How to remove the arrow from a select element in F

Question

I'm trying to style a select element using CSS3. I'm getting the results I desire in WebKit (Chrome / Safari), but Firefox isn't playing nicely (I'm not even bothering with IE). I'm using the CSS3 appearance property, but for some reason I can't shake the drop-down icon out of Firefox.

Here's an example of what I'm doing: http://jsbin.com/aniyu4/2/edit

#dropdown {
 -moz-appearance: none;
 -webkit-appearance: none;
 appearance: none;
 background: transparent url('example.png') no-repeat right center;
 padding: 2px 30px 2px 2px;
 border: none;
}

As you can see, I'm not trying for anything fancy. I just want to remove the default styles and add in my own drop-down arrow. Like I said, great in WebKit, not great in Firefox. Apparently, the -moz-appearance: none doesn't get rid of the drop-down item.

Any ideas? No, JavaScript is not an option

Answer 1

Further to Joao Cunha's answer, this problem is now on Mozilla's ToDo List and is targeted for ver 35.

For those desiring, here is a workaround by Todd Parker, referenced on Cunha's blog, that works today:

http://jsfiddle.net/xvushd7x/

HTML:

<label class="wrapper">This label wraps the select
    <div class="button custom-select ff-hack">
        <select>
            <option>Apples</option>
            <option>Bananas</option>
            <option>Grapes</option>
            <option>Oranges</option>
            <option>A very long option name to test wrapping</option>
        </select>
    </div>
</label>

CSS:

/* Label styles: style as needed */
label {
  display:block;
  margin-top:2em;
  font-size: 0.9em;
  color:#777;
}

/* Container used for styling the custom select, the buttom class below adds the bg gradient, corners, etc. */
.custom-select {
  position: relative;
  display:block;
  margin-top:0.5em;
  padding:0;
}

/* These are the "theme" styles for our button applied via separate button class, style as you like */
.button {
  border: 1px solid #bbb;
  border-radius: .3em;
  box-shadow: 0 1px 0 1px rgba(0,0,0,.04);
  background: #f3f3f3; /* Old browsers */
  background: -moz-linear-gradient(top, #ffffff 0%, #e5e5e5 100%); /* FF3.6+ */
  background: -webkit-gradient(linear, left top, left bottom, color-stop(0%,#ffffff), color-stop(100%,#e5e5e5)); /* Chrome,Safari4+ */
  background: -webkit-linear-gradient(top, #ffffff 0%,#e5e5e5 100%); /* Chrome10+,Safari5.1+ */
  background: -o-linear-gradient(top, #ffffff 0%,#e5e5e5 100%); /* Opera 11.10+ */
  background: -ms-linear-gradient(top, #ffffff 0%,#e5e5e5 100%); /* IE10+ */
  background: linear-gradient(to bottom, #ffffff 0%,#e5e5e5 100%); /* W3C */
}

/* This is the native select, we're making everything but the text invisible so we can see the button styles in the wrapper */
.custom-select select {
  width:100%;
  margin:0;
  background:none;
  border: 1px solid transparent;
  outline: none;
  /* Prefixed box-sizing rules necessary for older browsers */
  -webkit-box-sizing: border-box;
  -moz-box-sizing: border-box;
  box-sizing: border-box;
  /* Remove select styling */
  appearance: none;
  -webkit-appearance: none;
  /* Font size must the 16px or larger to prevent iOS page zoom on focus */
  font-size:16px;
  /* General select styles: change as needed */
  font-family: helvetica, sans-serif;
  font-weight: bold;
  color: #444;
  padding: .6em 1.9em .5em .8em;
  line-height:1.3;
}


/* Custom arrow sits on top of the select - could be an image, SVG, icon font, etc. or the arrow could just baked into the bg image on the select. Note this si a 2x image so it will look bad in browsers that don't support background-size. In production, you'd handle this resolution switch via media query but this is a demo. */

.custom-select::after {
  content: "";
  position: absolute;
  width: 9px;
  height: 8px;
  top: 50%;
  right: 1em;
  margin-top:-4px;
  background-image: url(http://filamentgroup.com/files/select-arrow.png);
  background-repeat: no-repeat;
  background-size: 100%;
  z-index: 2;
  /* These hacks make the select behind the arrow clickable in some browsers */
  pointer-events:none;
}


/* Hover style */
.custom-select:hover {
  border:1px solid #888;
}

/* Focus style */
.custom-select select:focus {
  outline:none;
  box-shadow: 0 0 1px 3px rgba(180,222,250, 1);
  background-color:transparent;
  color: #222;
  border:1px solid #aaa;
}

/* Set options to normal weight */
.custom-select option {
  font-weight:normal;
}

Answer 2

If you don't mind fiddling with JS, I wrote a small jQuery plugin that helps you do it. With it you don't need to worry about vendor prefixes.

 $.fn.magicSelectBox = function() {
  var $e = this;

  $e.each(function() {
    var $select = $(this);

    var $magicbox = $('<div></div>').attr('class', $select.attr('class')).attr('style', $select.attr('style')).addClass('magicbox');
    var $innermagicbox = $('<div></div>').css({
      position: 'relative',
      height: '100%'
    });
    var $text = $('<span></span>').css({
      position: 'absolute'
    }).text($select.find("option:selected").text());

    $select.attr('class', null).css({
      width: '100%',
      height: '100%',
      opacity: 0,
      position: 'absolute'
    }).on('change', function() {
      $text.text($select.find("option:selected").text());
    });

    $select.parent().append($magicbox);
    $innermagicbox.append($text, $select);
    $magicbox.append($innermagicbox);
  });

  return $e;
};

Fiddle here: JS Fiddle

The condition is that you have to style the select from scratch (this means setting the background and border), but you probably want to do this anyway.

