Hide the entire dropdown menu for a select element with CSS?

Josh Silveous 0
Viewed 49

I'm trying to figure out a way to use a HTML select element, but disable the dropdown menu. I still want the user to be able to use the up/down arrows when focused on the element, but I don't want the menu to actually appear (I plan on replacing it due to low customizability).
Most sources I see suggest using display: none for the option elements, however that still leaves behind a little blank bar:

and this also will not allow the user to use up/down arrows to navigate the menu.

Is this possible while still using the form select element, without losing tab/arrow navigation abilities, with pure CSS? I want to use select for accessibility/form compatibility.

select {
  border: 0;
  border-radius: 20px;
  padding: 10px;
  cursor: pointer;
  height: 50px;
  max-height: 50px;
}
option {
  z-index: -2;
  background-color: white;
  border-color: white;
}
<select>
  <option value=1>Value 1</option>
  <option value=2>Value 2</option>
  <option value=3>Value 3</option>
  <option value=4>Value 4</option>
  <option value=5>Value 5</option>
</select>

css html
2 Answers

The browser's default action is to focus the input and open the list

You need to event.preventDefault() opening action and then focus() the target element

function handleclick(event) {
  event.preventDefault()
  event.target.focus();
}
select {
  border: 0;
  border-radius: 20px;
  padding: 10px;
  cursor: pointer;
  height: 50px;
  max-height: 50px;
}
option {
  z-index: -2;
  background-color: white;
  border-color: white;
}
<select onmousedown="handleclick(event)">
  <option value=1>Value 1</option>
  <option value=2>Value 2</option>
  <option value=3>Value 3</option>
  <option value=4>Value 4</option>
  <option value=5>Value 5</option>
</select>

Dimava0

You can't do this with a select element. If you want to have a custom menu, you can use a button/div along with some javascript. Here's a nice example from W3S:

/* When the user clicks on the button, 
toggle between hiding and showing the dropdown content */
function myFunction() {
  document.getElementById("myDropdown").classList.toggle("show");
}

// Close the dropdown if the user clicks outside of it
window.onclick = function(event) {
  if (!event.target.matches('.dropbtn')) {
    var dropdowns = document.getElementsByClassName("dropdown-content");
    var i;
    for (i = 0; i < dropdowns.length; i++) {
      var openDropdown = dropdowns[i];
      if (openDropdown.classList.contains('show')) {
        openDropdown.classList.remove('show');
      }
    }
  }
}
.dropbtn {
  background-color: #04AA6D;
  color: white;
  padding: 16px;
  font-size: 16px;
  border: none;
  cursor: pointer;
}

.dropbtn:hover, .dropbtn:focus {
  background-color: #3e8e41;
}

.dropdown {
  float: right;
  position: relative;
  display: inline-block;
}

.dropdown-content {
  display: none;
  position: absolute;
  background-color: #f1f1f1;
  min-width: 160px;
  overflow: auto;
  box-shadow: 0px 8px 16px 0px rgba(0,0,0,0.2);
  right: 0;
  z-index: 1;
}

.dropdown-content a {
  color: black;
  padding: 12px 16px;
  text-decoration: none;
  display: block;
}

.dropdown a:hover {background-color: #ddd;}

.show {display: block;}
<h2>Aligned Dropdown Content</h2>
<p>Use <strong>float: right</strong> on the dropdown class to float the dropdown menu to the right, and <strong>right:0</strong> on the dropdown-content if you want the dropdown content to go from right to left.</p>

<div class="dropdown">
  <button onclick="myFunction()" class="dropbtn">Dropdown</button>
  <div id="myDropdown" class="dropdown-content">
    <a href="#home">Home</a>
    <a href="#about">About</a>
    <a href="#contact">Contact</a>
  </div>
</div>

(PS: You might want to send a bug report to your browser if an option with display:none still leaves an outline)

Samuel Ammonius STUDENT0
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