Modern Separators In Lists Menu

Some time ago using of pseudo-class as :first and :first-child was impossible due to browsers that didn’t support CSS enough. Nowadays we have almost ideal browsers, which allows us to make really interesting CSS pirouettes.

For example, horizontal list menu with separators (pipes) in ancient CSS days was handcoded:

Item1 | Item2 | Item3 | Item4

Now we will use modern smart browsers. We will take a simple list without separators:

<ul>
<li><a href=”#”>Item one</a></li>
<li><a href=”#”>Item two</a></li>
<li><a href=”#”>Item three</a></li>
<li><a href=”#”>Item four</a></li>
</ul>

and add separators BY CSS itself with this style:

CSS

1. li {
2. display:inline;
   list-style-type:none;
   padding-left:1em;
   margin-left:1em;
   border-left:1px solid #ccc
3. }

1. li:first-child {
2. border-left:none
3. }

Now we have:

Thats all! The latest line deletes left border of first element in simple and elegant way. Here you are – so called piped list.

Well, there is more sophisticated way: li:after {content:" | "}, but you can try it yourself.

Here is an another interesting approach:

1. #nav{
2. overflow:hidden;
3. width:100%;
4. }
5. #nav li{
6. margin-left:-1px;/* all elements go on left*/
7. }