Also since the function substitutes the original select with a div, you will lose any styling done directly on the select selector in your CSS. So give the select element a class and style the class.

Supports most modern browsers, if you want to target older browsers, you can try an older version of jQuery, but perhaps have to replace on() with bind() in the function (not tested)

Answer 3

Okay, I know this question is old, but 2 years down the track and mozilla have done nothing.

I've come up with a simple workaround.

This essentially strips all formatting of the select box in firefox and wraps a span element around the select box with your custom style, but should only apply to firefox.

Say this is your select menu:

<select class='css-select'>
  <option value='1'> First option </option>
  <option value='2'> Second option </option>
</select>

And lets assume the css class 'css-select' is:

.css-select {
   background-image: url('images/select_arrow.gif');
   background-repeat: no-repeat;
   background-position: right center;
   padding-right: 20px;
}

In firefox, this would display with the select menu, followed by the ugly firefox select arrow, followed by your nice custom looking one. Not ideal.

Now to get this going in firefox, add a span element around with the class 'css-select-moz':

   <span class='css-select-moz'>
     <select class='css-select'>
       <option value='1'> First option </option>
       <option value='2'> Second option </option>
     </select>
   </span>

Then fix the CSS to hide mozilla's dirty arrow with -moz-appearance:window and throw the custom arrow into the span's class 'css-select-moz', but only get it to display on mozilla, like this:

.css-select {
   -moz-appearance:window;
   background-image: url('images/select_arrow.gif');
   background-repeat: no-repeat;
   background-position: right center;
   padding-right: 20px;
}

@-moz-document url-prefix() {
.css-select-moz{
     background-image: url('images/select_arrow.gif');
     background-repeat: no-repeat;
     background-position: right center;
     padding-right: 20px;
  }
} 

Pretty cool for only stumbling across this bug 3 hours ago (I'm new to webdesign and completely self-taught). However, this community has indirectly provided me with so much help, I thought it was about time I give something back.

I have only tested it in firefox (mac) version 18, and then 22 (after I updated).

All feedback is welcome.

Answer 4

hackity hack ... a solution that works in every browser I've tested (Safari, Firefox, Chrome). Don't have any IEs lying around, so it would be nice if you could test and comment:

<div class="wrapper">
  <select>
    <option>123456789</option>
    <option>234567890</option>
  </select>
</div>

CSS, with url-encoded image:

.wrapper { position:relative; width:200px; }
.wrapper:after {
  content:"";
  display: block;
  position: absolute;
  top:1px; height:28px;
  right:1px; width:16px;
  background-image: url(data:image/png;base64,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);

  pointer-events: none;
}

select {
  width: 100%;
  padding:3px;
  margin: 0;
  border-radius: 0;
  border:1px solid black;
  outline:none;
  display: inline-block;
  -webkit-appearance:none;
  -moz-appearance:none;
  appearance:none;
  cursor:pointer;
  float:none!important;
  background:white;

  font-size:13px;
  line-height: 1em;
  height: 30px;
  padding:6px 20px 6px 10px;
}

http://codepen.io/anon/pen/myPEBy

I'm using the :after-element to cover the ugly arrow. Since select doesn't support :after, i need a wrapper to work with. Now, if you would click on the arrow, the dropdown won't register it ... unless your browser supports pointer-events: none, which everyone except IE10- does: http://caniuse.com/#feat=pointer-events

So for me it's perfect - a nice, clean, low-headache solution, at least compared to all the other options which include javascript.

tl;dr:

If IE10 (or lower) Users click the arrow, it won't work. Works good enough for me...

Answer 5

The other answers didn't seem to work for me, but I found this hack. This worked for me (July 2014)

select {
-moz-appearance: textfield !important;
    }

In my case, I also had a woocommerce input field so I used this

.woocommerce .quantity input.qty {
-moz-appearance: textfield !important;
 }

Updated my answer to show select rather than input

Answer 6

I know this question is a bit old, but since it turns up on google, and this is a "new" solution:

appearance: normal Seems to work fine in Firefox for me (version 5 now). but not in Opera and IE8/9

As a workaround for Opera and IE9, I used the :before pseudoselector to create a new white box and put that on top of the arrow.

Unfortunately, In IE8 this doesn't work. The box is rendered correctly, but the arrow just sticks out anyway... :-/

Using select:before works fine in Opera, but not in IE. If I look at the developer tools, I see it is reading the rules correctly, and then just ignores them (they're crossed out). So I use a <span class="selectwrap"> around the actual <select>.

select {
  -webkit-appearance: normal;
  -moz-appearance: normal;
  appearance: normal;
}
.selectwrap { position: relative; }
.selectwrap:before {
  content: "";
  height: 0;
  width: 0;
  border: .9em solid red;
  background-color: red;
  position: absolute;
  right: -.1em;
  z-index: 42;
}

You may need to tweak this a bit, but this works for me!

Disclaimer: I'm using this to get a good looking hardcopy of a webpage with forms so I don't need to create a second page. I'm not a 1337 haxx0r who wants red scrollbars, <marquee> tags, and whatnot :-) Please do not apply excessive styling to forms unless you have a very good reason.