[html] how to hide <li> bullets in navigation menu and footer links BUT show them for listing items

I have a navigation menu, footer, and a slideshow which use listed style to list links and images. I have the css list-style:none; set to hide the bullets next to the links and images in the nav and footer but I want to show the bullets for list normal text.

How can I do this?

This question is related to html html-lists

The answer is


when bullet have to hide then use:

li { list-style: none;}

when bullet have to list show, then use:

li { list-style: initial;}


Let's say you're using this HTML5 layout:

<html>
    <body>
        <header>
            <nav><ul>...</ul></nav>
        </header>
        <article>
            <ul>...</ul>
        </article>
        <footer>
            <ul>...</ul>
        </footer>
    </body>
</html>

You could say in your CSS:

header ul, footer ul, nav ul { list-style-type: none; }

If you're using HTML 4, assign IDs to your DIVs (instead of using the new fancy-pants elements) and change this to:

#header ul, #footer ul, #nav ul { list-style-type: none; }

If you're using a CSS reset stylesheet (like Eric Meyer's), you would actually have to give the list style back, since the reset removes the list style from all lists.

#content ul { list-style-type: disc; margin-left: 1.5em; }

I combined some of Flavio's answer to this small solution.

.hidden-ul-bullets li {
    list-style: none;
}
.hidden-ul-bullets ul {
    margin-left: 0.25em; // for my purpose, a little indentation is wished
}

The decision about bullets is made at an enclosing element, typically a div. The drawback (or todo) of my solution is that the liststyle removal also applies to ordered lists.


You need to define a class for the bullets you want to hide. For examples

.no-bullets {
    list-style-type: none;
}

Then apply it to the list you want hidden bullets:

<ul class="no-bullets">

All other lists (without a specific class) will show the bulltets as usual.


You can style li elements differently based on their class, their id or their ancestor elements:

li { /* styles all li elements*/
    list-style-type: none;
}

#ParentListID li { /* styles the li elements that have an ancestor element
                      of id="ParentListID" */
    list-style-type: bullet;
}

li.className { /* styles li elements of class="className" */
    list-style-type: bullet;
}

Or, to use the ancestor elements:

#navigationContainerID li { /* specifically styles the li elements with an ancestor of
                               id="navigationContainerID" */
    list-style-type: none;
}

li { /* then styles all other li elements that don't have that ancestor element */
    list-style-type: bullet;
}

You can also define a class for the bullets you want to show, so in the CSS:

ul {list-style:none; list-style-type:none; list-style-image:none;}

And in the HTML you just define which lists to show:

<ul style="list-style:disc;">

Or you alternatively define a CSS class:

.show-list {list-style:disc;}

Then apply it to the list you want to show:

<ul class="show-list">

All other lists won't show the bullets...