Having easy-to-use navigation is important for any web site.
With CSS you can transform boring HTML menus into good-looking navigation bars.
A navigation bar needs standard HTML as a base.
In our examples we will build the navigation bar from a standard HTML list.
A navigation bar is basically a list of links, so using the <ul> and <li> elements makes perfect sense:
<ul>
<li><a href="default.asp">Home</a></li>
<li><a href="news.asp">News</a></li>
<li><a href="contact.asp">Contact</a></li>
<li><a href="about.asp">About</a></li>
</ul>
Now let's remove the bullets and the margins and padding from the list:
ul
{
list-style-type:none;
margin:0;
padding:0;
}
Example explained:
The code in the example above is the standard code used in both vertical, and horizontal navigation bars.
To build a vertical navigation bar we only need to style the <a> elements, in addition to the code above:
a
{
display:block;
width:60px;
}
Example explained:
Tip: Also take a look at our fully styled vertical navigation bar example.
Note: Always specify the width for <a> elements in a vertical navigation bar. If you omit the width, IE6 can produce unexpected results.
There are two ways to create a horizontal navigation bar. Using inline or floating list items.
Both methods work fine, but if you want the links to be the same size, you have to use the floating method.
One way to build a horizontal navigation bar is to specify the <li> elements as inline, in addition to the "standard" code above:
li
{
display:inline;
}
Example explained:
Tip: Also take a look at our fully styled horizontal navigation bar example.
In the example above the links have different widths.
For all the links to have an equal width, float the <li> elements and specify a width for the <a> elements:
li
{
float:left;
}
a
{
display:block;
width:60px;
}
Example explained:
Tip: Also take a look at our fully styled horizontal navigation bar example.