Getting attributes to bleed through to children - css

I want to simulate tabs such that the first word in a list entry always gets a fixed width. I do it like this:
<style>
.tabbed { float: left; width: 5em; }
</style>
<ul>
<li><span class='tabbed'>first</span> entry in my list</li>
<li><span class='tabbed'>second</span> list entry</li>
</ul>
the approach works relatively well except that if I want to do:
li { color: blue }
it applies the color (not surprisingly) to the <li> but not to the <span>. this means that I would have to:
.tabbed { color: blue }
which is not very DRY. In my case I've got a whole bunch of declarations for different classes of the list items so it's cumbersome and ugly.
how does one deal with this?

By default the the span should be colored blue if the li is colored blue.
See http://jsfiddle.net/Q2UGE/ for an example
I think you must have some other CSS overriding it
In case you do have something else overriding it that you cant change, you can also enforce li .tabbed to inherit from it parent
li .tabbed { color: inherit }
See http://jsfiddle.net/Q2UGE/1/ for an example of that

You can't really. Best you could do is...
li,
.tabbed {
color: blue
}

li, .tabbed { color: blue }
thats a little more dry.

Like this :
li, .tabber { color: blue }

Related

How to color specifics parts (letters) of menu?

Firstly, happy new year to you all! :)
Ok let's get to it. I have 5 items in my menu, and i would like to color "+" part of the word to red, choosing 2nd,3rd and 4th item of menu.
This is what menu looks like right now.
This is how the menu should look like, when its done.
I might have given a bad picture, but i think you can see the red "+" on 2nd,3rd and 4th item of menu.
This is what i've tried so far, but i can't seem to figure out the nth-child method.
#menu li:nth-child(2):first-letter a{color:red;}
Also tried this, but it colors every first letter in all 5 elements :S
#menu .nav > li > a:first-letter{color:red;}
Any help will be appreciated!
Thank you all!
I've managed to find the solution. Not sure if it's the best one, but im posting it below, so that any1 in the future can use it too, if no other solution is found
#menu .nav > li:nth-child(2) > a:first-letter
{
color:red;
}
#menu .nav > li:nth-child(3) > a:first-letter
{
color:red;
}
#menu .nav > li:nth-child(4) > a:first-letter
{
color:red;
}
Use the :not() selector to have all but one selected like this:
#menu{
background: rgb(83,83,83);
width: 100vw;
height: 40px;
}
ul{
text-align: center;
line-height: 40px;
vertical-align: central;
}
ul li{
display: inline-block;
color: white;
list-style: none;
margin-left: 25px;
}
a{
color: white;
display: block;
}
#menu ul li:not(:first-child):not(:last-child) a::first-letter{
color: red;
}
<div id="menu">
<ul>
<li>+option</li>
<li>+option</li>
<li>+option</li>
<li>+option</li>
<li>+option</li>
</ul>
</div>
I know this question already has an accepted answer, but I think there is a semantically better way of doing this. Instead of having the + symbol inside the link's markup, why not add it as a pseudo :before element? Easier to style and not dependent on your markup.
<nav>
<ul>
<li>Domov</li>
<li class="with-symbol">Naravni kamen</li>
<li class="with-symbol">Dekorativni kamen</li>
<li class="with-symbol">Keramika</li>
<li>Kontakt</li>
</ul>
</nav>
And the respective CSS:
.with-symbol:before {
content: '+';
color: red;
}
Then position it with either position: absolute; or negative left margin.
From the docs (https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/%3A%3Afirst-letter): A first line has meaning only in a block-container box, therefore the ::first-letter pseudo-element has an effect only on elements with a display value of block, inline-block, table-cell, list-item or table-caption. In all other cases, ::first-letter has no effect. So you will need to add display: block to your anchor tags.
I would also change the selector to:
ul li a:first-letter {
color:red;
}
as you need to select the first letter of the anchor tag, not the list item.
As a side note, it might be a better solution to use a span as suggested above or pseudo elements to insert the plus character and use a class to determine if it should be displayed or no.

