS snippet is a debugging tool and should be removed after debugging is complete.

So, that's one way to detect and deal with unexpected margins in HTML and CSS. Remember this technique, and you'll be able to quickly handle margin issues when they arise. Enjoy your web development journey!

Top comments (6)

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saifxx profile image
saifxx

Also, check out the "Red Border Chrome Extension" (chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/...)

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yuya0114 profile image
Yuya Hirano

That’s nice!
Thank you for letting me know!

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punitbulwani profile image
Punit Bulwani

Thanks for this, let me try

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yuya0114 profile image
Yuya Hirano

Thank you for your comment!

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joselatines profile image
Jose Latines

This is do helpful, I will try it

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yuya0114 profile image
Yuya Hirano

Thank you for your comment!
Good luck!