[html] How to remove focus around buttons on click

My buttons all have a highlight around them after I click them. This is in Chrome.

<button class="btn btn-primary btn-block">
    <span class="icon-plus"></span> Add Page
</button>

I am using Bootstrap with a theme, but I'm pretty sure that's not it: I was noticing this before on another project.

It goes away if I use an <a> tag instead of <button>. Why? If I wanted to use <button> how would I make it go away?

For people wanting a pure css way to do that:

:focus:not(:focus-visible) { outline: none }

This could also work for link and so on, and bonus, it keeps the keyboard accessibilities. Lastly it is ignored by browsers that don’t support :focus-visible

Can't believe nobody has posted this yet.

Use a label instead of a button.

<label type="button" class="btn btn-primary btn-block">
<span class="icon-plus"></span> Add Page
</label>

Fiddle

I just had this same problem on MacOS and Chrome while using a button to trigger a "transition" event. If anyone reading this is already using an event listener, you can solve it by calling .blur() after your actions.

Example:

 nextQuestionButtonEl.click(function(){
    if (isQuestionAnswered()) {
        currentQuestion++;
        changeQuestion();
    } else {
        toggleNotification("invalidForm");
    }
    this.blur();
});

Though if you're not using an event listener already, adding one just to solve this might add unnecessary overhead and a styling solution like previous answers provide is better.

I found a solution simply add below line in your css code.

button:focus { outline: none }

.btn:focus:active {
  outline: none;
}

this removes the outline on click, but keeps the focus when tabbing (for a11y)

Another possible solution is to add a class using a Javascript listener when the user clicks on the button and then remove that class on focus with another listener. This maintains accessibility (visible tabbing) while also preventing Chrome's quirky behaviour of considering a button focused when clicked.

JS:

$('button').click(function(){
    $(this).addClass('clicked');
});
$('button').focus(function(){
    $(this).removeClass('clicked');
});

CSS:

button:focus {
    outline: 1px dotted #000;
}
button.clicked {
    outline: none;
}

Full example here: https://jsfiddle.net/4bbb37fh/

If you dont want the outline for button with all the status, you can override the css with below code

.btn.active.focus, .btn.active:focus, 
.btn.focus, .btn:active.focus, 
.btn:active:focus, .btn:focus{
  outline: none;
}

Try this solution for remove border around the button. Add this code in css.

Try

button:focus{
outline:0px;
}

If not works then use below.

button:focus{
 outline:none !important;
 }

Simply add outline:0; css to elements.

Add this in script

$(document).ready(function() {
    $('#addBtn').focus(function() {
        this.blur();
    });
});

We were suffering a similar problem and noticed that Bootstrap 3 doesn't have the problem on their tabs (in Chrome). It looks like they're using outline-style which allows the browser to decide what best to do and Chrome seems to do what you want: show the outline when focused unless you just clicked the element.

Support for outline-style is hard to pin down since the browser gets to decide what that means. Best to check in a few browsers and have a fall-back rule.

If you use the rule :focus { outline: none; } to remove outlines, the link or control will be focusable but with no indication of focus for keyboard users. Methods to remove it such with JS like onfocus="blur()" are even worse and will result in keyboard users being unable to interact with the control.

The hacks you can use, that are sort of OK, includes adding :focus { outline: none; } rules when users interacts with the mouse and remove them again if keyboard interaction is detected. Lindsay Evans has made a lib for this: https://github.com/lindsayevans/outline.js

But i would prefer to setting a class on the html or body tag. And have control in the CSS file of when to use this.

For example (inline event handlers is for demonstration purposes only):

<html>
<head>
<style>
  a:focus, button:focus {
    outline: 3px solid #000;
  }
  .no-focus a, .no-focus button {
    outline: none;
  } 
</style>
</head>
<body id="thebody" 
onmousedown="document.getElementById('thebody').classList.add('no-focus');"
onkeydown="document.getElementById('thebody').classList.remove('no-focus');">
    <p>This her is <a href="#">a link</a></p>   
    <button>Click me</button>
</body>
</html>

I did put togheter a Pen: http://codepen.io/snobojohan/pen/RWXXmp

But beware there are performance issues. This forces repaint every time the user switches between mouse and keyboard. More about Avoiding Unnecessary Paints http://www.html5rocks.com/en/tutorials/speed/unnecessary-paints/

I found no solid answers that didn't either break accessibility or subvert functionality.

Perhaps combining a few will work better overall.

