Align multiple lines of content

The examples we have seen so far involved a single row or column. Sometimes, though, you'll have multiple lines of content. You can control how to distribute them with a property called align-content.

I know, all these properties kinda sound the same. Just remember:

• justify-content  : align items along the main axis

• align-items  : align items along the cross axis

• align-content  : align multiple rows or columns along the cross-axis

Because this property only applies to multiline content, I'll add a bunch more elements to our HTML.

<div class="container">
    <div class="item">1</div>
    <div class="item">2</div>
    <div class="item">3</div>
    <div class="item">4</div>
    <div class="item">5</div>
    <div class="item">6</div>
    <div class="item">7</div>
    <div class="item">8</div>
    <div class="item">9</div>
    <div class="item">10</div>
    <div class="item">11</div>
    <div class="item">12</div>
    <div class="item">13</div>
    <div class="item">14</div>
    <div class="item">15</div>
    <div class="item">16</div>
    <div class="item">17</div>
</div>

Here's the accompanying starter CSS for the container element. Note that the elements are set to wrap, which is important! Otherwise, they'd all try to cram onto one line:

.container {
    border: 2px solid black;
    display: flex;
    flex-direction: row;
    flex-wrap: wrap;
}

Now, we can add an  align-content  property that can take the following values:

• flex-start  : elements are placed at the beginning of the container

• flex-end  : elements are placed at the end of the container

• center  : elements are placed in the center

• space-between  : elements are separated with space around them

• space-around  : elements are separated with space around them, as well as space between the elements the container edge

• stretch  : this is the default. Elements stretch to take up the whole container.

Your Turn

Try out aligning multiple rows of content yourself in the following interactive exercise!

• In style.css, find the div with a class of container.

• Align multiple rows of content along the cross axis (align-content) using the value of your choice. It could be flex-start, flex-end, center, space-between, space-around, or stretch.

Feel free to play around with a bunch of them.

Recap: 

• Use  align-content  to align multiple rows or columns along the cross-axis.