How to create a CSS only (vertical) drop-down menu? - css

Question

Good afternoon,
My current task is to create several stylesheets for a website. One of the websites styles requires me to create a drop-down menu, I however am not allowed to change the HTML code at all, so basically I'm asked to create a drop-down like menu with CSS only.
Here is the HTML code I have to display in form of a drop-down menu:
<div id="global-nav">
<ul>
<li>Products
<ul>
<li>Widgets</li>
<li>Sites</li>
<li>Gadgets</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
There however are different requirements as well:
There shouldn't be any dots or circles preceding each list item.
I'm wondering whether it is possible to accomplish this task with CSS only or not.
Is there any way I can do this with CSS?

Answer 1

Vertical menu with horizontal expansion
jsBin demo
*{padding:0;margin:0;}
body{font:16px/1 sans-serif}
/*VERTICAL MENU*/
nav.vertical{
position:relative;
width:200px;
}
/* ALL UL */
nav.vertical ul{
list-style: none;
}
/* ALL LI */
nav.vertical li{
position:relative;
}
/* ALL A */
nav.vertical a{
display:block;
color:#eee;
text-decoration:none;
padding:10px 15px;
background:#667;
transition:0.2s;
}
/* ALL A HOVER */
nav.vertical li:hover > a{
background:#778;
}
/* INNER UL HIDE */
nav.vertical ul ul{
position:absolute;
left:0%;
top:0;
width:100%;
visibility:hidden;
opacity:0;
transition: transform 0.2s;
transform: translateX(50px);
}
/* INNER UL SHOW */
nav.vertical li:hover > ul{
left:100%;
visibility:visible;
opacity:1;
transform: translateX(0px);
}
<nav class="vertical">
<ul>
<li>Home</li>
<li>Products +
<ul>
<li>Widgets</li>
<li>
Sites +
<ul>
<li>Site 1</li>
<li>Site 2</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
Gadgets +
<ul>
<li>Gadget 1</li>
<li>Gadget 2</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Contact</li>
</ul>
</nav>
Vertical menu (mobile only)
this one might best suit for mobile (smaller screens CSS) otherwise the show/hide would troll with User Experience
jsBin demo
*{padding:0;margin:0;}
body{font:16px/1 sans-serif}
/*VERTICAL MENU*/
nav.vertical{
position:relative;
background:#667;
}
/* ALL UL */
nav.vertical ul{
list-style: none;
}
/* ALL LI */
nav.vertical li{
position:relative;
}
/* ALL A */
nav.vertical a{
display:block;
color:#eee;
text-decoration:none;
padding:10px 15px;
transition:0.2s;
}
/* ALL A HOVER */
nav.vertical li:hover > a{
background:#778;
}
/* INNER UL HIDE */
nav.vertical ul ul{
background:rgba(0,0,0,0.1);
padding-left:20px;
transition: max-height 0.2s ease-out;
max-height:0;
overflow:hidden;
}
/* INNER UL SHOW */
nav.vertical li:hover > ul{
max-height:500px;
transition: max-height 0.25s ease-in;
}
<nav class="vertical">
<ul>
<li>Home</li>
<li>Services +
<ul>
<li>Service 1</li>
<li>Service 2</li>
<li>Service 3</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Products +
<ul>
<li>Widgets</li>
<li>
Sites +
<ul>
<li>Site 1</li>
<li>Site 2</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Gadgets +
<ul>
<li>Gadget 1</li>
<li>Gadget 2</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Contact</li>
</ul>
</nav>

Answer 2

Just a slightly enhanced version of the great solution above.
<style type="text/css">
#global-nav {
width: 121px;
float: left;
background: #e8eef4;
}
#global-subnav {
width: 121px;
background: #09C;
}
#global-nav a {
color: #034af3;
cursor: pointer;
display: block;
height: 40px;
line-height: 40px;
text-indent: 10px;
text-decoration:none;
font-weight: bold;
width: 100%;
}
#global-nav ul{
background: yellow;
padding: 0;
margin: 0;
}
#global-subnav ul{
background: orangered;
position: relative;
top: -10px;
left: 40px;
}
#global-nav li{
list-style: none;
border-bottom: #5C87B2 solid;
border-width: 3px;
}
#global-nav ul ul li{
display:none;
}
#global-nav li:hover {
background: #fff;
}
#global-nav li:hover ul li{
display:block;
}
</style>
<div id="global-nav">
<ul>
<li>One
<div id="global-subnav">
<ul>
<li>A</li>
<li>B</li>
<li>C</li>
</ul>
</div>
</li>
<li>Two
<div id="global-subnav">
<ul>
<li>1</li>
<li>2</li>
<li>3</li>
</ul>
</div>
</li>
</ul>
</div>

Answer 3

The code is wrong on the last post.
You can't have more than 1 ID with the same name in a document, so if you use the code above, you'll need to change
ID="global-subnav" to class="global-subnav"
and then change the CSS from
#global-subnav to .global-subnav