How to add styles based on whether top element is empty

How do you change styles of another element based on whether the first element is empty.
<ul></ul>
<ul>
<li>....</li>
<li>....</li>
<li>....</li>
</ul>
In the above code, I want to give a style for the second ul { color:red } (to be more exact the ul that follows) ONLY if the first ul is empty.
Is there a pure CSS solution for this?
You can do this, but only if the element in question is completely empty- yes, not even a whitespace.
http://jsfiddle.net/NicoO/uTJ4N/
ul:empty + ul
{
color: red;
}
To be more accurate, this is the selector you need for the first empty <ul> of the body and the exact following <ul>:
body > ul:first-of-type:empty + ul
{
color: red;
}
http://jsfiddle.net/NicoO/uTJ4N/1/
Try this code:
ul > li {
color: red;
}
Its selects the ul which has a li as child element. And those can be colored red then.
http://jsfiddle.net/keypaul/KfaQv/1/
ul:not(:empty) {
color:red;
}
I dont think a pure css solution is the way to go, but you can use a pre-processor as they allow you to pass conditional statements.

How to show current page using CSS? .current_link not working

I'm trying to show the current page link in a different color. I've found other answers that will do this, but its still not working. I'm using a class of current_link on the respective links of each page. I also found an answer that said to apply the !important tag to the color rule but that didn't do anything. I'm thinking I have something small wrong or that I'm not aware of. Maybe some kind of ordering rule.
Here's the CSS rules relative to my links. As you can see I have .current_link at the top (I figured this would get rid of any ordering/over riding issues). The relative HTML naming will follow.
.current_link {
color: #00AD26;
}
#main_nav a:link, a:visited {
text-decoration:none;
color: #00A3E6;
}
#main_nav a:hover {
text-decoration: none;
color: #A8EDFF;
}
#main_nav a:active {
text-decoration: none;
color: #00B7FF;
}
a:link, a:visited {
text-decoration:none;
color: #00A3E6;
}
a:hover, a:active {
text-decoration: none;
color: #00B7FF;
}
Relative HTML from one of the pages.
<ul id="main_nav" class="grid_5 prefix_9">
<li id="home" class="current_link">Portfolio</li>
<li id="about">About</li>
<li id="contact">Contact</li>
</ul>
Your .current_link matches the <li>.
The <a> inside the <li> overrides the color it inherits from its parent element.
You need to apply the color to the <a> itself, either by moving the class or by changing the selector to select <a> elements inside the <li>.
Also, lower rules override earlier ones (if they have the same specificity).
Try this:
.current_link a {
color: #00AD26 !important;
}
You should use:
#main_nav li.current_link a {
color: #00AD26;
}
This will overrule the other selectors and avoids using !important.

In CSS, how can I give two styles to same div according to its level on a <ul> list?

I am working with a nested menu and have the same class appear on two levels of the tree, but I need to format said differently in the lower level. Any ideas how I can do this? I've searched for some time and tried many different solutions to no avail. Here's my HTML and most recent attempt:
<ul class="topnav">
<li><h3 class="toggle_action"> Meetings</h3>
<ul class="div_toggle">
<li><h3>Home</h3></li>
<li><h3 class="toggle_action"> Attend</h3> // <-- same div as line 2 but needs different formatting
<ul class="div_toggle"> etc...
and attempted CSS fix:
.toggle_action { /// the top-level format for the div with blue text
color:#5376c5;
}
ul.topnav ul li { /// the general <ul> formatting for the secondary level
color: #999;
}
.toggle_action ul ul li { /// my attempt to make the div appear in gray on second level
color:#999;
}
any tips would be greatly appreciated!
Your last CSS style never exists in the HTML; the <h3 class="toggle_action"> has no children.
I think you meant this:
.toggle_action {
color:#5376c5;
}
ul.topnav ul li {
color: #999;
}
ul ul li .toggle_action {
color: #999;
}

