How to use CSS to create a simple step navigation

Step Navigation is often used in web design. It can facilitate users to operate, especially when completing multi-step tasks. Step Navigation will better help users understand the current progress and master the operation process. In this article, we’ll cover how to use CSS to create a simple step navigation.

First, we need to open an HTML file, and then create a div element containing step navigation in the file. This div element will have a class name: "step-nav".

<div>

</div>

Next, we need to create a custom step element for each step. In this example, we will create a four-step navigation.

<div>
  <div>
    <span>步骤1</span>
  </div>
  <div>
    <span>步骤2</span>
  </div>  
  <div>
    <span>步骤3</span>
  </div>
  <div>
    <span>步骤4</span>
  </div>
</div>

Each step is a custom div element with a class name of "step" and a span element containing the step name.

Next, we need to use CSS to customize our step navigation. First, we will define basic styles for the "step-nav" and "step" classes.

.step-nav {
  display: flex;
  justify-content: center;
  align-items: center;
}

.step {
  width: 100px;
  height: 50px;
  background-color: #ccc;
  margin: 0 10px;
  text-align: center;
  line-height: 50px;
  font-size: 18px;
  color: #fff;
  border-radius: 5px;
}

Here, we used Flexbox to center the step navigation and spread the step elements horizontally. Additionally, we define style properties such as width, background color, margins, text alignment, line height, font size, text color, and border radius for the step element.

Now, we want to add styles to the active step (the step the user is currently on). We can use the pseudo-class selector ":nth-child" to select the first element in the step.

.step:nth-child(1) {
  background-color: #007aff;
}

Here, we change the background color of the first element of the step navigation to blue to indicate that it is an active step.

Next, we need to add hover styles for each step. When the user hovers the mouse over the step element, we can add bright colors through CSS to attract the user's attention.

.step:hover {
  background-color: #ff4a57;
}

Now, we can see that our step navigation already has some basic styles. However, we also need to add connections between steps to better represent the flow between steps. We can use the pseudo-element selectors "::before" and "::after" to create rectangular shaped lines.

.step::before {
  content: "";
  position: absolute;
  width: 0;
  height: 0;
  border-top: 25px solid transparent;
  border-bottom: 25px solid transparent;
  border-right: 20px solid #ccc;
  left: -20px;
  z-index: -1;
}

.step:first-child::before {
  display: none;
}

.step:last-child::after {
  display: none;
}

.step::after {
  content: "";
  position: absolute;
  width: 0;
  height: 0;
  border-top: 25px solid transparent;
  border-bottom: 25px solid transparent;
  border-left: 20px solid #ccc;
  right: -20px;
  z-index: -1;
}

Here, we use absolute positioning to add pseudo-elements to each step, and set the "content" attribute to "" so that they do not produce any text. We also used the "border" property to create rectangular shaped lines for them.

Finally, we use the "first-child" and "last-child" pseudo-classes to select the first and last steps and add their "::before" and "::after" pseudo-elements Hide it to avoid unnecessary horizontal lines at both ends of the step navigation.

Now, we have completed all the styles for custom step navigation. We can view the final result in the browser.

  
    <style>
      .step-nav {
        display: flex;
        justify-content: center;
        align-items: center;
      }

      .step {
        width: 100px;
        height: 50px;
        background-color: #ccc;
        margin: 0 10px;
        text-align: center;
        line-height: 50px;
        font-size: 18px;
        color: #fff;
        border-radius: 5px;
        position: relative;
      }

      .step:nth-child(1) {
        background-color: #007aff;
      }

      .step:hover {
        background-color: #ff4a57;
      }

      .step::before {
        content: "";
        position: absolute;
        width: 0;
        height: 0;
        border-top: 25px solid transparent;
        border-bottom: 25px solid transparent;
        border-right: 20px solid #ccc;
        left: -20px;
        z-index: -1;
      }

      .step:first-child::before {
        display: none;
      }

      .step::after {
        content: "";
        position: absolute;
        width: 0;
        height: 0;
        border-top: 25px solid transparent;
        border-bottom: 25px solid transparent;
        border-left: 20px solid #ccc;
        right: -20px;
        z-index: -1;
      }

      .step:last-child::after {
        display: none;
      }
    </style>
  
  
    <div>
      <div>
        <span>步骤1</span>
      </div>
      <div>
        <span>步骤2</span>
      </div>  
      <div>
        <span>步骤3</span>
      </div>
      <div>
        <span>步骤4</span>
      </div>
    </div>
  

In general, step navigation is one of the very practical elements in web design. It can facilitate users to operate, especially when completing multi-step tasks. Creating a simple step-by-step navigation using CSS is relatively easy, just take care of the styling details.

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