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:hover (CSS selector)

Spec
Version
CSS2
Browser support (more…)
IE7+ FF1+ SA1.3+ OP9.2+
Full Full Full Full

Syntax

:hover {
declaration block
}

Description

The :hover pseudo-class matches any element that’s being designated by a pointing device. The term designated refers to the process during which the cursor is hovered over the box generated by the element.

Example

This rule will apply a border to any img element over which the cursor is hovered:

img:hover {
  border: 5px solid #F2F2F2;
}

Compatibility

Internet Explorer Firefox Safari Opera
5.5 6.0 7.0 1.0 1.5 2.0 1.3 2.0 3.0 9.2 9.5
Buggy Buggy Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full Full

In Internet Explorer versions up to and including 6:

  • :hover is applied only to HTML a elements that have an href attribute.
  • :hover is counted as two classes/pseudo-classes in the specificity calculation.
  • :hover is ignored if it’s not in the last simple selector.

Neither Internet Explorer 5.5 nor 6 supports the chaining of pseudo-classes; only the last pseudo-class is honored in these browsers.

In Internet Explorer 7:

  • The element sometimes remains in the hover state if the cursor is moved from the element while the mouse button is pressed; the hover state sometimes doesn’t apply when it should.
  • :hover doesn’t match elements with negative z-index property values.

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User-contributed notes

ID:
#3
Contributed:
by dmwalk
Date:
Mon, 01 Sep 2008 10:53:12 GMT
Status:
This note has not yet been confirmed for accuracy and relevance.

As there are still major problems with :hover in IE7, it seems to me that your chart should read Buggy for IE7. The problems necessitate the use of the sfhover javascript hack for the popular Suckerfish menus with IE7, as well as IE6. Depressingly, this bug is also still present in IE8 beta 2.

ID:
#2
Contributed:
by dbolton
Date:
Thu, 07 Feb 2008 06:32:23 GMT
Status:
This note has not yet been confirmed for accuracy and relevance.

col:hover and colgroup:hover not supported

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