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CSS CSS Basics (2014) Basic Selectors Pseudo-Classes

Removing a from a:focus element doesn't effect anything on my web page!

When I have a:focus selector, then my links behaves how I want. But as soon as I remove 'a' and put just :focus { color: blue} for exmpl, default style is applied. Why that happens?

Could you take a snapshot of your code. Then past the link over here. That will make this a lot easier to help you.

8 Answers

:focus gets overwritten by "a:visited" or by "a:link". Its not caused by the cascading effect of .css. Its seems like "a:visited" is more specified than just ":focus". So for now only "a:focus" is specified enough to stand on its own. I cannot help any further. I hope someone more experienced can provide the answer.

Here is the snapshot of your code (partial): https://w.trhou.se/zaib3qq5ft

This link is broken at this moment. Some problems with snapshots :(

<!--  :) -->
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
    <head>
    <title>Ivan Kusakovic's page</title>
    <link href='http://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Open+Sans' rel="stylesheet" type="text/css">
    <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="normalize.css" >
    <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="style.css">
    <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="responsive.css">
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, inital-scale=1.0">
    <meta charset="utf-8">
    <meta name="description" content="Personal page of Ivan Kusakovic">
    <meta name="author" content="Ivan Kusakovic">
  </head>   
  <body> 

    <header>
            <h1>Ivan Kusakovic</h1>
            <h2>Student</h2>
            <h2>Belgrade</h2>
    </header>

    <section id="primary">
            <img src="picture_of_me.jpg" alt="Picture of Ivan Kusakovic">
            <h1>What I do:</h1>
            <p>Currently I am learning on <a href="http://teamtreehouse.com">Teamtreehouse</a></p>
            <h1>What I enjoy doing:</h1>  
            <p>HTML, CSS, Javascript, PHP, Java</p><br><br>
            <h2>Some great websites:</h2>
            <a href="http://www.google.com">Google</a><br>
            <a href="http://www.stackoverflow.com">Stackoverflow</a><br>
            <a href="http://www.sololearn.com">Sololearn</a><br>
            <a href="http://www.thenewboston.com">Thenewboston</a><br>
            <a href="http://www.khanacademy.org">Khanacademy</a><br>
        </section>

    <footer id="main_footer">
        <p>&copy Ivan Kusakovic 2015 </p>
    </footer>
  </body>
</html>
/* Need to fix
Displaying page correctly on mobile devices in horizontal mode
*/

/***********************************************
Body styling 
***********************************************/

body {
    font-size: 1.3em;
    line-height: 1.6em;
    font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif;
    color: #3079AB;
    font-weight: 300;
    margin: 0;
    width: 100%;
}

a{
    text-decoration: none;
    font-size: 1em;
}

a:link{
    text-decoration: none;
    color: 
}

a:visited{
    text-decoration: none;
    color: #1D4967;

}
a:hover{
    color: #00D4FF;
}

a:active{
    color: red;
}

a:focus {
    color: #00D4FF;
}


/***********************************************
Image styling 
***********************************************/

img {
    margin-right: 200px;
    border-radius: 30%;
    max-width: 300px;
    float: left;
    padding: 20px 2px;
}

/***********************************************
Headline styling 
***********************************************/
h1 {
    font-size: 1.3em;
    line-height: .3em;

}

h2{
    font-size: 0.8em;
    line-height: 0.5em;
    font-style: oblique;


}

h3 {
    font-size: .625em;
    line-height: 0.5em;
    font-weight: normal;
    color: #3079AB;
}


div {
    width: 100%;
    height: 100%;
    display: block;
    margin-left: 50px;
    margin-right: 50px;
    text-align:left;

}

/***********************************************
Top bar color 
***********************************************/

header {
    float: left;
    margin: 0 0 30px 0px;
    padding: 0;
    width: 100%;
    background: #3079AB;
    color: white;
    text-align: center;

}




/***********************************************
Footer styling
***********************************************/
#main_footer {
    width: 95%;
    border-top: 1px solid #3079AB;
    position: fixed;
    bottom: 0px;
    padding-bottom: 5px;
    padding-right:5%;

}

#main_footer p {
    color: #3079AB;
    text-align:center;
    padding: 4px;
    font-size: 14px;
    margin: 0;
}

Normalize.css

/*! normalize.css v3.0.2 | MIT License | git.io/normalize */

/**
 * 1. Set default font family to sans-serif.
 * 2. Prevent iOS text size adjust after orientation change, without disabling
 *    user zoom.
 */

html {
  font-family: sans-serif; /* 1 */
  -ms-text-size-adjust: 100%; /* 2 */
  -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; /* 2 */
}

