Very Simple Tabs With Pure HTML CSS JS (Free Download)

Welcome to a tutorial on how to create responsive tabs with pure HTML, CSS, and JS. Need to organize the information on your website a little better? Don’t want to load an entire library just for a simple tab plugin? Here is a sharing of my own, using only pure HTML CSS JS – Read on!

ⓘ I have included a zip file with all the source code at the start of this tutorial, so you don’t have to copy-paste everything… Or if you just want to dive straight in.

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

 

 

QUICK NOTES

If you spot a bug, feel free to comment below. I try to answer short questions too, but it is one person versus the entire world… If you need answers urgently, please check out my list of websites to get help with programming.

 

EXAMPLE CODE DOWNLOAD

Click here to download the source code, I have released it under the MIT license, so feel free to build on top of it or use it in your own project.

 

HOW TO USE & DEMO

<!-- (A) LOAD CSS + JS -->
<link href="tabs.css" rel="stylesheet">
<script src="tabs.js"></script>
 
<!-- (B) TABS WRAPPER -->
<div class="tabs">
  <!-- (B1) HEADERS -->
  <ul class="tabHead">
    <li>First</li>
    <li>Second</li>
    <li>Third</li>
  </ul>
 
  <!-- (B2) CONTENTS -->
  <ul class="tabBody">
    <li>First content.</li>
    <li>Second content.</li>
    <li>Third content.</li>
  </ul>
</div>

<!-- (C) INIT TABS -->
<script>
tabify();
</script> 

For you guys who just want to use this as a “plugin”:

1. Captain Obvious, load the CSS and Javascript.
2. Define the tab <div class="tabs">, it only needs 2 sections:
   • <ul class="tabHead"> The tab headers.
   • <ul class="tabBody"> Respective content for each tab.
3. Lastly, just call tabify() to create the tabs.

 

 

 

PART 1) THE JAVASCRIPT

function tabify () { for (let tab of document.querySelectorAll(".tabs")) {
  // (A) GET HEADERS & BODY
  let htabs = tab.querySelectorAll("ul.tabHead > li"),
      btabs = tab.querySelectorAll("ul.tabBody > li");
  if (htabs.length != btabs.length) {
    console.error("Number of tabs do not match!");
    continue;
  }
 
  // (B) CLICK TO TOGGLE TAB
  for (let i=0; i<htabs.length; i++) {
    htabs[i].onclick = () => {
      for (let j=0; j<htabs.length; j++) {
        if (i==j) {
          htabs[j].classList.add("open");
          btabs[j].classList.add("open");
        } else {
          htabs[j].classList.remove("open");
          btabs[j].classList.remove("open");
        }
      }
    };
  }
 
  // (C) OPEN FIRST TAB BY DEFAULT - IF NONE IS OPEN
  if (tab.querySelector(".open") == null) {
    htabs[0].classList.add("open");
    btabs[0].classList.add("open");
  }
}}

The entire tabs mechanism is contained within this tabify() function. Looks complicated, but keep calm and look carefully.

• for (let tab of document.querySelectorAll(".tabs")) will get all the <div class="tabs"> on the page and loop through them.
• (A) Get the header tabs and respective content.
• (B) Add <li onclick="SWITCH TAB"> to the headers. We are pretty much just attaching an open CSS class to the selected tab.
• (C) Set the first tab to open by default.

 

 

PART 2) CSS COSMETICS

/* (A) WRAPPER & SHARED */
.tabs {
  max-width: 600px; /* optional */
  border: 1px solid #d9d9d9;
}
ul.tabHead, ul.tabBody {
  list-style: none;
  padding: 0; margin: 0;
}
 
/* (B) HEADER TABS */
.tabHead {
  display: flex;x
  border-bottom: 1px solid #d9d9d9;
  background: #efefef;
}
.tabHead li {
  padding: 10px 20px;
  cursor: pointer;
}
.tabHead li.open {
  color: #fff;
  background: #2a87d7;
}

/* (C) CONTENT TABS */
.tabBody li {
  display: none;
  padding: 20px;
  max-height: 300px; overflow: auto; /* optional */
} 
.tabBody li.open { display: block; }

These are mostly cosmetics. The only functional part I will say is:

• (C) Hide the contents by default .tabBody li { display: none }
• (C) Show the content as the user clicks on a tab .tabBody li.open { display: block }

 

 

 

SETTING DEFAULT OPEN TAB

<div class="tabs">
  <ul class="tabHead">
    <li>First</li>
    <li class="open">Second</li>
    <li>Third</li>
  </ul>
  <ul class="tabBody">
    <div>First content.</div>
    <div class="open">Second content.</div>
    <div>Third content.</div>
  </ul>
</div>

As above, the first tab will open by default. If that is not the case, manually set a class="open" on both the respective header and content.

 

LINKS & REFERENCES

Looking for more ways to organize your content? Check out my other guides:

• Pure CSS Accordion – Code Boxx
• Text Sliders – Code Boxx
• AJAX Tabs – Code Boxx
• Example on CodePen – Simple Tabs With JS CSS