CSS Drop Down – Sub Menu Color

Question

I'm looking for some advice on this issue.

I went through a tutorial a while back to build a CSS drop down menu and can't seem to change the default color of the sub menus – it always matches the default red color for the a tag.

I've been messing around with this for a while now and can't seem to find a solution. Can someone help me out with this please?

Here is the html:

  <nav>
      <ul>
         <li><a class="selected" href="index.html">Home</a></li>
         <li><a href="clothing.html">Clothing</a></li>
         <li><a href="gear.html">Gear</a></li>
         <li><a href="brand.html">Brand</a>
             <ul>
                 <li><a href="#">XXXXXX</a></li>
                 <li><a href="#">XXXXXX</a></li>
             </ul>
         </li>
         <li><a href="fighter.html">Fighters</a>
             <ul>
                 <li><a href="#">XXXXXX</a></li>
                 <li><a href="#">XXXXXX</a></li>
             </ul>
         </li>
         <li><a href="account.html">My Account</a></li>
      </ul>
   </nav>

And here is the CSS:

   nav {
        position:relative;
        float:right;
        font-size:14px;
        margin-top:35px;
        font-weight:bold;
        padding-right:178px;
        z-index:4;
    }
    nav ul ul {
        display:none; /* hide sub menus */
    }
    nav ul li:hover > ul {
        display:block; /* show sub menus on hover */
    }
    nav ul {
        float:right;
        font-size:14px;
        margin-top:-3px;
        text-transform:uppercase;
        list-style:none;
        position:relative; /* position sub menu according to nav */
        display:inline-table; /* condense with of sub menu to fit */
    }
    nav ul:after {
        content:"";
        clear:both;
        display:block; /* clear floats on other list items */
    }
    nav ul li {
        float:left;
    }
    nav ul li:hover a {
        color:#ee1f3b;
        text-decoration:none;
        -webkit-transition-property:color; 
        -webkit-transition-duration:0.2s, 0.2s; 
        -webkit-transition-timing-function:linear, ease-in;
        -moz-transition-property:color; 
        -moz-transition-duration:0.2s, 0.2s; 
        -moz-transition-timing-function:linear, ease-in;
    }
    nav ul li a {
        padding:4px 11px;
        text-decoration:none;
        color:#000000;
        display:block;
        text-decoration:none;
    }
    nav ul ul {
        background:#cacaca;
        position:absolute;
        top:25px; /* sub position */
    }
    nav ul ul li {
        float:none; 
        border-bottom:1px solid rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2);
        position:relative;
    }
    nav ul ul li:last-child {
        border-bottom:1px solid rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2);
    }
    .selected {
        color:#ee1f3b;
    }   
    nav ul ul li a:hover {
        color:#000000;
    }

Thanks for your time.

Answer 1

Another method is to give the ul a id in the submenu something like this

 <li><a href="brand.html">Brand</a>
  <ul id="submenu">
    <li><a href="#">AAAAAA</a></li>
    <li><a href="#">BBBBBB</a></li>
  </ul>
 </li>

CSS

#submenu li a
{
    color:green;    
}

See the full Jsfiddle here

Answer 2

From the above code for changing the color of submenus, you have not targeted the child elements of the main menus. For that you need to target them and add new rules to specifically target that element and change the color. Here is the solution.

On hover of the items with submenus, the color change for instance here green color on display of the submenus.

nav ul li:hover ul li a{color:green;}

On hover of the submenus, change of color from green to yellow for instance.

nav ul li:hover ul li a:hover{color:yellow;}

To elaborate this,

The HTML:

   <nav>
    <ul>
        <li><a class="selected" href="index.html">Home</a></li>
        <li><a href="clothing.html">Clothing</a></li>
        <li><a href="gear.html">Gear</a></li>
        <li><a href="brand.html">Brand</a>
            <ul>
                <li><a href="#">XXXXXX</a></li>
                <li><a href="#">XXXXXX</a></li>
            </ul>
        </li>
        <li><a href="fighter.html">Fighters</a>
            <ul>
                <li><a href="#">XXXXXX</a></li>
                <li><a href="#">XXXXXX</a></li>
            </ul>
        </li>
        <li><a href="account.html">My Account</a></li>
    </ul>
</nav>

The CSS:

    nav {
    position:relative;
    float:right;
    font-size:14px;
    margin-top:35px;
    font-weight:bold;
    padding-right:178px;
    z-index:4;
}
nav ul ul {
    display:none; /* hide sub menus */
}
nav ul li:hover > ul {
    display:block; /* show sub menus on hover */
}
nav ul {
    float:right;
    font-size:14px;
    margin-top:-3px;
    text-transform:uppercase;
    list-style:none;
    position:relative; /* position sub menu according to nav */
    display:inline-table; /* condense with of sub menu to fit */
}
nav ul:after {
    content:"";
    clear:both;
    display:block; /* clear floats on other list items */
}
nav ul li {
    float:left;
}
nav ul li:hover a {
    color:#ee1f3b;
    text-decoration:none;
    -webkit-transition-property:color; 
    -webkit-transition-duration:0.2s, 0.2s; 
    -webkit-transition-timing-function:linear, ease-in;
    -moz-transition-property:color; 
    -moz-transition-duration:0.2s, 0.2s; 
    -moz-transition-timing-function:linear, ease-in;
}
nav ul li a {
    padding:4px 11px;
    text-decoration:none;
    color:#000000;
    display:block;
    text-decoration:none;
}
nav ul ul {
    background:#cacaca;
    position:absolute;
    top:25px; /* sub position */
}
nav ul ul li {
    float:none; 
    border-bottom:1px solid rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2);
    position:relative;
}
nav ul ul li:last-child {
    border-bottom:1px solid rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2);
}
.selected {
    color:#ee1f3b;
}   
nav ul ul li a:hover {
    color:#000000;
}

nav ul li:hover ul li a{color:green;}
nav ul li:hover ul li a:hover{color:yellow;}

Hope this helps.