Here’s a common scenario: you’re coding up a form with lots of buttons or need to add some elements that trigger JavaScript functions, and in the design comp some of these elements look like links. You intuitively reach for the a element, put some in the markup, add event handlers to them, and style them to match the design.
But wait a bit. Leaving the issue of putting elements that may rely on JavaScript to work in the markup for another time, should those elements really be links? What does the text on them say? What happens when you click them? If they trigger some kind of action that doesn’t match the normal link behaviour of going to another URL, it’s quite likely that you should really be using buttons.
Yes, I know. The designer says these elements need to look like links, period. And there was a time when making HTML buttons look like links wasn’t really possible in a cross-browser way. But these days you can get very, very close. It’s a bit tricky, but possible.
Posted in CSS.
Copyright © Roger Johansson