How to Create a Content Accordion in Pure CSS3

Topic: CSS3
Difficulty: Intermediate
Estimated Completion Time: 45 mins

Today’s tutorial we will learn how to create a pure CSS3 content accordion based on the Futurico UI Pro. This will work on all browsers and devices that support the :target selector.

Step 1 – Basic HTML Markup

Let’s create three divs with a different id and each div will have a link with the class of tab and a div with the class of content.

To be able to style and open the accordion when we click on it we need to use the :target selector. The target selector will only work if we will have a link that points to an id and when we click on that link the id becomes the target element.


<div class="accordion">
	<div id="tab-1">
		<a href="#tab-1" class="tab">Option One</a>
		<div class="content">
			Content Here
		</div>
	</div>
	<div id="tab-2">
		<a href="#tab-2" class="tab">Option Two</a>
		<div class="content">
			Content Here
		</div>
	</div>
	<div id="tab-3">
		<a href="#tab-3" class="tab">Option Three</a>
		<div class="content">
			Content Here
		</div>
	</div>
</div>

Basic HTML Markup

Step 2 – Accordion Basic Layout

We’ll start by adding some CSS reset styles to remove all the margins, paddings and borders.


.accordion,.accordion div,.accordion h1,.accordion p,.accordion a,.accordion img,.accordion span,.accordion em,.accordion ul,.accordion li {
	margin: 0;
	padding: 0;
	border: none;
}

And then we’ll give a fixed 300px width (290px + 5px margin left + 5px padding right), background color, rounded corners and some shadows.


.accordion {
	width: 290px;
	padding: 1px 5px 5px 5px;
	background: #141517;

	-webkit-box-shadow: 0px 1px 0px rgba(255,255,255, .05);
	-moz-box-shadow: 0px 1px 0px rgba(255,255,255, .05);
	box-shadow: 0px 1px 0px rgba(255,255,255, .05);

	-webkit-border-radius: 2px;
	-moz-border-radius: 2px;
	border-radius: 2px;
}

Step 3 – Styling the Tab Header

Now let’s start styling the default tab header with some CSS3 gradients, shadows, rounded corners and some basic CSS properties (font, padding, color, etc).

.accordion .tab {
	display: block;
	height: 35px;
	margin-top: 4px;
	padding-left: 20px;
	font: bold 12px/35px Arial, sans-serif;
	text-decoration: none;
	color: #eee;

	text-shadow: 1px 1px 0px rgba(0,0,0, .2);

	-webkit-border-radius: 2px;
	-moz-border-radius: 2px;
	border-radius: 2px;

	background: #6c6e74;
	background: -moz-linear-gradient(top,  #6c6e74 0%, #4b4d51 100%);
	background: -webkit-gradient(linear, left top, left bottom, color-stop(0%,#6c6e74), color-stop(100%,#4b4d51));
	background: -webkit-linear-gradient(top,  #6c6e74 0%,#4b4d51 100%);
	background: -o-linear-gradient(top,  #6c6e74 0%,#4b4d51 100%);
	background: -ms-linear-gradient(top,  #6c6e74 0%,#4b4d51 100%);
	background: linear-gradient(top,  #6c6e74 0%,#4b4d51 100%);

	-webkit-box-shadow: 0px 1px 0px rgba(0,0,0, .1), inset 0px 1px 0px rgba(255,255,255, .1);
	-moz-box-shadow: 0px 1px 0px rgba(0,0,0, .1), inset 0px 1px 0px rgba(255,255,255, .1);
	box-shadow: 0px 1px 0px rgba(0,0,0, .1), inset 0px 1px 0px rgba(255,255,255, .1);
}

And then we need to add a hover and active style. We’ll change the text and the gradient color to a green one.


