css - Vertical Align with Absolute Positioning

Question

In the following code I'm trying to make the elements within the green div.middle elements to vertically align to the middle.

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I've tried the table-cell approach but cant get it working. I heard it's due to absolute positioning and tried this solution with no luck: CSS - Vertical align table-cell don't work with position absolute

This appears to be due to .table-cell having no height - I would like it's height to equal its parent container, which varies in height.

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jsfiddle:

http://jsfiddle.net/q5jKM/1/

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Does anyone know a way of getting the green div.middle elements to vertically align to the middle? Any method will do. It just needs to be capable of handling its variable height. Is it possible with just css? Or will I have to jump in with a bit of jQuery?

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Edit:

box-align also isn't a viable solution due to browser support and being replaced with new standard.

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CSS

     html,body{height:100%;margin:0}
#sidebar {
    width: 22em;
    position:fixed;
    top: 0;
    bottom: 0;
    left: 0;
    z-index:2;
    color: #ffffff;
    background-color: #333333;  
    overflow:auto;
    height: 100%;
}

#sidebar .nav {
    width: 3em;
    float: right;
    background-color: #2e2e2e;
    border-left: 2px groove #454545;
    height: 100%;
    position:relative;
    min-height:34em;    
}

#sidebar .content {
    height: 100%; 
    width: 16.875em; /*    17-(2/16)   - 20em - .nav - nav border*/
    float:left; 
    position:relative;
    min-height:34em;
}

#sidebar .top {
    position:absolute;
    top:0;
}
#sidebar .bottom {
    position:absolute;
    bottom:0;
}

#sidebar .middle {
    position: absolute;
    bottom: 12em;       /*  3.125*3  */
    top: 16em;          /*  3.125*4  */
    background: green;
}

.content .middle {
    overflow:auto;
}


#sidebar .content > div {width: 16.875em; } /*.top .middle .bottom*/
#sidebar .nav > div {width:3em; } /*.top .middle .bottom*/


    /*table-cell trying get vertical-align working*/
#sidebar .table-cell {display:table-cell; vertical-align: middle; }



#sidebar .content p, #sidebar .content li, #sidebar .content img {font-size: .75em; color: #dddddd;}

#sidebar ul {margin:0; padding: 0;}









#sidebar .nav li {
    padding: .5625em;
    list-style:none;
}
#sidebar .nav li img {
    height: 1.875em;
    width: 1.875em
}

#sidebar .nav .top li { border-bottom: 2px groove #454545 }
#sidebar .nav .bottom li { border-top:  2px groove #454545 }




.content li {
    position:relative;
    display:block;
    background-color: #444;
    padding: .72em;
    border-radius: .8em;
    border-bottom: 1px solid #292929;
    border-top: 1px solid #4c4c4c;
    text-align: center;
    font-size: 1em;
    letter-spacing: .1em;
    font-weight: normal;
    height: 1.2em;
}

.content li:after {
    content:"";
    position:absolute;
    display:block; 
    width:0;
    top:.11em; /* controls vertical position */
    right:-.852em; /* value = - border-left-width - border-right-width */
    border-style:solid;
    border-width:1.2em 0 1.2em 1.2em;
    border-color:transparent #444;
}

.content .top li{margin: .95em 0 1.9em 0;}
.content .bottom li{margin: 1.9em 0 .95em 0;}

.content .logo {
    text-align: center;
    padding: 1em 0 2em 0;
    width: 100%;
    border-bottom: 2px groove #454545;
}
.content p.welcome {
    text-align: center;
    line-height: 1.5em;
    margin: 1em 0;
}

HTML

<div id="sidebar">


            <div class="nav">
            <div class="top">
            <ul>
                <li><img src="_images/attributes/attribute2.svg"></li>
                <li><img src="_images/attributes/attribute2.svg"></li>
                <li><img src="_images/attributes/attribute2.svg"></li>
                <li><img src="_images/attributes/attribute2.svg"></li>
            </ul>
            </div>
            <div class="middle"><div class="table-cell"><p>test</p></div></div>
            <div class="bottom">
            <ul>
                <li><img src="_images/attributes/attribute2.svg"></li>
                <li><img src="_images/attributes/attribute2.svg"></li>
                <li><img src="_images/attributes/attribute2.svg"></li>
            </ul>
            </div>
            </div>



            <div class="content">
                <div class="top">
                <ul>
                    <li>SIDEBAR LINK</li>
                    <li>SIDEBAR LINK</li>
                    <li>SIDEBAR LINK</li>
                    <li>SIDEBAR LINK</li>
                </ul>
                </div>
                <div class="middle"><div class="table-cell">
                <div class="logo"><img src="_images/g.svg"></div>
                <p class="welcome">Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Mauris dictum tellus viverra neque bibendum in mattis ante dignissim. Nam mattis feugiat lorem porttitor adipiscing. Aliquam erat volutpat. Nunc feugiat magna vitae mauris egestas euismod. In hac habitasse platea dictumst. Praesent magna sem, malesuada non fermentum vel, luctus quis mauris. Duis quam purus, ornare vitae eleifend sed, malesuada eget libero. Phasellus sed lorem risus, nec placerat urna. In magna turpis, accumsan ac egestas quis, dictum vel massa. Nulla vitae magna arcu. Maecenas sit amet vestibulum urna. Integer feugiat dignissim leo sed ornare. Maecenas auctor ultricies dui, pulvinar tincidunt velit feugiat quis. Sed egestas ornare elit, et fringilla quam viverra ut.</p>
                </div></div>
                <div class="bottom">
                <ul>
                    <li>SIDEBAR LINK</li>
                    <li>SIDEBAR LINK</li>
                    <li>SIDEBAR LINK</li>
                </ul>
                </div>
                </div>
    </div>

Answer 1

add a parent div with display:table and height:100% to .table-cell will fix this

So the html structure wil be :

   <div class="middle">
        <div class="table">
           <div class="table-cell">
               <p>test</p>
           </div>
        </div>    
  </div>

add this Style:

#sidebar .table{
   display:table;
   height:100%;
}

See jsfiddle I have modified