Cancel a CSS declaration

Is it possible to have a CSS rule which basically "undoes" a prior rule?
An example:
<blockquote>
some text <em>more text</em> other text
</blockquote>
and let's say there's this CSS:
blockquote {
color: red;
}
...but I want the <em> to remain the normal text color (which you may not necessarily know).
Basically, would there be a way to do something like this?
blockquote em {
color: inherit-from-blockquote's-parent
}
Edit: The code I'm actually trying to get this to work on is actually a bit more complicated. Maybe this would explain it better:
This text should be *some unknown colour*
<ul>
<li>This text should be BLUE
<ul>
<li>Same as outside the UL</li>
<li>Same as outside the UL</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
ul {
color: blue;
}
ul ul {
color: ???;
}
With CSS alone, you can't refer to a parent's parent.
The thing you can do is try a mix of specific CSS selectors and markup so that the desired effect appears.
<td>
This is the enclosing element.
<ul>
<li>This is the first level UL, direct child of TD
<ul>
<li>This is the second level UL</li>
<li>Same as outside the UL</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</td>
CSS:
td > ul
color: blue; /* this affects the "direct child" UL only */
}
You would limit the depth of style inheritance to one level, consequently the inner UL is unstyled in regard to color and gets its setup from the enclosing text.
Read more on the CSS Child Selector, and be aware that older browsers may have their quirks with them.
EDIT
For Internet Explorer 6, the child selector can be faked to some extend. Be sure to fasten seat belts (conditional comments or the like) before using this:
td ul {
color: expression(/TD/.test(this.parentNode.tagName)? "blue" : "black");
}
This assumes "black" as the outer color. If this color value is subject to change, your are out of luck, I'm afraid. Unless you can define an expression() that is able to get the color value from the context (e.g. checking some other properties of parent elements). Or you give up and use a JS framework, as someone else has already suggested.
The wimpy solution without having to use JS would of course be:
td ul.first {
color: blue;
}
But I can see why you want to avoid that.
Use this to make sure the inherit overrides whatever else might have been setting the color:
blockquote em {
color: inherit !important;
}
Give up and use a snippet of javascript to detect the style of the parent and set it? :)
Rather than trying to force a selector to inherit font colour from its grandparent, I would suggest that you give the selector and its grandparent a shared declaration for the font colour.
Taking the blockquote example, assuming that body is the grandparent:
body, blockquote em {
color:[whatever];
}
blockquote {
color:red;
}
And in the case of the unordered lists, it would be:
body, ul ul {
color:[whatever];
}
ul {
color:blue;
}
My CSS is a bit rusty, but this should work:
blockquote {
color: red;
}
blockquote em {
color: inherit;
}
You are setting blockquotes to red, but all <em>'s that are contained in a blockquote should inherit... hmmm, should they inherit from the surrounding text, or from the blockquote?
If the above does not work as you want, then there is no way to do it with the current markup, I think. You would have to work with additional markup, or set the colour explicitltly, e.g.
blockquote em {
color: Purple;
}
Ok, the additional text with example clarifies the question a lot. And I'm affraid that what you want is not possible.
If you know the "unknown colour" you can of course repeat the color. But I think CSS needs some mechanism to add variables or references.
So you have to stick to the cumbersome:
ul {
color: blue;
}
li ul {
color: sameenvironment; /* Sorry but you have to add the specific colour here */
}
If you can change your html you could try
<li><span>This text should be BLUE</span>
<ul>
<li>Same as outside the UL</li>
<li>Same as outside the UL</li>
</ul>
</li>
and the style
li span{
color: blue;
}
EDIT
another way to accomplish this without the extra span tag:
If we assume that we have a style class (or any other selector) that defines to parent of the outer ul. We can modify the css like this:
.parentStyle,
.parentStyle li li{
color:red;
}
li{
color:blue;
}
I too had this question but after I glanced at the other answers it hit me,
body {
color : initial;
}
IE doesn't support this currently and Gecko requires a -moz-initial I believe..
body {
color : unset;
}
This one isn't quite as supported right now. I just thought I'd share my answer to this for anyone else who thinks about this.

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