Bootstrap Tabs and Pills

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Bootstrap Tabs and Pills
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Menus
Most web pages have some kind of a menu.

In HTML, a menu is often defined in an unordered list <ul> (and styled afterwards), like this:

<ul>
  <li><a href="#">Home</a></li>
  <li><a href="#">Menu 1</a></li>
  <li><a href="#">Menu 2</a></li>
  <li><a href="#">Menu 3</a></li>
</ul>
If you want to create a horizontal menu of the list above, add the .list-inline class to <ul>:

<ul class="list-inline">
»
Or you can display the menu above with Bootstraps' Tabs and Pills (see below).

Note: See the last example on this page to find out how to make tabs and pills toggleable/dynamic.

Tabs
Home
Menu 1
Menu 2
Menu 3
Tabs are created with <ul class="nav nav-tabs">:

Tip: Also mark the current page with <li class="active">.

The following example creates navigation tabs:

Example
<ul class="nav nav-tabs">
  <li class="active"><a href="#">Home</a></li>
  <li><a href="#">Menu 1</a></li>
  <li><a href="#">Menu 2</a></li>
  <li><a href="#">Menu 3</a></li>
</ul>
»
Tabs With Dropdown Menu
Home
Menu 1
Menu 2
Menu 3
Tabs can also hold dropdown menus.

The following example adds a dropdown menu to "Menu 1":

Example
<ul class="nav nav-tabs">
  <li class="active"><a href="#">Home</a></li>
  <li class="dropdown">
    <a class="dropdown-toggle" data-toggle="dropdown" href="#">Menu 1
    <span class="caret"></span></a>
    <ul class="dropdown-menu">
      <li><a href="#">Submenu 1-1</a></li>
      <li><a href="#">Submenu 1-2</a></li>
      <li><a href="#">Submenu 1-3</a></li>
    </ul>
  </li>
  <li><a href="#">Menu 2</a></li>
  <li><a href="#">Menu 3</a></li>
</ul>
»
Pills
Home
Menu 1
Menu 2
Menu 3
Pills are created with <ul class="nav nav-pills">. Also mark the current page with <li class="active">:

Example
<ul class="nav nav-pills">
  <li class="active"><a href="#">Home</a></li>
  <li><a href="#">Menu 1</a></li>
  <li><a href="#">Menu 2</a></li>
  <li><a href="#">Menu 3</a></li>
</ul>
»
Vertical Pills
Home
Menu 1
Menu 2
Menu 3
Pills can also be displayed vertically. Just add the .nav-stacked class:

Example
<ul class="nav nav-pills nav-stacked">
  <li class="active"><a href="#">Home</a></li>
  <li><a href="#">Menu 1</a></li>
  <li><a href="#">Menu 2</a></li>
  <li><a href="#">Menu 3</a></li>
</ul>
»
Vertical Pills in a Row
Text...

Text...

Text...

Home
Menu 1
Menu 2
Menu 3
The following example places the vertical pill menu inside the last column. So, on a large screen the menu will be displayed to the right. But on a small screen, the content will automatically adjust itself into a single-column layout:

Example
<div class="col-md-3">
  <ul class="nav nav-pills nav-stacked">
    <li class="active"><a href="#">Home</a></li>
    <li><a href="#">Menu 1</a></li>
    <li><a href="#">Menu 2</a></li>
    <li><a href="#">Menu 3</a></li>
  </ul>
</div>
»
Pills With Dropdown Menu
Home
Menu 1
Menu 2
Menu 3
Pills can also hold dropdown menus.

The following example adds a dropdown menu to "Menu 1":

Example
<ul class="nav nav-pills nav-stacked">
  <li class="active"><a href="#">Home</a></li>
  <li class="dropdown">
    <a class="dropdown-toggle" data-toggle="dropdown" href="#">Menu 1
    <span class="caret"></span></a>
    <ul class="dropdown-menu">
      <li><a href="#">Submenu 1-1</a></li>
      <li><a href="#">Submenu 1-2</a></li>
      <li><a href="#">Submenu 1-3</a></li>
    </ul>
  </li>
  <li><a href="#">Menu 2</a></li>
  <li><a href="#">Menu 3</a></li>
</ul>
»
Centered Tabs and Pills
Home
Menu 1
Menu 2
Menu 3
To center/justify the tabs and pills, use the .nav-justified class.

Note that on screens that are smaller than 768px, the list items are stacked (content will remain centered):

Example
<!-- Centered Tabs -->
<ul class="nav nav-tabs nav-justified">
  <li class="active"><a href="#">Home</a></li>
  <li><a href="#">Menu 1</a></li>
  <li><a href="#">Menu 2</a></li>
  <li><a href="#">Menu 3</a></li>
</ul>

<!-- Centered Pills -->
<ul class="nav nav-pills nav-justified">
  <li class="active"><a href="#">Home</a></li>
  <li><a href="#">Menu 1</a></li>
  <li><a href="#">Menu 2</a></li>
  <li><a href="#">Menu 3</a></li>
</ul>
»
Toggleable / Dynamic Tabs
HomeMenu 1Menu 2Menu 3
HOME
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.

To make the tabs toggleable, add the data-toggle="tab" attribute to each link. Then add a .tab-pane class with a unique ID for every tab and wrap them inside a <div> element with class .tab-content.

If you want the tabs to fade in and out when clicking on them, add the .fade class to .tab-pane:

Example
<ul class="nav nav-tabs">
  <li class="active"><a data-toggle="tab" href="#home">Home</a></li>
  <li><a data-toggle="tab" href="#menu1">Menu 1</a></li>
  <li><a data-toggle="tab" href="#menu2">Menu 2</a></li>
</ul>

<div class="tab-content">
  <div id="home" class="tab-pane fade in active">
    <h3>HOME</h3>
    <p>Some content.</p>
  </div>
  <div id="menu1" class="tab-pane fade">
    <h3>Menu 1</h3>
    <p>Some content in menu 1.</p>
  </div>
  <div id="menu2" class="tab-pane fade">
    <h3>Menu 2</h3>
    <p>Some content in menu 2.</p>
  </div>
</div>
»
Toggleable / Dynamic Pills
The same code applies to pills; only change the data-toggle attribute to data-toggle="pill":

Example
<ul class="nav nav-pills">
  <li class="active"><a data-toggle="pill" href="#home">Home</a></li>
  <li><a data-toggle="pill" href="#menu1">Menu 1</a></li>
  <li><a data-toggle="pill" href="#menu2">Menu 2</a></li>
</ul>

<div class="tab-content">
  <div id="home" class="tab-pane fade in active">
    <h3>HOME</h3>
    <p>Some content.</p>
  </div>
  <div id="menu1" class="tab-pane fade">
    <h3>Menu 1</h3>
    <p>Some content in menu 1.</p>
  </div>
  <div id="menu2" class="tab-pane fade">
    <h3>Menu 2</h3>
    <p>Some content in menu 2.</p>
  </div>
</div>
»
Test Yourself with Exercises!
Exercise 1 »  Exercise 2 »  Exercise 3 »  Exercise 4 »  Exercise 5 »  Exercise 6 »

Complete Bootstrap Navigation Reference
For a complete reference of all navigation classes, go to our complete Bootstrap Navigation Reference.

For a complete reference of all tab options, methods and events, go to our Bootstrap JS Tab Reference.


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