How to Create: Tabs

Learn how to create tabs using CSS and JavaScript.

Create a toggleable tab

Step 1 - Add HTML:

<!-- Tab links -->
<div class="tab">
  <button class="tablinks" onclick="openCity(event, 'London')">London</button>
  <button class="tablinks" onclick="openCity(event, 'Paris')">Paris</button>
  <button class="tablinks" onclick="openCity(event, 'Tokyo')">Tokyo</button>
</div>
<!-- Tab content -->
<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 elements with class="tabcontent" of <div> Elements are all hidden by default (through CSS and JS). When the user clicks a button, it will open the tab content that matches the button.

Second step - Add CSS:

Set the style for buttons and tab content:

/* Set the style of the tab */
.tab {
  overflow: hidden;
  border: 1px solid #ccc;
  background-color: #f1f1f1;
}
/* Set the style of the button used to open tab content */
.tab button {
  background-color: inherit;
  float: left;
  border: none;
  outline: none;
  cursor: pointer;
  padding: 14px 16px;
  transition: 0.3s;
}
/* Change the background color of the button on hover */
.tab button:hover {
  background-color: #ddd;
}
/* Create the active/current tab link class */
.tab button.active {
  background-color: #ccc;
}
/* Set the style of tab content */
.tabcontent {
  display: none;
  padding: 6px 12px;
  border: 1px solid #ccc;
  border-top: 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 class "active"
  tablinks = document.getElementsByClassName("tablinks");
  for (i = 0; i < tablinks.length; i++) {
    tablinks[i].className = tablinks[i].className.replace(" active", "");
  }
  // Show the current tab page and add the "active" class to the button that opens the tab page
  document.getElementById(cityName).style.display = "block";
  evt.currentTarget.className += " active";
}

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Fade in tab page

To fade in the tab page content, add the following CSS:

.tabcontent {
  animation: fadeEffect 1s; /* Fade in and out effect lasts for 1 second */
}
/* Transition from zero opacity to fully opaque */
@keyframes fadeEffect {
  from {opacity: 0;}
  to {opacity: 1;}
}

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Default tab page display

To open a specific tab page when the page is loaded, use JavaScript to "click" the specified tab button:

<button class="tablinks" onclick="openCity(event, 'London')" id="defaultOpen">London</button>
<script>
// Click the element with id="defaultOpen"
document.getElementById("defaultOpen").click();
</script>

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Close tab page

If you want to close a specific tab page, please use JavaScript to hide the tab page by clicking the button:

<!-- Click the <span> element to close the tab page -->
<div id="London" class="tabcontent">
  <h3>London</h3>
  <p>London is the capital city of England.</p>
  <span onclick="this.parentElement.style.display='none'">x</span>
</div>

Try it yourself

Related pages

Tutorial:How to create vertical tabs