SuzyUK - 1:56 am on Jun 10, 2011 (gmt 0)

@manu08.. that is what happens - you fix the width so the browser knows how much it's got to center. The backgrounds you speak of then need to go on the containing div, body or html elements so that the space is not "white" anymore

the other way is to use a "faux column" kind of background but that still goes on the overall containing element and only makes it look as if the text portion is magically centered, most every site is centered using margin: 0 auto unless it's a table using the <center> tag.. gasp!