html - Horizontal align thumbnails to center in Bootstrap 3 -


i'm trying have 3 thumbnails horizontally beside 1 , centred. issue these not centred. i'm wondering whether simplify code since example <div class="column"> repetitive in 3 parts. however, when try that, pictures stack vertically instead of horizontally , i'm not sure why. questions are:

  1. how centre 3 pictures on page?
  2. how simplify code without images becoming vertically stacked?

current code

<div class="column">   <div class="col-sm-6 col-md-3">     <div class="thumbnail">       <img src="http://www.microsoft.com/global/en-us/news/publishingimages/bod/billg/gates_print.jpg" alt="my image" />       <div class="caption">         <h3>thumbnail label</h3>         <p>lalalala</p>       </div>     </div>   </div> </div>  <div class="column">   <div class="col-sm-6 col-md-3">     <div class="thumbnail">       <img src="http://www.microsoft.com/global/en-us/news/publishingimages/bod/billg/gates_print.jpg" alt="my image" />       <div class="caption">         <h3>thumbnail label</h3>         <p>lalalala</p>       </div>     </div>   </div> </div>  <div class="column">   <div class="col-sm-6 col-md-3">     <div class="thumbnail">       <img src="http://www.microsoft.com/global/en-us/news/publishingimages/bod/billg/gates_print.jpg" alt="my image" />       <div class="caption">         <h3>thumbnail label</h3>         <p>lalalala</p>       </div>     </div>   </div> </div> 

no sure if understood question correctly gave shot anyway. wanted?

i removed <div class="column"> , replaced single <div class="row">

i set col size col-xs-4 each thumbnail.

have @ link example using code: http://jsfiddle.net/p9k3x/