/**
 * Remove default margin.
 */

body {
  margin: 0;
}

/* HTML5 display definitions
   ========================================================================== */

/**
 * Correct `block` display not defined for any HTML5 element in IE 8/9.
 * Correct `block` display not defined for `details` or `summary` in IE 10/11
 * and Firefox.
 * Correct `block` display not defined for `main` in IE 11.
 */

article,
aside,
details,
figcaption,
figure,
footer,
header,
hgroup,
main,
menu,
nav,
section,
summary {
  display: block;
}

/**
 * 1. Correct `inline-block` display not defined in IE 8/9.
 * 2. Normalize vertical alignment of `progress` in Chrome, Firefox, and Opera.
 */

audio,
canvas,
progress,
video {
  display: inline-block; /* 1 */
  vertical-align: baseline; /* 2 */
}

/**
 * Prevent modern browsers from displaying `audio` without controls.
 * Remove excess height in iOS 5 devices.
 */

audio:not([controls]) {
  display: none;
  height: 0;
}

/**
 * Address `[hidden]` styling not present in IE 8/9/10.
 * Hide the `template` element in IE 8/9/11, Safari, and Firefox < 22.
 */

[hidden],
template {
  display: none;
}

/* Links
   ========================================================================== */

/**
 * Remove the gray background color from active links in IE 10.
 */

a {
  background-color: transparent;
}

/**
 * Improve readability when focused and also mouse hovered in all browsers.
 */

a:active,
a:hover {
  outline: 0;
}

/* Text-level semantics
   ========================================================================== */

/**
 * Address styling not present in IE 8/9/10/11, Safari, and Chrome.
 */

abbr[title] {
  border-bottom: 1px dotted;
}

/**
 * Address style set to `bolder` in Firefox 4+, Safari, and Chrome.
 */

b,
strong {
  font-weight: bold;
}

/**
 * Address styling not present in Safari and Chrome.
 */

dfn {
  font-style: italic;
}

/**
 * Address variable `h1` font-size and margin within `section` and `article`
 * contexts in Firefox 4+, Safari, and Chrome.
 */

h1 {
  font-size: 2em;
  margin: 0.67em 0;
}

/**
 * Address styling not present in IE 8/9.
 */

mark {
  background: #ff0;
  color: #000;
}

/**
 * Address inconsistent and variable font size in all browsers.
 */

small {
  font-size: 80%;
}

/**
 * Prevent `sub` and `sup` affecting `line-height` in all browsers.
 */

sub,
sup {
  font-size: 75%;
  line-height: 0;
  position: relative;
  vertical-align: baseline;
}

sup {
  top: -0.5em;
}

sub {
  bottom: -0.25em;
}

/* Embedded content
   ========================================================================== */

/**
 * Remove border when inside `a` element in IE 8/9/10.
 */

img {
  border: 0;
}

/**
 * Correct overflow not hidden in IE 9/10/11.
 */

svg:not(:root) {
  overflow: hidden;
}

/* Grouping content
   ========================================================================== */

/**
 * Address margin not present in IE 8/9 and Safari.
 */

figure {
  margin: 1em 40px;
}

/**
 * Address differences between Firefox and other browsers.
 */

hr {
  -moz-box-sizing: content-box;
  box-sizing: content-box;
  height: 0;
}

/**
 * Contain overflow in all browsers.
 */

pre {
  overflow: auto;
}

/**
 * Address odd `em`-unit font size rendering in all browsers.
 */

code,
kbd,
pre,
samp {
  font-family: monospace, monospace;
  font-size: 1em;
}

/* Forms
   ========================================================================== */

/**
 * Known limitation: by default, Chrome and Safari on OS X allow very limited
 * styling of `select`, unless a `border` property is set.
 */

/**
 * 1. Correct color not being inherited.
 *    Known issue: affects color of disabled elements.
 * 2. Correct font properties not being inherited.
 * 3. Address margins set differently in Firefox 4+, Safari, and Chrome.
 */

button,
input,
optgroup,
select,
textarea {
  color: inherit; /* 1 */
  font: inherit; /* 2 */
  margin: 0; /* 3 */
}

