Change color and appearance of drop down arrow

Question

I want to change the default appearance of the arrow of a dropdown list so that looks the same across browsers. Is there a way to override the default look and feel of the drop down arrow using CSS or otherwise ?

Answer 1

We have used YUI, Chosen, and are currently using the jQuery Select2 plugin: https://select2.github.io/

It's pretty robust, the arrow is just the tip of the iceberg.

As soon as stylized selects becomes a requirement, I agree with the others, go with a plugin. Don't kill yourself reinventing the wheel.

Answer 2

Try changing the color of your "border-top" attribute to white

Answer 3

Unless you plan on creating your own drop down list (and not using a standard library drop down list), you are stuck. The DDL control's look is going to be based upon the system you are running and/or the browser that is rendering the output.

Answer 4

No, cross-browser form custimization is very hard if not impossible to get it right for all browsers. If you really care about the appearance of those widgets you should use a javascript implementation.

see http://www.456bereastreet.com/archive/200409/styling_form_controls/ and http://developer.yahoo.com/yui/examples/button/btn_example07.html

Answer 5

Not easily done I am afraid. The problem is Css cannot replace the arrow in a select as this is rendered by the browser. But you can build a new control from div and input elements and Javascript to perform the same function as the select.

Try looking at some of the autocomplete plugins for Jquery for example.

Otherwise there is some info on the select element here:

http://www.devarticles.com/c/a/Web-Style-Sheets/Taming-the-Select/

Answer 6

It can be done by:

select{
  background: url(data:image/svg+xml;base64,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) no-repeat 100% 50%;
}

select{
  background: url(data:image/svg+xml;base64,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) no-repeat 100% 50%;
  
  
    -moz-appearance: none;
    -webkit-appearance: none;
    -webkit-border-radius: 0px;
    appearance: none;
    outline-width: 0;
    
    padding: 10px 10px 10px 5px;
    display: block;
    width: 10em;
    border: none;
    font-size: 1rem;
    
    border-bottom: 1px solid #757575;
  }

<div class="styleSelect">
  <select class="units">
    <option value="Metres">Metres</option>
    <option value="Feet">Feet</option>
    <option value="Fathoms">Fathoms</option>
  </select>
</div>