One cool CSS trick: altering a div's background color with hover!

I'm working on creating a div that acts as a link to another page. My goal is to have the entire background color of the div change to blue when someone hovers over it. I want to achieve this effect using CSS only, as I am not sure if javascript will work for everyone.

Issue at Hand: The code I have written below successfully creates the link, but the background color of the div does not change when hovered over. What mistake do you think I am making and how can I correct it to ensure that the div changes its background color on hover?

I suspect that I may need to place the link (a element) inside the div instead of outside, but I struggle to make the link stretch to fill the entire space of the div that way.

<html>
<head>
    <style type="text/css">
    <!--
        body        { background-color: RGB(218,238,248); }
        #rentalAnnc { margin-top: 5%; border-color: #99CCFF; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px;
                      border-width:thin; border-style:solid; border-right-width:thick;
                      border-bottom-width:thick; background-color: #FFFFFF; width: 300px; }

        /* Using pure CSS I am trying to make the background color of the div renatalAnnc have a blue background when we hover over it*/
        .sidebarLink { color: #000000; text-decoration: none; }
        .sidebarLink a:hover { background-color: blue; }

        /* The following on works in Firefox not IE! :( #rentalAnnc:hover { background-color: blue; } */
    -->
    </style>
</head>
<body>

    <a class="sidebarLink" href="facilitiesForHire.html">
        <div id="rentalAnnc">
            <p>We have a range of Education Facilities available for lease & hire</p>
        </div>
    </a>

</body>
</html>

Answer №1

:hover support is limited for non-anchor elements in outdated browsers and Internet Explorer, so it's recommended to apply the hover pseudo-class to the <a> element instead and utilize a basic descendant selector:

a:hover #rentalAnnc { background-color: blue; }

Answer №2

Ensuring that the <a> tag is nested within the <div> element is essential. To make it span across the entire space, include display: block in its styling.

<div id="rentalAnnc">
    <a class="sidebarLink" href="facilitiesForHire.html">
        <p>Explore our Education Facilities available for lease and rental</p>
    </a>
</div>

a.sidebarLink { color: #000000; text-decoration: none; display: block; }
a.sidebarLink:hover { background-color: blue; }

Answer №3

To convert your page into an HTML5 document, simply include the <!DOCTYPE html> declaration at the top of your code. You can also utilize the commented-out rule

#rentalAnnc:hover { background-color: blue; }
. While it was previously considered invalid to have a <div> nested inside an <a> in HTML3/4, this practice is now generally accepted in HTML5 (though the standard is still subject to change). By implementing the correct doctype and adding the outcommented rule, you should be able to resolve your current layout difficulties in Internet Explorer.

Remember to address any other errors identified by the W3C validator at http://validator.w3.org after updating the doctype. Issues like missing titles should be corrected as well, as browser behavior can vary unpredictably when dealing with invalid HTML code.

Answer №4

While I may be a little behind, I have recently been exploring a different approach that I believe provides a more effective solution:

<style type="text/css">
    body        { background-color: RGB(218,238,248); }
    #rentalAnnc { margin-top: 5%; border-color: #99CCFF; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px;
                  border-width:thin; border-style:solid; border-right-width:thick;
                  border-bottom-width:thick; width: 300px; }
    a.sidebarLink div { color: #000000; text-decoration: none; background-color: #FFFFFF;}
    a.sidebarLink:hover div { background-color: blue; }
</style>

<a class="sidebarLink" href="facilitiesForHire.html">
    <div id="rentalAnnc">
        <p>We offer various Education Facilities for rent and hire</p>
    </div>
</a>

Important to note: the rentalAnnc div does not specify a background-color within its style. This is defined within the link style only.

This approach ensures that the link fully encompasses the entire div, rather than just a portion of it. Additionally, if a background-image is applied to the div (such as with transparent areas for the background color to shine through), it will still be visible!

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