Using a CSS Pseudo-Class is one way to gain added control over conditional styling in your projects, perfect for links and other interactive elements. This insightful video tutorial will help you understand how.
CSS Pseudo-Classes are pre-defined classes or styles that can be applied to tags or elements conditionally. This gives you a lot of power in how you allow users to engage with your content. For instance, it has become much more common to see links that have a different color representing their current state. This video uses the example of a link that is untouched, versus a link that has been visited or is active. It also covers how to change a link when a user simply hovers over it.
There are many reasons you may want to include a styling choice like this, and added communication is at the top of that list. Since they are pre-defined, CSS pseudo-classes need to be selected and used, not invented on the fly. The first example given in the video is the a: link {} pseudo-class. Adding a color via this pseudo-class will allow you to only color the fresh, unvisited links in your document.
The next example given is the a: visited {} css pseudo-class, which allows you to style only links that have been visited previously by the user. Next, we look at a: active {} which allows you style links that are active or currently selected. This one is perhaps not as noticeable right away, as it is triggered when a link is clicked and held. And lastly we now look at the a: hover {} pseudo-class which allows you to change a link’s appearance when a user simply hovers over it.
If this lesson in using CSS pseudo-classes was helpful to you, you should also check out this post on using HSL colors to help you find more unique color schemes to work with. Thanks for stopping by!