Web/CSS/Layout cookbook/Split Navigation

A navigation pattern where one or more elements are separated from the rest of the navigation items.

[[File:../../../../../../media.prod.mdn.mozit.cloud/attachments/2018/10/07/16227/b892ea516275d9c5418c77b07115f993/split-navigation.png|Items separated into two groups.]]

Requirements

A common navigation pattern is to have one element pushed away from the others. We can use Flexbox to achieve this, without needing to make the two sets of items into two separate flex containers.

Recipe

Download this example

Choices made

This pattern combines auto margins with Flexbox to split the items.

An auto margin absorbs all available space in the direction it is applied. This is how centering a block with auto margins works — you have a margin on each side of the block trying to take up all of the space, thus pushing the block into the middle.

In this case the left auto margin takes up any available space and pushes the item over to the right. You could apply the class push to any item in the list.

Browser compatibility

The various layout methods have different browser support. See the charts below for details on basic support for the properties used.

Flexbox

Update compatibility data on GitHub

	Desktop						Mobile
	Chrome	Edge	Firefox	Internet Explorer	Opera	Safari	Android webview	Chrome for Android	Firefox for Android	Opera for Android	Safari on iOS	Samsung Internet
`flex`	Chrome Full support 29 Full support 29 Full support 21 Prefixed' Prefixed' Implemented with the vendor prefix: -webkit-	Edge Full support 12 Full support 12 Full support 12 Prefixed' Prefixed' Implemented with the vendor prefix: -webkit-	Firefox Full support 20 Notes' Full support 20 Notes' Notes' Since Firefox 28, multi-line flexbox is supported. Notes' Before Firefox 32, Firefox wasn't able to animate values starting or stopping at `0`. Notes' Until Firefox 61, flex items that are sized according to their content are sized using `fit-content`, not `max-content`. No support 18 — 28 Disabled' Disabled' From version 18 until version 28 (exclusive): this feature is behind the `layout.css.flexbox.enabled` preference (needs to be set to `true`). To change preferences in Firefox, visit about:config. Full support 49 Prefixed' Prefixed' Implemented with the vendor prefix: -webkit- Full support 48 Prefixed' Disabled' Prefixed' Implemented with the vendor prefix: -webkit- Disabled' From version 48: this feature is behind the `layout.css.prefixes.webkit` preference (needs to be set to `true`). To change preferences in Firefox, visit about:config.	IE Full support 11 Notes' Full support 11 Notes' Notes' Internet Explorer 11 ignores uses of `calc()` in the `flex-basis` part of the `flex` syntax. This can be worked around by using the longhand properties instead of the shorthand. See Flexbug #8 for more info. Notes' Internet Explorer 11 considers a unitless value in the `flex-basis` part to be syntactically invalid (and will thus be ignored). A workaround is to always include a unit in the `flex-basis` part of the `flex` shorthand value. See Flexbug #4 for more info. Full support 10 Prefixed' Notes' Prefixed' Implemented with the vendor prefix: -ms- Notes' Internet Explorer 10 and 11 ignore uses of `calc()` in the `flex-basis` part of the `flex` syntax. This can be worked around by using the longhand properties instead of the shorthand. See Flexbug #8 for more info. Notes' Internet Explorer 10 and 11 consider a unitless value in the `flex-basis` part to be syntactically invalid (and will thus be ignored). A workaround is to always include a unit in the `flex-basis` part of the `flex` shorthand value. See Flexbug #4 for more info.	Opera Full support 12.1	Safari Full support 9 Full support 9 Full support 6.1 Prefixed' Prefixed' Implemented with the vendor prefix: -webkit-	WebView Android Full support 4.4 Full support 4.4 Full support ≤37 Prefixed' Prefixed' Implemented with the vendor prefix: -webkit-	Chrome Android Full support 29 Full support 29 Full support 25 Prefixed' Prefixed' Implemented with the vendor prefix: -webkit-	Firefox Android Full support 20 Notes' Full support 20 Notes' Notes' Since Firefox 28, multi-line flexbox is supported. Notes' Before Firefox 32, Firefox wasn't able to animate values starting or stopping at `0`. Notes' Until Firefox 61, flex items that are sized according to their content are sized using fit-content, not max-content. No support 18 — 28 Disabled' Disabled' From version 18 until version 28 (exclusive): this feature is behind the `layout.css.flexbox.enabled` preference (needs to be set to `true`). To change preferences in Firefox, visit about:config. Full support 49 Prefixed' Prefixed' Implemented with the vendor prefix: -webkit- Full support 48 Prefixed' Disabled' Prefixed' Implemented with the vendor prefix: -webkit- Disabled' From version 48: this feature is behind the `layout.css.prefixes.webkit` preference (needs to be set to `true`). To change preferences in Firefox, visit about:config.	Opera Android Full support 12.1	Safari iOS Full support 9 Full support 9 Full support 7 Prefixed' Prefixed' Implemented with the vendor prefix: -webkit-	Samsung Internet Android Full support 2.0 Full support 2.0 Full support 1.5 Prefixed' Prefixed' Implemented with the vendor prefix: -webkit-

Legend

Full support: Full support
See implementation notes.': See implementation notes.
User must explicitly enable this feature.': User must explicitly enable this feature.
Requires a vendor prefix or different name for use.': Requires a vendor prefix or different name for use.