<h1
  onmousedown="this.style.outline='none';"
  onclick="this.blur(); runFn(this);"
  onmouseup="this.style.outline=null;"
>Hello</h1>

function runFn(thisElem) { console.log('Hello: ', thisElem); }

my understanding is that the focus is first applied following the onMouseDown event, so calling e.preventDefault() in onMouseDown may be a clean solution depending on your needs. This is certainly an accessibility friendly solution, but obviously it adjusts the behaviour of mouse clicks which may not be compatible with your web project.

I am currently using this solution (within a react-bootstrap project) and I do not receive a focus flicker or retained focus of buttons after a click, but I am still able to tab my focus and visually visualize the focus of the same buttons.

If the above doesn't work for you, try this:

.btn:focus {outline: none;box-shadow: none;border:2px solid transparent;}

As user1933897 pointed out, this might be specific to MacOS with Chrome.

I've noticed the same and even though it really annoys me, I believe there is no proper way of handling this.

I would recommend against all the other solutions given because they kill the accessibility of the button completely, so now, when you tab to the button, you won't get the expected focus.

This should be avoided!

.btn:focus {
  outline: none;
}

I was having the same problem using <a> acting as button and I discovered I was missing a workaround by adding attr type="button" makes it behave normally for me at least.

<a type="button" class="btn btn-primary">Release Me!</a>

I find a solution. when we focus, bootstrap use box-shadow, so we just disable it(not enough reputation, cannot upload image :( ).

I add

.btn:focus{
    box-shadow:none !important;
}

it works.

Here are two possible solutions.

1.) button type="button" className="btn-cart"onClick{(event)=>this.blur(event)}

2.) button type="button" className="btn-cart" onclick={this.blur}

Both of the solutions will remove the highlighted part around the button i.e -> blur() has its own specification in it of removing highlighted part around.

You want something like:

<button class="btn btn-primary btn-block" onclick="this.blur();">...

The .blur() method correctly removes the focus highlighting and doesn't mess up Bootstraps's styles.

This works for me, another solution not mentioned. Just throw it in the click event...

$(this).trigger("blur");

Or call it from another event/method...

$(".btn_name").trigger("blur");

For sass users, Bootstrap 4 should be manipulated by overriding variables.

If you want to disable the box-shadow on focus around buttons:

$btn-focus-box-shadow: none;

You can also disable the box-shadow on focus around inputs with:

$input-focus-box-shadow: none;

Or both with one variable:

$input-btn-focus-box-shadow: none;

It is work, I hope help you

.btn:focus, .btn:focus:active {
    outline: none;
}

Although it's easy to just remove outline for all focused buttons (as in user1933897's answer), but that solution is bad from the accessibility point of view (for example, see Stop Messing with the Browser's Default Focus outline)

On the other hand, it's probably impossible to convince your browser to stop styling your clicked button as focused if it thinks that it's focused after you clicked on it (I'm looking at you, Chrome on OS X).

So, what can we do? A couple options come to my mind.

1) Javascript (jQuery): $('.btn').mouseup(function() { this.blur() })

You're instructing your browser to remove the focus around any button immediately after the button is clicked. By using mouseup instead of click we're keeping the default behavior for keyboard-based interactions (mouseup doesn't get triggered by keyboard).

2) CSS: .btn:hover { outline: 0 !important }

Here you turn off outline for hovered buttons only. Obviously it's not ideal, but may be enough in some situations.

directly in html tag (in a scenario where you might want to leave the bootstrap theme in place elsewhere in your design)..

examples to try..

<button style="border: transparent;">

<button style="border: 1px solid black;">

..ect,. depending on the desired effect.

This worked for me. I created a custom class which overrides the necessary CSS.

.custom-button:focus {
    outline: none !important;
    border: none !important;
    -webkit-box-shadow: none !important;
    box-shadow: none !important;
}

The -webkit-box-shadow will work for Chrome and safari browsers.

OPTION 1: Use the :focus-visible pseudo-class

The :focus-visible pseudo-class can be used to kill the unsightly outlines and focus rings on buttons and various elements for users that are NOT navigating via keyboard (i.e., via touch or mouse click).

/** 
 * The default focus style is likely provided by Bootstrap or the browser
 * but here we override everything else with a visually appealing cross-
 * browser solution that works well on all focusable page elements
 * including buttons, links, inputs, textareas, and selects.
 */
*:focus { 
  outline: 0 !important;
  box-shadow:
    0 0 0 .2rem #fff, /* use site bg color to create whitespace for faux focus ring */
    0 0 0 .35rem #069 !important; /* faux focus ring color */
}

/**
 * Undo the above focused button styles when the element received focus
 * via mouse click or touch, but not keyboard navigation.
 */
*:focus:not(:focus-visible) {
  outline: 0 !important;
  box-shadow: none !important;
}

Warning: As of 2020, the :focus-visible pseudo-class is not widely supported across browsers. However the polyfill is very easy to use; see instructions below.

