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How to disable a link using only CSS

Isabella Turner |

Is there a way to disable a link using CSS?

I have a class called current-page and want links with this class to be disabled so that no action occurs when they are clicked.

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25 Answers

From this solution:

[aria-current="page"] { pointer-events: none; cursor: default; text-decoration: none; color: black; }
<a href="link.html" aria-current="page">Link</a>

For browser support, please see . If you need to support Internet Explorer, there is a workaround; see this answer.

Warning: The use of pointer-events in CSS for non-SVG elements is experimental. The feature used to be part of the CSS 3 UI draft specification but, due to many open issues, has been postponed to CSS 4.

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.disabled { pointer-events: none; cursor: default; opacity: 0.6; }
<a href="#">link</a>
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CSS can only be used to change the style of something. The best you could probably do with pure CSS is to hide the link altogether.

What you really need is some JavaScript code. Here's how you'd do what you want using the jQuery library.

$('a.current-page').click(function() { return false; });
5

CSS can't do that. CSS is for presentation only. Your options are:

  • Don't include the href attribute in your <a> tags.
  • Use JavaScript, to find the anchor elements with that class, and remove their href or onclick attributes accordingly. jQuery would help you with that (NickF showed how to do something similar but better).
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Bootstrap Disabled Link

<a href="#">Primary link</a> <a href="#">Link</a>

Bootstrap Disabled Button but it looks like link

<button type="button">Link</button>
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You can set the href attribute to javascript:void(0):

.disabled { /* Disabled link style */ color: black; }
<a href="javascript:void(0)">LINK</a>
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I used:

.current-page a:hover { pointer-events: none !important; }

And that was not enough; in some browsers it still displayed the link, blinking.

I had to add:

.current-page a { cursor: text !important; }
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If you want it to be CSS only, the disabling logic should be defined by CSS.

To move the logic in the CSS definitions, you'll have to use attribute selectors. Here are some examples:

Disable link that has an exact href: =

You can choose to disable links that contain a specific href value like so:

<a href="//">Exact path</a> 
[href="//"]{ pointer-events: none; }

Disable a link that contains a piece of path: *=

Here, any link containing /keyword/in path will be disabled:

<a href="//">Contains in path</a> 
[href*="/keyword/"]{ pointer-events: none; }

Disable a link that begins with: ^=

The [attribute^=value] operator targets an attribute that starts with a specific value. It allows you to discard websites and root paths.

<a href="//">Begins with path</a> 
[href^="//"]{ pointer-events: none; }

You can even use it to disable non-https links. For example:

a:not([href^="https://"]){ pointer-events: none; }

Disable a link that ends with: $=

The [attribute$=value] operator targets an attribute that ends with a specific value. It can be useful to discard file extensions.

<a href="/path/to/file.pdf">Link to pdf</a> 
[href$=".pdf"]{ pointer-events: none; }

Or any other attribute

CSS can target any HTML attribute. Could be rel, target, data-customand so on...

<a href="#" target="_blank">Blank link</a> 
[target=_blank]{ pointer-events: none; }

Combining attribute selectors

You can chain multiple rules. Let's say that you want to disable every external link, but not those pointing to your website:

a[href*="//"]:not([href*="my-website.com"]) { pointer-events: none; }

Or disable links to pdf files of a specific website :

<a href="//">Link to image</a> 
[href^="//website.com"][href$=".jpg"] { color: red; }

Browser support

Attributes selectors have been supported since Internet Explorer 7. And the :not() selector since Internet Explorer 9.

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If you want to stick to just HTML/CSS on a form, another option is to use a button. Style it and set the disabled attribute.

E.g.

One way you could do this with CSS, would be to set a CSS on a wrapping div that you set to disappear and something else takes its place.

For example:

<div> <a href="wherever">blah</a> <span>blah</span </div>

With a CSS like

.disabled a.toggleLink { display: none; } span.toggleLink { display: none; } .disabled span.toggleLink { display: inline; }

To actually turn off the a, you'll have to replace its click event or href, as described by others.

PS: Just to clarify, I'd consider this a fairly untidy solution, and for SEO it's not the best either, but I believe it's the best with purely CSS.

Apply the below class on HTML.

.avoid-clicks { pointer-events: none; }

Try this:

<style> .btn-disable { display: inline-block; pointer-events: none; } </style>

The pointer-events property allows for control over how HTML elements respond to mouse/touch events – including CSS hover/active states, click/tap events in JavaScript, and whether or not the cursor is visible.

That's not the only way you disable a link, but it is a good CSS way which work in Internet Explorer 10 (and later) and all new browsers:

.current-page { pointer-events: none; color: grey; }
<a href="#">This link is disabled</a>
0

I searched the Internet and found no better than this. Basically, to disable button click functionality, just add CSS style using jQuery like so:

$("#myLink").css({ 'pointer-events': 'none' });

Then to enable it again, do this

$("#myLink").css({ 'pointer-events': '' });

It was checked on Firefox and Internet Explorer 11, and it worked.

