Introduction to CSS Lists

If you are interested to learn about the CSS Layout

There are various CSS properties that can be used to control lists. Lists can be classified as ordered lists and unordered lists. In ordered lists, marking of the list items is with alphabet and numbers, whereas in unordered lists, the list items are marked using bullets.

We can style the lists using CSS. CSS list properties allow us to:

• Set the distance between the text and the marker in the list.
• Specify an image for the marker instead of using the number or bullet point.
• Control the marker appearance and shape.
• Place the marker outside or inside the box that contains the list items.
• Set the background colors to list items and lists.

The CSS properties to style the lists are given as follows:

• list-style-type: This property is responsible for controlling the appearance and shape of the marker.
• list-style-image: It sets an image for the marker instead of the number or a bullet point.
• list-style-position: It specifies the position of the marker.
• list-style: It is the shorthand property of the above properties.
• marker-offset: It is used to specify the distance between the text and the marker. It is unsupported in IE6 or Netscape 7.

Unordered Lists:

• Coffee
• Tea
• Coca Cola

Ordered Lists:

1. Coffee
2. Tea
3. Coca Cola

HTML Lists and CSS List Properties

In HTML, there are two main types of lists:

• unordered lists (<ul>) – the list items are marked with bullets
• ordered lists (<ol>) – the list items are marked with numbers or letters

The CSS list properties allow you to:

• Set different list item markers for ordered lists
• Set different list item markers for unordered lists
• Set an image as the list item marker
• Add background colors to lists and list items

Different List Item Markers

The list-style-type property specifies the type of list item marker. The following example shows some of the available list item markers:

Example

ul.a {
  list-style-type: circle;
}

ul.b {
  list-style-type: square;
}

ol.c {
  list-style-type: upper-roman;
}

ol.d {
  list-style-type: lower-alpha;
}

Note: Some of the values are for unordered lists, and some for ordered lists.

An Image as The List Item Marker

The list-style-image property specifies an image as the list item marker:

Example

ul {
  list-style-image: url('sqpurple.gif');
}

Position The List Item Markers

The list-style-position property specifies the position of the list-item markers (bullet points). “list-style-position: outside;” means that the bullet points will be outside the list item. The start of each line of a list item will be aligned vertically. This is default:

• Coffee – A brewed drink prepared from roasted coffee beans…
• Tea
• Coca-cola

“list-style-position: inside;” means that the bullet points will be inside the list item. As it is part of the list item, it will be part of the text and push the text at the start:

• Coffee – A brewed drink prepared from roasted coffee beans…
• Tea
• Coca-cola

Example

ul.a {
  list-style-position: outside;
}

ul.b {
  list-style-position: inside;
}

Remove Default Settings

The list-style-type:none property can also be used to remove the markers/bullets. Note that the list also has default margin and padding. To remove this, add margin:0 and padding:0 to <ul> or <ol>:

Example

ul {
  list-style-type: none;
  margin: 0;
  padding: 0;
}

List – Shorthand property

The list-style property is a shorthand property. It is used to set all the list properties in one declaration:

Example

ul {
  list-style: square inside url("sqpurple.gif");
}

When using the shorthand property, the order of the property values are:

• list-style-type (if a list-style-image is specified, the value of this property will be displayed if the image for some reason cannot be displayed)
• list-style-position (specifies whether the list-item markers should appear inside or outside the content flow)
• list-style-image (specifies an image as the list item marker)

If one of the property values above is missing, the default value for the missing property will be inserted, if any.

Styling List With Colors

We can also style lists with colors, to make them look a little more interesting. Anything added to the <ol> or <ul> tag, affects the entire list, while properties added to the <li> tag will affect the individual list items:

Example

ol {
  background: #ff9999;
  padding: 20px;
}

ul {
  background: #3399ff;
  padding: 20px;
}

ol li {
  background: #ffe5e5;
  color: darkred;
  padding: 5px;
  margin-left: 35px;
}

ul li {
  background: #cce5ff;
  color: darkblue;
  margin: 5px;
}

Result:

1. Coffee
2. Tea
3. Coca Cola

• Coffee
• Tea
• Coca Cola