OPTION 2: Use the .focus-visible polyfill

This solution uses a normal CSS class instead of the pseudo-class mentioned above, and has wide browser support because it is an official Javascript-based polyfill.

Step 1: Add the Javascript dependencies to your HTML page

Note: the focus-visible polyfill requires an additional polyfill for several older browsers that don't support classList:

<!-- place this code just before the closing </html> tag -->
<script src="https://cdn.polyfill.io/v2/polyfill.js?features=Element.prototype.classList"></script>
<script src="https://unpkg.com/focus-visible"></script>

Step 2: Add the following CSS to your stylesheet

The following is a modified version of the CSS solution documented more thoroughly above.

/**
 * Custom cross-browser styles for keyboard :focus overrides defaults.
 */
*:focus { 
  outline: 0 !important;
  box-shadow:
    0 0 0 .2rem #fff,
    0 0 0 .35rem #069 !important;
}

/**
 * Remove focus styles for non-keyboard :focus.
 */
*:focus:not(.focus-visible) {
  outline: 0 !important;
  box-shadow: none !important;
}

Step 3 (optional): use 'focus-visible' class where necessary

If you have any items where you actually do want to show the focus ring when someone clicks or uses touch, then just add the focus-visible class to the DOM element.

<!-- This example uses Bootstrap classes to theme a button to appear like
     a regular link, and then add a focus ring when the link is clicked --->
<button type="button" class="btn btn-text focus-visible">
  Clicking me shows a focus box
</button>

A note about accessibility

Removing all focus rings a la :focus { outline: none; } or :focus { outline: 0; } is a known accessibility issue and is never recommended. Additionally, there are folks in the accessibility community who would rather you never remove a focus ring outline and instead make everything have a :focus style — either outline or box-shadow could be valid if styled appropriately.

Finally, some folks in the accessibility community believe developers should not implement :focus-visible on their websites until all browsers implement and expose a user preference which lets people pick whether all items should be focusable or not. I personally don't subscribe to this thinking, which is why I provided this solution that I feel is far better than the harmful :focus { outline:none }. I think :focus-visible is a happy medium between design concerns and accessibility concerns.

Resource:

• https://css-tricks.com/keyboard-only-focus-styles/

Demo:

• https://wicg.github.io/focus-visible/demo/

  .btn:focus,.btn:active, a{
        outline: none !important;
        box-shadow: none;
     }

this outline:none will work for both button and a tag

Late, but who knows it may help someone. The CSS would look like:

.rhighlight{
   outline: none !important;
   box-shadow:none
}

The HTML would look like:

<button type="button" class="btn btn-primary rHighlight">Text</button> 

This way you can keep btn and it's associated behaviors.

For AngularJS developers I use from the solution:

var element = $window.document.getElementById("export-button");
    if (element){
        element.blur();
    }

Remember to inject $window.

You can use focus event of button. This worked in case of angular

<button (focus)=false >Click</button

If you're using a webkit browser (and potentially a browser compatible with webkit vendor prefixing), that outline belongs to the button's -webkit-focus-ring pseudoclass. Simply set it's outline to none:

*:-webkit-focus-ring {
  outline: none;
}

Chrome is such a webkit browser, and this effect happens on Linux too (not just a macOS thing, although some Chrome styles are macOS only)

This works best

.btn-primary.focus, .btn-primary:focus {
-webkit-box-shadow: none!important;
box-shadow: none!important;
}

I mentioned this in a comment above, but it's worth listing as a separate answer for clarity. As long as you don't need to ever actually have focus on the button, you can use the focus event to remove it before it can apply any CSS effects:

$('buttonSelector').focus(function(event) {
    event.target.blur();
});

This avoids the flicker that can be seen when using the click event. This does restrict the interface, and you won't be able to tab to the button, but that isn't a problem in all applications.

Style

.not-focusable:focus {
    outline: none;
    box-shadow: none;
}

Using

<button class="btn btn-primary not-focusable">My Button</button>

Add this in CSS:

*, ::after, ::before {
    box-sizing: border-box;
    outline: none !important;
    border: none !important;
    -webkit-box-shadow: none !important;
    box-shadow: none !important;
}

You can set tabIndex="-1". It will make browser to skip this button when you TAB through focusable controls.

Other "fixes" suggested here, only remove focus outline, but still leaves buttons tabable. However, from usability point of view, you already removed glow, so your user won't know what is currently focused button, any way.

On other hand, making button non-tabable have accessibility implications.

I'm using it to remove focus outline from X button in bootstrap modal, which have duplicate "Close" button at the bottom any way, so my solution have no impact on accessibility.