Button groups

Use button groups to join multiple buttons together as one composite component. Build them with a series of <a> or <button> elements.

Best practices

We recommend the following guidelines for using button groups and toolbars:

• Always use the same element in a single button group, <a> or <button>.
• Don't mix buttons of different colors in the same button group.
• Use icons in addition to or instead of text, but be sure include alt and title text where appropriate.

Related Button groups with dropdowns (see below) should be called out separately and always include a dropdown caret to indicate intended behavior.

Default example

Here's how the HTML looks for a standard button group built with anchor tag buttons:

<div class="btn-group">
  <button class="btn">1</button>
  <button class="btn">2</button>
  <button class="btn">3</button>
</div>

Toolbar example

Combine sets of <div class="btn-group"> into a <div class="btn-toolbar"> for more complex components.

<div class="btn-toolbar">
  <div class="btn-group">
    ...
  </div>
</div>

Checkbox and radio flavors

Button groups can also function as radios, where only one button may be active, or checkboxes, where any number of buttons may be active. View the Javascript docs for that.

Get the javascript »

Dropdowns in button groups

Heads up! Buttons with dropdowns must be individually wrapped in their own .btn-group within a .btn-toolbar for proper rendering.

Overview and examples

Use any button to trigger a dropdown menu by placing it within a .btn-group and providing the proper menu markup.

Example markup

Similar to a button group, our markup uses regular button markup, but with a handful of additions to refine the style and support Bootstrap's dropdown jQuery plugin.

<div class="btn-group">
  <a class="btn dropdown-toggle" data-toggle="dropdown" href="#">
    Action
    <span class="caret"></span>
  </a>
  <ul class="dropdown-menu">
    <!-- dropdown menu links -->
  </ul>
</div>

Works with all button sizes

Button dropdowns work at any size. your button sizes to .btn-large, .btn-small, or .btn-mini.

Requires javascript

Button dropdowns require the Bootstrap dropdown plugin to function.

In some cases—like mobile—dropdown menus will extend outside the viewport. You need to resolve the alignment manually or with custom javascript.

Overview and examples

Building on the button group styles and markup, we can easily create a split button. Split buttons feature a standard action on the left and a dropdown toggle on the right with contextual links.

Sizes

Utilize the extra button classe .btn-mini, .btn-small, or .btn-large for sizing.

<div class="btn-group">
  ...
  <ul class="dropdown-menu pull-right">
    <!-- dropdown menu links -->
  </ul>
</div>

Example markup

We expand on the normal button dropdowns to provide a second button action that operates as a separate dropdown trigger.

<div class="btn-group">
  <button class="btn">Action</button>
  <button class="btn dropdown-toggle" data-toggle="dropdown">
    <span class="caret"></span>
  </button>
  <ul class="dropdown-menu">
    <!-- dropdown menu links -->
  </ul>
</div>

Dropup menus

Dropdown menus can also be toggled from the bottom up by adding a single class to the immediate parent of .dropdown-menu. It will flip the direction of the .caret and reposition the menu itself to move from the bottom up instead of top down.

<div class="btn-group dropup">
  <button class="btn">Dropup</button>
  <button class="btn dropdown-toggle" data-toggle="dropdown">
    <span class="caret"></span>
  </button>
  <ul class="dropdown-menu">
    <!-- dropdown menu links -->
  </ul>
</div>

Powerful base class

All nav components here—tabs, pills, and lists—share the same base markup and styles through the .nav class.

When to use

Tabs and pills are great for sections of content or navigating between pages of related content.

Component alignment

To align nav links, use the .pull-left or .pull-right utility classes. Both classes will add a CSS float in the specified direction.

Basic tabs

Take a regular <ul> of links and add .nav-tabs:

• Home
• Profile
• Messages

<ul class="nav nav-tabs">
  <li class="active">
    <a href="#">Home</a>
  </li>
  <li><a href="#">...</a></li>
  <li><a href="#">...</a></li>
</ul>

Basic pills

Take that same HTML, but use .nav-pills instead:

• Home
• Profile
• Messages

<ul class="nav nav-pills">
  <li class="active">
    <a href="#">Home</a>
  </li>
  <li><a href="#">...</a></li>
  <li><a href="#">...</a></li>
</ul>

How to stack 'em

As tabs and pills are horizontal by default, just add a second class, .nav-stacked, to make them appear vertically stacked.

Stacked tabs

• Home
• Profile
• Messages

<ul class="nav nav-tabs nav-stacked">
  ...
</ul>

Stacked pills

• Home
• Profile
• Messages

<ul class="nav nav-pills nav-stacked">
  ...
</ul>

Rich menus made easy

Dropdown menus in Bootstrap tabs and pills are super easy and require only a little extra HTML and a lightweight jQuery plugin.

Head over to the Javascript page to read the docs on initializing dropdowns in Bootstrap.

