# Menu Toggle with Pure CSS

2020-10-19

When thinking through navigation designs for mobile devices sometimes the best option is to store away the content behind a toggle button. This button would then display the menu items upon interaction. Let me show you how to create such an element with only CSS - no need for JavaScript today!

## Before we begin

I would like to point out that the concept of "toggling" the main menu (even for mobile) is not always the best solution. If you're interested, you can take a look at a previous article I wrote explaining why: [Using Hamburger Menus? Try Sausage Links](/hamburger-menu-alternative.html)

Now that we have mentioned possible pitfalls of relying so heavily on toggle menus, let's build one!

## Our Final Product

![Menu toggle made from pure CSS](/public/images/menu-toggle-css.png)

[Live CodePen Example](https://codepen.io/bradleytaunt/pen/mdEEvEX)

## The HTML

To implement this design you really don't need much in terms of HTML:

- A single `checkbox` input
- A `label` that corresponds to the `checkbox`
- A `nav` element to house our unordered list items


    <!-- The checkbox input & label partner -->
    <input type="checkbox" id="menu-toggle">
    <label for="menu-toggle">Menu</label>
    
    <!-- The navigation we wish to toggle -->
    <nav>
        <ul>
            <li><a href="">Home</a></li>
            <li><a href="">About</a></li>
            <li><a href="">Articles</a></li>
            <li><a href="">Colophon</a></li>
            <li><a href="">Contact</a></li>
        </ul>
    </nav>


That's it!

## The CSS

The first thing we need to do is "hide" the `checkbox` input element. It's important to avoid using `display: none` or `visibility: hidden` in order to achieve this. Those CSS properties can negatively impact accessibility (specifically screen readers). So we will be relying on the `position`, `z-index` and `opacity` properties to help us out.


    /* Set the input position to absolute, send it off screen with zero opacity */
    input[type="checkbox"] {
        left: -9999px;
        opacity: 0;
        position: absolute;
    }


Then we give our corresponding `label` a minor face-lift to make it appear more button-like:


    /* Minor visual styling to make the label more button-y */
    label {
        border: 1px solid currentColor;
        border-radius: 4px;
        cursor: pointer;
        padding: 10px;
    }


For our main `nav` element, we want to set it's position to `absolute` in order to avoid any janky page rendering issues that might occur when toggling the menu:

`
    /* Set nav to absolute (avoids odd page rendering space pop-in) */
    nav {
        opacity: 0;
        position: absolute;
        z-index: -2;
    }


The last step is to actually *show* the menu if the user toggles the `checkbox`:


    /* Show nav when checkbox is checked */
    input[type="checkbox"]:checked ~ nav {
        opacity: 1;
        z-index: 1;
    }


It might not look like much, but you now have a fully functional menu toggle - **made with pure CSS**! 

## With Great Power...

Although this design is very simple to implement, please remember to use these types of menus wisely. Just because you *can* do something, doesn't always mean you *should*.