The CSS inset property explained

DanielMay 19, 2020July 8, 2020

In many circumstances, we will use something a combination of the top - bottom - left - right properties to set or adjust the position of an element on the page.

I have found myself quite often waiting to have a shorthand for these properties. In the end, is we can write something like this:

margin: 10px 20px 5px 15px;
/* sets the margin to:
maring-top: 10px;
maring-right: 20px;
maring-bottom: 5px;
maring-left: 15px;
*/

Then why I can't do the same for the coordinates props?

Well, this is exactly what inset is here for. The CSS inset It is a shorthand that corresponds to the top, right, bottom, and/or left properties. For example:

inset: 10px;
 /* is the same as:
top: 10px;
right: 0; 
bottom: 0; 
left: 0;` */
*/ 

inset: 2.4em 3em 3em 3em;
 /* is the same as:
top: 2.4em ;
right: 3em; 
bottom: 3em; 
left: 3em;` */ 

inset: 4px 8px; 
 /* is the same as:
top: 4px ;
right: 8px; 
bottom: 8px; 
left: 8px;` */ 

You can see the full docs here.

It is a part of the CSS Logical Properties, together with margin-block and margin-inline.

Keep in mind though that this is still work in progress. The support for it is not great yet but it will improve in the future. For not it is supported in Firefox only.