Learn how to create a dropdown navigation bar.
Dropdown Menu in Navbar
Css Menu Bar Codes
Create A Dropdown Navbar
About the code Menu Hover Line Effect. Nice and simple horizontal menu with hover line effect in HTML and CSS. Compatible browsers: Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Opera, Safari. Create a new folder in your computer and name it something like 'Navbar'. In the 'Navbar' folder we will save our HTML and CSS files which are required in our project to create a navigation bar and style the navigation bar. After creating the 'Navbar' folder, open any text editor (we are using Brackets) to create HTML and CSS file.
Create a dropdown menu that appears when the user moves the mouse over an element inside a navigation bar.
Step 1) Add HTML:
Css Menu Bar Code List
Example
<a href='#home'>Home</a>
<a href='#news'>News</a>
<div>
<button>Dropdown
<i></i>
</button>
<div>
<a href='#'>Link 1</a>
<a href='#'>Link 2</a>
<a href='#'>Link 3</a>
</div>
</div>
</div>
Example Explained
Use any element to open the dropdown menu, e.g. a <button>, <a> or <p> element.
Use a container element (like <div>) to create the dropdown menu and add the dropdown links inside it.
Wrap a <div> element around the button and the <div> to position the dropdown menu correctly with CSS.
Step 2) Add CSS:
Example
.navbar {
overflow: hidden;
background-color: #333;
font-family: Arial;
}
/* Links inside the navbar */
.navbar a {
float: left;
font-size: 16px;
color: white;
text-align: center;
padding: 14px 16px;
text-decoration: none;
}
/* The dropdown container */
.dropdown {
float: left;
overflow: hidden;
}
/* Dropdown button */
.dropdown .dropbtn {
font-size: 16px;
border: none;
outline: none;
color: white;
padding: 14px 16px;
background-color: inherit;
font-family: inherit; /* Important for vertical align on mobile phones */
margin: 0; /* Important for vertical align on mobile phones */
}
/* Add a red background color to navbar links on hover */
.navbar a:hover, .dropdown:hover .dropbtn {
background-color: red;
}
/* Dropdown content (hidden by default) */
.dropdown-content {
display: none;
position: absolute;
background-color: #f9f9f9;
min-width: 160px;
box-shadow: 0px 8px 16px 0px rgba(0,0,0,0.2);
z-index: 1;
}
/* Links inside the dropdown */
.dropdown-content a {
float: none;
color: black;
padding: 12px 16px;
text-decoration: none;
display: block;
text-align: left;
}
/* Add a grey background color to dropdown links on hover */
.dropdown-content a:hover {
background-color: #ddd;
}
/* Show the dropdown menu on hover */
.dropdown:hover .dropdown-content {
display: block;
}
Example Explained
We have styled the navigation bar and the navbar links with a background-color, padding, etc.
We have styled the dropdown button with a background-color, padding, etc.
The .dropdown class is the container for .dropdown-content. Since this is a <div> element, and not an <a> element, we have to float it to make sure that it stays next to the links.
The .dropdown-content class holds the actual dropdown menu. It is hidden by default, and will be displayed on hover (see below). Note the min-width is set to 160px. Feel free to change this.
Instead of using a border, we have used the box-shadow property to make the dropdown menu look like a 'card'. We also use z-index to place the dropdown in front of other elements.
The :hover selector is used to show the dropdown menu when the user moves the mouse over the dropdown button.
Clickable Dropdown in Navbar
Example
Try it Yourself »Tip: Go to our CSS Dropdowns Tutorial to learn more about dropdowns.
Tip: Go to our Clickable Dropdowns to learn more about clickable dropdowns
Tip: Go to our CSS Navbar Tutorial to learn more about navbars.
Tip: Go to our Responsive Top Navigation to learn about how to create a responsive navbar.
HOW TO
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