Extra whitespace next to the navigation items

[choldgraf]

In a recent change, the logo of the theme is now left-justified, while the top-level nav items are aligned with the content, which leaves extra white space between the logo and the nav items. I think we should consider reverting to the old behavior, where the nav items begin just after the logo. The current setup becomes problematic for sites with many top-level sections, and also (IMO) looks a little strange because it's so common for the nav items to begin after the logo.

[jorisvandenbossche]

Small correction: the logo was also left-justified before, it's only nav items in the top bar that indeed changed alignment.

I agree it can sometimes look a bit strange, but I am not sure myself what the best solution is. As I am not sure the alternative is necessarily better (it might be just a matter of being used to).

Example, this are the current pandas dev docs on my big screen:

and this is the same page, but with just the "col-9" removed to align the nav items with the content:

[choldgraf]

My thinking is that the left-justification is more common in web design in general, so it is what people will be familiar with.

Of the two examples you show, I like the one where it is left justified. Making it align with the content makes those links 'feel' like they are related to the content, but they aren't at all.

But it would be good to have some specific examples to point to. I can try to find some when I'm at a computer if folks are unconvinced

[betatim]

I don't know how much is "used to it" and how much "this looks odd". My first impression when I saw the content aligned nav items was "oups, I must have broken the CSS somehow".

I think I've seen left aligned navbar items and centered ones. Which is why I think it made me think I broke the CSS.

One thing I am now wondering: what happens if you have lots of navbar items (too many for the space assigned to them?) If it is a toss up between content aligned and left aligned maybe this is a reason to go with left aligned (delaying the moment where people have "too many" navitems).

I don't have a particularly strong opinion either way really.

[choldgraf]

@betatim yeah that was one of the original concerns, you do have less horizontal space to work with on wider screens if the nav items start in the middle of the screen

[rmorshea]

@choldgraf @betatim I agree on both fronts.

In my particular case I'm experiencing some inconsistencies with how it handles having a large number of sections. On some pages it appears as:

While on others it appears more correctly as:

In both though there's not enough space for all my sections.

Edit: looks like the difference in header handling is actually independent of the justification.

[choldgraf]

This is now configurable, so closing!