.accordion .tab:hover,
.accordion div:target .tab {
	color: #2b3b06;

	text-shadow: 0px 1px 0px rgba(255,255,255, .15);

	background: #a5cd4e;
	background: -moz-linear-gradient(top,  #a5cd4e 0%, #6b8f1a 100%);
	background: -webkit-gradient(linear, left top, left bottom, color-stop(0%,#a5cd4e), color-stop(100%,#6b8f1a));
	background: -webkit-linear-gradient(top,  #a5cd4e 0%,#6b8f1a 100%);
	background: -o-linear-gradient(top,  #a5cd4e 0%,#6b8f1a 100%);
	background: -ms-linear-gradient(top,  #a5cd4e 0%,#6b8f1a 100%);
	background: linear-gradient(top,  #a5cd4e 0%,#6b8f1a 100%);

	-webkit-box-shadow: 1px 1px 1px rgba(0,0,0, .3), inset 1px 1px 1px rgba(255,255,255, .45);
	-moz-box-shadow: 1px 1px 1px rgba(0,0,0, .3), inset 1px 1px 1px rgba(255,255,255, .45);
	box-shadow: 1px 1px 1px rgba(0,0,0, .3), inset 1px 1px 1px rgba(255,255,255, .45);
}

Step 4 – Display and Hide the Content

In this step we will hide all the content and only show it when you click on a tab. To hide we’ll use the display: none; property and the display: block; for the target div. We’ll also add some transition animations to make it look better and a 100px height for the target div.

.accordion div .content {
	display: none;
	margin: 5px 0;
}

.accordion div:target .content {
	display: block;
}

.accordion > div {
	height: 40px;
	overflow: hidden;

	-webkit-transition: all .3s ease-in-out;
	-moz-transition: all .3s ease-in-out;
	-o-transition: all .3s ease-in-out;
	-ms-transition: all .3s ease-in-out;
	transition: all .3s ease-in-out;
}

.accordion > div:target {
	height: 100px;
}

Step 5 – The Tabs Content

HTML Markup

Let’s add some content to the tabs. We will create a blog post preview with a title, paragraph text, some images and some meta info. You can change the markup as you like, this is optional, just to make this accordion more complete.


<div class="content">
	<img src="img/post-img-1.png" alt="">
	<h1>The Big Elephant in the City</h1>
	<span>5 days ago</span> <em class="bullet"></em> <span>17 comments</span>
	<p>Known locally as "SoMa", this neighborhood was home to the dot.com boom and boasts cutting-edge restaurants and boutiques.</p>
	<ul>
		<li><img src="img/thumb-1.png" alt=""></li>
		<li><img src="img/thumb-2.png" alt=""></li>
		<li><img src="img/thumb-3.png" alt=""></li>
	</ul>
</div>

CSS Styles

The content styles are all basic except the CSS3 stuff, I recommend you to search the properties that you don’t understand on Google and you will find a lot of information about them.

.accordion .content h1 {
	color: white;
	font: 18px/32px Arial, sans-serif;
}

.accordion .content p {
	margin: 10px 0;
	color: white;
	font: 11px/16px Arial, sans-serif;
}

.accordion .content span {
	font: italic 11px/12px Georgia, Arial, sans-serif;
	color: #4f4f4f;
}

.accordion .content em.bullet {
	width: 5px;
	height: 5px;
	margin: 0 5px;
	background: #6b8f1a;
	display: inline-block;

	-webkit-box-shadow: inset 1px 1px 1px rgba(255,255,255, 0.4);
	-moz-box-shadow: inset 1px 1px 1px rgba(255,255,255, 0.4);
	box-shadow: inset 1px 1px 1px rgba(255,255,255, 0.4);

	-webkit-border-radius: 5px;
	-moz-border-radius: 5px;
	border-radius: 5px;
}

.accordion .content ul li {
	list-style: none;
	float: left;
	margin: 5px 10px 5px 0;
}

.accordion .content img {
	-webkit-box-shadow: 2px 2px 6px rgba(0,0,0, .5);
	-moz-box-shadow: 2px 2px 6px rgba(0,0,0, .5);
	box-shadow: 2px 2px 6px rgba(0,0,0, .5);
}

Also change the div height to 360px.


.accordion > div:target {
	height: 360px;
}

Conclusion

We have finished this Pure CSS3 Content Accordion. Hope you like it and don’t forget to live some feedback or any question you have in the comments.

Preview