Learn about the Box component: its characteristics, options, and common use.
After reading this article, you’ll know:
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What the Box component is and its major options
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The difference between the Box and other components
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How to use the Box component in your application to build page layouts
What is the Box component?
Box is a layout component that is used for grouping, fitting, and aligning other components within a page layout. The basic purpose of a Box is to wrap other components to create the desired layout unity within one’s page.
Although a Box doesn’t have pre-defined content, its true power lies in its ability to be customized. With its customizations, other components will be moved, allowing you to organize your content efficiently.
Options
Being a rather versatile component, Box has multiple options, primarily for styling, alignment, positioning, and changing backgrounds. Most of them are well-explained in the Component options article.
One of the most used options for the Box component, which is also a likely reason you would want to use it is the positioning options, where we can specify how we want to place the other components within the Box itself.
Using the component
To use the Box component, first, drag the Column component onto the desired location on your page. This will create a container into which you can add other components. You can use a single box to contain a piece of content or use multiple boxes to segment different types of content. For instance, you may use one box for a header, another for the main body of the page, and a third for the footer.
The Box component is also handy for creating responsive designs. By adjusting the box’s width, height, and margins, you can ensure that your page layout adapts to different screen sizes easily.
Box vs other components
Box component has many uses but how is it different from other similar components?
Box vs Container
We can view Box and Container as very similar items. Both can be stretched to contain media items and other components. Also, they both have the feature of changing a background color.
However, if you look closer at the Container, you'll notice it's just a simplified version of a Box without spacing and positioning, and with limited width options. Also, the Container can be used without a parent component.
Box vs Column
The Box and Column components might look similar at a glance, this is far from true. Box components are used to reach specific styles for your layout, they are not very responsive. The Column whatsoever is very responsive and scales with your viewport.
So remember, the versatility and flexibility of the Box component mean it’s entirely up to the user to decide how to utilize it effectively. Start by considering the structure of your page, and then use the Box component to create a layout that best fits your content.