/**
 * Address `overflow` set to `hidden` in IE 8/9/10/11.
 */

button {
  overflow: visible;
}

/**
 * Address inconsistent `text-transform` inheritance for `button` and `select`.
 * All other form control elements do not inherit `text-transform` values.
 * Correct `button` style inheritance in Firefox, IE 8/9/10/11, and Opera.
 * Correct `select` style inheritance in Firefox.
 */

button,
select {
  text-transform: none;
}

/**
 * 1. Avoid the WebKit bug in Android 4.0.* where (2) destroys native `audio`
 *    and `video` controls.
 * 2. Correct inability to style clickable `input` types in iOS.
 * 3. Improve usability and consistency of cursor style between image-type
 *    `input` and others.
 */

button,
html input[type="button"], /* 1 */
input[type="reset"],
input[type="submit"] {
  -webkit-appearance: button; /* 2 */
  cursor: pointer; /* 3 */
}

/**
 * Re-set default cursor for disabled elements.
 */

button[disabled],
html input[disabled] {
  cursor: default;
}

/**
 * Remove inner padding and border in Firefox 4+.
 */

button::-moz-focus-inner,
input::-moz-focus-inner {
  border: 0;
  padding: 0;
}

/**
 * Address Firefox 4+ setting `line-height` on `input` using `!important` in
 * the UA stylesheet.
 */

input {
  line-height: normal;
}

/**
 * It's recommended that you don't attempt to style these elements.
 * Firefox's implementation doesn't respect box-sizing, padding, or width.
 *
 * 1. Address box sizing set to `content-box` in IE 8/9/10.
 * 2. Remove excess padding in IE 8/9/10.
 */

input[type="checkbox"],
input[type="radio"] {
  box-sizing: border-box; /* 1 */
  padding: 0; /* 2 */
}

/**
 * Fix the cursor style for Chrome's increment/decrement buttons. For certain
 * `font-size` values of the `input`, it causes the cursor style of the
 * decrement button to change from `default` to `text`.
 */

input[type="number"]::-webkit-inner-spin-button,
input[type="number"]::-webkit-outer-spin-button {
  height: auto;
}

/**
 * 1. Address `appearance` set to `searchfield` in Safari and Chrome.
 * 2. Address `box-sizing` set to `border-box` in Safari and Chrome
 *    (include `-moz` to future-proof).
 */

input[type="search"] {
  -webkit-appearance: textfield; /* 1 */
  -moz-box-sizing: content-box;
  -webkit-box-sizing: content-box; /* 2 */
  box-sizing: content-box;
}

/**
 * Remove inner padding and search cancel button in Safari and Chrome on OS X.
 * Safari (but not Chrome) clips the cancel button when the search input has
 * padding (and `textfield` appearance).
 */

input[type="search"]::-webkit-search-cancel-button,
input[type="search"]::-webkit-search-decoration {
  -webkit-appearance: none;
}

/**
 * Define consistent border, margin, and padding.
 */

fieldset {
  border: 1px solid #c0c0c0;
  margin: 0 2px;
  padding: 0.35em 0.625em 0.75em;
}

/**
 * 1. Correct `color` not being inherited in IE 8/9/10/11.
 * 2. Remove padding so people aren't caught out if they zero out fieldsets.
 */

legend {
  border: 0; /* 1 */
  padding: 0; /* 2 */
}

/**
 * Remove default vertical scrollbar in IE 8/9/10/11.
 */

textarea {
  overflow: auto;
}

/**
 * Don't inherit the `font-weight` (applied by a rule above).
 * NOTE: the default cannot safely be changed in Chrome and Safari on OS X.
 */

optgroup {
  font-weight: bold;
}

/* Tables
   ========================================================================== */

/**
 * Remove most spacing between table cells.
 */

table {
  border-collapse: collapse;
  border-spacing: 0;
}

td,
th {
  padding: 0;
}

responsive

/*@media screen and (min-width: 480px){
    #main_header{
        position: relative;
    }
} */

Thanks

This is code with a:focus. When I remove a, and left only :focus Nothing happens

Why you sent me snapshot of my code? :) Ok, we will try to wait some experienced user. If you think :focus is overwritten by another a:link or a:visited pseudo class maybe is solution to put :focus at the top of everything?

I put the snapshot for other people, so they can inspect your website, just like I did.

If you put ":focus" on top of everything, it will be double overwritten:

  1. By the cascading property of "a:visited"
  2. By the specificity of "a:visited"

You can keep "a:focus", that will solve the problem. If you put ":focus", then it will be overwritten.

Thanks for answer. But what if I want to apply some style on all elements, not just on links?

Not every element can have focus. But it is possible to apply to all elements that can have the ":focus" selector. You have to select each one of them for now, for example: "button:focus". Like I mentioned, we have to wait for more experienced members to solve this mystery. You can invite members to answer this question.

Ok, thanks.

Hahahha, jochenguard, and I have just listen to Introduction to Workspaces where I learned how to snapshot workspace :D

Never mind, who knows knows from code above.