Tabs with dropdowns

• Home
• Help
• Dropdown
  • Action
  • Another action
  • Something else here
  • Separated link
• Dropup
  • Action
  • Another action
  • Something else here
  • Separated link

<ul class="nav nav-tabs">
  <li class="dropdown">
    <a class="dropdown-toggle"
       data-toggle="dropdown"
       href="#">
        Dropdown
        <b class="caret"></b>
      </a>
    <ul class="dropdown-menu">
      <!-- links -->
    </ul>
  </li>
</ul>

Pills with dropdowns

• Home
• Help
• Dropdown
  • Action
  • Another action
  • Something else here
  • Separated link
• Dropup
  • Action
  • Another action
  • Something else here
  • Separated link

<ul class="nav nav-pills">
  <li class="dropdown">
    <a class="dropdown-toggle"
       data-toggle="dropdown"
       href="#">
        Dropdown
        <b class="caret"></b>
      </a>
    <ul class="dropdown-menu">
      <!-- links -->
    </ul>
  </li>
</ul>

Application-style navigation

Nav lists provide a simple and easy way to build groups of nav links with optional headers. They're best used in sidebars like the Finder in OS X.

Structurally, they're built on the same core nav styles as tabs and pills, so usage and customization are straightforward.

---

With icons

Nav lists are also easy to equip with icons. Add the proper <i> tag with class and you're set.

Horizontal dividers

Add a horizontal divider by creating an empty list item with the class .divider, like so:

<ul class="nav nav-list">
  ...
  <li class="divider"></li>
  ...
</ul>

Example nav list

Take a list of links and add class="nav nav-list":

<ul class="nav nav-list">
  <li class="nav-header">
    List header
  </li>
  <li class="active">
    <a href="#">Home</a>
  </li>
  <li>
    <a href="#">Library</a>
  </li>
  ...
</ul>

Example with icons

Same example, but with <i> tags for icons.

<ul class="nav nav-list">
  ...
  <li>
    <a href="#">
      <i class="icon-book"></i>
      Library
    </a>
  </li>
  ...
</ul>

What's included

Bring your tabs to life with a simple plugin to toggle between content via tabs. Bootstrap integrates tabbable tabs in four styles: top (default), right, bottom, and left.

Changing between them is easy and only requires changing very little markup.

Tabbable example

To make tabs tabbable, wrap the .nav-tabs in another div with class .tabbable.

Custom jQuery plugin

All tabbable tabs are powered by our lightweight jQuery plugin. Read more about how to bring tabbable tabs to life on the javascript docs page.

Get the javascript →

Tabs on the bottom

Flip the order of the HTML and add a class to put tabs on the bottom.

<div class="tabbable tabs-below">
  <div class="tab-content">
    ...
  </div>
  <ul class="nav nav-tabs">
    ...
  </ul>
</div>

Tabs on the left

Swap the class to put tabs on the left.

<div class="tabbable tabs-left">
  <ul class="nav nav-tabs">
    ...
  </ul>
  <div class="tab-content">
    ...
  </div>
</div>

Tabs on the right

Swap the class to put tabs on the right.

<div class="tabbable tabs-right">
  <ul class="nav nav-tabs">
    ...
  </ul>
  <div class="tab-content">
    ...
  </div>
</div>

Why use them

Breadcrumb navigation is used as a way to show users where they are within an app or a site, but not for primary navigation. Keep their use sparse and succinct to be most effective.

Examples

A single example shown as it might be displayed across multiple pages.

• Home

• Home /
• Library

• Home /
• Library /
• Data

Markup

HTML is your standard unordered list with links.

<ul class="breadcrumb">
  <li>
    <a href="#">Home</a> <span class="divider">/</span>
  </li>
  <li>
    <a href="#">Library</a> <span class="divider">/</span>
  </li>
  <li class="active">Data</li>
</ul>

When to use

Ultra simplistic and minimally styled pagination inspired by Rdio, great for apps and search results. The large block is hard to miss, easily scalable, and provides large click areas.

Stateful page links

Links are customizable and work in a number of circumstances with the right class. .disabled for unclickable links and .active for current page.

Flexible alignment

Add either of two optional classes to change the alignment of pagination links: .pagination-centered and .pagination-right.

Examples

The default pagination component is flexible and works in a number of variations.

Markup

Wrapped in a <div>, pagination is just a <ul>.

<div class="pagination">
  <ul>
    <li><a href="#">Prev</a></li>
    <li class="active">
      <a href="#">1</a>
    </li>
    <li><a href="#">2</a></li>
    <li><a href="#">3</a></li>
    <li><a href="#">4</a></li>
    <li><a href="#">Next</a></li>
  </ul>
</div>

About pager

The pager component is a set of links for simple pagination implementations with light markup and even lighter styles. It's great for simple sites like blogs or magazines.

Optional disabled state

Pager links also use the general .disabled class from the pagination.

Default example

By default, the pager centers links.

• Previous
• Next

<ul class="pager">
  <li>
    <a href="#">Previous</a>
  </li>
  <li>
    <a href="#">Next</a>
  </li>
</ul>

Aligned links

Alternatively, you can align each link to the sides:

• ← Older
• Newer →

<ul class="pager">
  <li class="previous">
    <a href="#">&larr; Older</a>
  </li>
  <li class="next">
    <a href="#">Newer &rarr;</a>
  </li>
</ul>