CSS Horizontal Navigation Bar

Horizontal Navigation Bar

There are two ways to create a horizontal navigation bar. Using inline or floating list items.

Inline List Items

One way to build a horizontal navigation bar is to specify the <li> elements as inline, in addition to the "standard" code from the previous page:

Example

li {
display: inline;
}

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Example explained:

display: inline; - By default, <li> elements are block elements. Here, we remove the line breaks before and after each list item, to display them on one line

Floating List Items

Another way of creating a horizontal navigation bar is to float the <li> elements, and specify a layout for the navigation links:

Example

li {
float: left;
}

a {
display: block;
padding: 8px;
background-color: #dddddd;
}

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Example explained:

float: left; - Use float to get block elements to float next to each other
display: block; - Allows us to specify padding (and height, width, margins, etc. if you want)
padding: 8px; - Specify some padding between each <a> element, to make them look good
background-color: #dddddd; - Add a gray background-color to each <a> element

Tip: Add the background-color to <ul> instead of each <a> element if you want a full-width background color:

Example

ul {
background-color: #dddddd;
}

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Horizontal Navigation Bar Examples

Create a basic horizontal navigation bar with a dark background color and change the background color of the links when the user moves the mouse over them:

Example

ul {
list-style-type: none;
margin: 0;
padding: 0;
overflow: hidden;
background-color: #333;
}

li {
float: left;
}

li a {
display: block;
color: white;
text-align: center;
padding: 14px 16px;
text-decoration: none;
}

/* Change the link color to #111 (black) on hover */
li a:hover {
background-color: #111;
}

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Active/Current Navigation Link

Add an "active" class to the current link to let the user know which page he/she is on:

Example

.active {
background-color: #04AA6D;
}

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Right-Align Links

Right-align links by floating the list items to the right (float:right;):

Example

<ul>
<li><a href="#home">Home</a></li>
<li><a href="#news">News</a></li>
<li><a href="#contact">Contact</a></li>
<li style="float:right"><a class="active" href="#about">About</a></li>
</ul>

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Border Dividers

Add the border-right property to <li> to create link dividers:

Example

/* Add a gray right border to all list items, except the last item (last-child) */
li {
border-right: 1px solid #bbb;
}

li:last-child {
border-right: none;
}

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Fixed Navigation Bar

Make the navigation bar stay at the top or the bottom of the page, even when the user scrolls the page:

Fixed Top

ul {
position: fixed;
top: 0;
width: 100%;
}

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Fixed Bottom

ul {
position: fixed;
bottom: 0;
width: 100%;
}

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Note: Fixed position might not work properly on mobile devices.

Gray Horizontal Navbar

An example of a gray horizontal navigation bar with a thin gray border:

Example

ul {
border: 1px solid #e7e7e7;
background-color: #f3f3f3;
}

li a {
color: #666;
}

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Sticky Navbar

Add position: sticky; to <ul> to create a sticky navbar.

A sticky element toggles between relative and fixed, depending on the scroll position. It is positioned relative until a given offset position is met in the viewport - then it "sticks" in place (like position:fixed).

Example

ul {
position: -webkit-sticky; /* Safari */
position: sticky;
top: 0;
}

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Note: Internet Explorer does not support sticky positioning. Safari requires the -webkit- prefix (see example above). You must also specify at least one of top, right, bottom or left for sticky positioning to work.