How to Create: Hoverable Tabs

Learn how to switch tabs with CSS and JavaScript on hover.

Create a hoverable vertical tab

Step 1 - Add HTML:

<div class="tab">
  <button class="tablinks" onmouseover="openCity(event, 'London')">London</button>
  <button class="tablinks" onmouseover="openCity(event, 'Paris')">Paris</button>
  <button class="tablinks" onmouseover="openCity(event, 'Tokyo')">Tokyo</button>
</div>
<div id="London" class="tabcontent">
  <h3>London</h3>
  <p>London is the capital city of England.</p>
</div>
<div id="Paris" class="tabcontent">
  <h3>Paris</h3>
  <p>Paris is the capital of France.</p>
</div>
<div id="Tokyo" class="tabcontent">
  <h3>Tokyo</h3>
  <p>Tokyo is the capital of Japan.</p>
</div>

Create buttons to open specific tab content. All with class="tabcontent" of <div> Elements are all hidden by default (through CSS and JS). When the user hovers over the button, it will open the tab content that matches the button.

Step 2 - Add CSS:

Set the style for the buttons and tab content:

/* Set the style for the tabs */
.tab {
  float: left;
  border: 1px solid #ccc;
  background-color: #f1f1f1;
  width: 30%;
  height: 300px;
}
/* Set the style for the button used to open the tab content */
.tab button {
  display: block;
  background-color: inherit;
  color: black;
  padding: 22px 16px;
  width: 100%;
  border: none;
  outline: none;
  text-align: left;
  cursor: pointer;
}
/* Change the background color of the button when the mouse hovers over it */
.tab button:hover {
  background-color: #ddd;
}
/* Create an active/current "tab button" class */
.tab button.active {
  background-color: #ccc;
}
/* Set the style of the tab page content */
.tabcontent {
  float: left;
  padding: 0px 12px;
  border: 1px solid #ccc;
  width: 70%;
  border-left: none;
  height: 300px;
  display: none;
}

Third step - Add JavaScript:

function openCity(evt, cityName) {
  // Declare all variables
  var i, tabcontent, tablinks;
  // Get all elements with class="tabcontent" and hide them
  tabcontent = document.getElementsByClassName("tabcontent");
  for (i = 0; i < tabcontent.length; i++) {
    tabcontent[i].style.display = "none";
  }
  // Get all elements with class="tablinks" and remove the class "active"
  tablinks = document.getElementsByClassName("tablinks");
  for (i = 0; i < tablinks.length; i++) {
    tablinks[i].className = tablinks[i].className.replace(" active", "");
  }
  // Display the current tab page and add the "active" class to the link that opens the tab page
  document.getElementById(cityName).style.display = "block";
  evt.currentTarget.className += " active";
}

Try It Yourself

Related Pages

Tutorial:How to Create Tab