How to position hidden speech bubbles

Question

I am building my first website and I am having some hidden speech bubbles appear when you hover over image like this demo

However I don't know how to affect the positioning measurements of the speech bubble, how could I make it so the speech bubble is aligned in the center of the box bellow it?

Any help would be much appreciated!

HTML:

<div id="container"><a href="#" class="hoverbubble">Hover over me!<span>Hidden message here.</span></a></div>

CSS:

#container {
background-color: #FF0;
margin: 100px;
float: left;
height: 200px;
width: 200px;
text-align: center;
font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
font-size: 16px;
}

a.hoverbubble {
position: relative;
text-decoration: none;
}

a.hoverbubble span {display: none;
}

a.hoverbubble:hover span {
display: block;
position: absolute;
padding: .5em;
content: attr(title);
min-width: px;
text-align: center;
width: auto;
height: auto;
white-space: nowrap;
top: -40px;
background: rgba(0,0,0,.8);
-moz-border-radius: 10px;
-webkit-border-radius: 10px;
border-radius: 10px;
color: #fff;
font-size: 0.86em;
font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
}

a.hoverbubble:hover span:after {
position: absolute;
display: block;
content: "";
border-color: rgba(0,0,0,.8) transparent transparent transparent;
border-style: solid;
border-width: 10px;
height: 0;
width: 0;
position: absolute;
bottom: -20px;
left: 1em;
}

Answer 1

Set your container div to position:relative

remove position:relative from your a tag

Changing position:relative from your a tag to your div container will allow your absolutely positioned span to align relative to the container rather than the a tag.

set your span to position:absolute

align your span by editing the values top:40%; left: 11%;

you can now position your span element relative to your container.

http://jsfiddle.net/e4q7K/18/

Answer 2

On the assumption that the hidden message is to be centered on the link..

JSFiddle Demo

HTML

<div id="container">
    <a href="#" class="hoverbubble">Hover over me!
        <span>Hidden message here.</span>
    </a>
</div>

CSS

#container {
    background-color: #FF0;
    margin: 100px;
    float: left;
    height: 200px;
    width: 200px;
    text-align: center;
    font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
    font-size: 16px;
}

a.hoverbubble {
  position: relative;
  text-decoration: none;
  background-color: lightblue;
}
a.hoverbubble span {display: none;}

a.hoverbubble:hover span {
    display: block;
    position: absolute;
    padding: .5em;
    text-align: center;
    width: auto;
    height: auto;
    white-space: nowrap;
    top: -40px;
    left:50%; /* push the block halfway over to the right */
    -webkit-transform:translate(-50%, 0); /* move it back left half it's own width */
    background: rgba(0,0,0,.8);
    -moz-border-radius: 10px;
    -webkit-border-radius: 10px;
    border-radius: 10px;
    color: #fff;
    font-size: 0.86em;
    font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;

}
a.hoverbubble:hover span:after {
    position: absolute;
    display: block;
    content: "";
    border-color: rgba(0,0,0,.8) transparent transparent transparent;
    border-style: solid;
    border-width: 10px;
    height: 0;
    width: 0;
    position: absolute;
    bottom: -20px;
    left: 1em;
}