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You can use this CSS content:

a.button,button { display: inline-block; padding: 6px 15px; margin: 5px; line-height: 1.42857143; text-align: center; white-space: nowrap; vertical-align: middle; -ms-touch-action: manipulation; touch-action: manipulation; cursor: pointer; -webkit-user-select: none; -moz-user-select: none; -ms-user-select: none; user-select: none; background-image: none; border: 1px solid rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); border-radius: 4px; -moz-box-shadow: inset 0 3px 20px 0 #cdcdcd; -webkit-box-shadow: inset 0 3px 20px 0 #cdcdcd; box-shadow: inset 0 3px 20px 0 #cdcdcd; } a[disabled].button,button[disabled] { cursor: not-allowed; opacity: 0.4; pointer-events: none; -webkit-touch-callout: none; } a.button:active:not([disabled]),button:active:not([disabled]) { background-color: transparent !important; color: #2a2a2a !important; outline: 0; -webkit-box-shadow: inset 0 3px 5px rgba(0, 0, 0, .5); box-shadow: inset 0 3px 5px rgba(0, 0, 0, .5); }
<button disabled="disabled">disabled!</button> <button>click me!</button> <a href="" disabled="disabled">test</a> <a href="">test2</a>
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I combined multiple approaches to provide some more advanced disabled functionality. Here is a gist, and the code is below.

This provides for multiple levels of defense so that anchors marked as disable actually behave as such.

Using this approach, you get an anchor that you cannot:

  • click
  • tab to and hit return
  • tabbing to it will move focus to the next focusable element
  • it is aware if the anchor is subsequently enabled

  1. Include this CSS content, as it is the first line of defense. This assumes the selector you use is 'a.disabled'.

    a.disabled { pointer-events: none; cursor: default; }

  2. Next, instantiate this class such as (with optional selector):

     $ -> new AnchorDisabler()

    Here is the CoffeeScript class:

     class AnchorDisabler constructor: (selector = 'a.disabled') -> $(selector).click(@onClick).keyup(@onKeyup).focus(@onFocus) isStillDisabled: (ev) => ### since disabled can be a class or an attribute, and it can be dynamically removed, always recheck on a watched event ### target = $(ev.target) return true if target.hasClass('disabled') return true if target.attr('disabled') is 'disabled' return false onFocus: (ev) => ### if an attempt is made to focus on a disabled element, just move it along to the next focusable one. ### return unless @isStillDisabled(ev) focusables = $(':focusable') return unless focusables current = focusables.index(ev.target) next = (if focusables.eq(current + 1).length then focusables.eq(current + 1) else focusables.eq(0)) next.focus() if next onClick: (ev) => # disabled could be dynamically removed return unless @isStillDisabled(ev) ev.preventDefault() return false onKeyup: (ev) => # 13 is the JavaScript key code for Enter. We are only interested in disabling that, so get out fast code = ev.keyCode or ev.which return unless code is 13 # disabled could be dynamically removed return unless @isStillDisabled(ev) ev.preventDefault() return false
1

You can also size another element so that it covers the links (using the right z-index): That will "eat" the clicks.

(We discovered this by accident because we had an issue with suddenly inactive links due to "responsive" design causing a H2 to cover them when the browser window was mobile-sized.)

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Demo here
Try this one

$('html').on('click', 'a.Link', function(event){ event.preventDefault(); });
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body{ font-family: 'Roboto', sans-serif; font-weight: 500; } a.disable{ pointer-events: none; color: black; text-decoration: none; }
<a href="">Normal</a> <a href="">Disable</a>

You can try this also

<style> .btn-disable { pointer-events: none !important; color: currentColor; cursor: not-allowed; opacity: 0.6; text-decoration: none; } </style>
<html> <head> <title>NG</title> </head> <style> .btn-disable { pointer-events: none !important; color: currentColor; cursor: not-allowed; opacity: 0.6; text-decoration: none; } </style> <body> <div> <input type="button" value="Show"> </div> </body> </html>

It's possible to do it in CSS:

.disabled{ cursor: default; pointer-events: none; text-decoration: none; color: black; }
<a href="" target="_blank">Google</a>

See at:

Please note that the text-decoration: none; and color: black; is not needed, but it makes the link look more like plain text.

Another trick is to place a invisible element above it. This will disable any hover effects as well

.myButton{ position: absolute; display: none; } .myButton::after{ position: absolute; content: ""; height: 100%; width: 100%; top: 0; left: 0; }

pointer-events:none will disable the link:

.disabled { pointer-events: none; } 
<a href="#">link</a>
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simply use your tab without a link, don't include any link attribute to it.

<a href="#!">1) Link With Non-directed url</a><br><br> <a href="#!" disabled >2) Link With with disable url</a><br><br>
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