Style checkboxes as Toggle Buttons

Question

On my website, users can post articles and tag them accordingly using some pre-set tags. These tags are in the form of checkboxes. Example below:

Answer 1

This can be done using checkboxes and labels, the adjacent sibling selector – and the CSS3 :selected pseudo class.

HTML:

<span><input type="checkbox" id="c1"><label for="c1">[ Aliens ]</label></span>
<span><input type="checkbox" id="c2"><label for="c2">[ Ghosts ]</label></span>
<span><input type="checkbox" id="c3"><label for="c3">[ Monsters ]</label></span>

CSS:

input { display:none; }
input:checked ~ label { color:red; }

http://jsfiddle.net/drTg2/

But be aware that this will easily fail in older browsers – because they don’t know ~ or :checked. And older IE have problems with checkboxes set to display:none – won’t transfer them when the form is submitted (although that can be overcome by other means of hiding, f.e. absolute positioning of the screen).

If you don’t insist on a pure HTML/CSS solution – there are many scripts / {js-framework-of-your-choice}-plugins out there, that help achieve the same effect.

Answer 2

You can borrow ideas from this page! Try to bind your text and checkbox. And then then try to use jquery to "toggle" the label associated to the checkbox.

You can then use styles and images to make the labels look like containers for checkboxes. That is what I would do.

Answer 3

You may try to have pictures with javascript onclick event that would change img source attribute. Then, put hidden control with given id and in the same onclick event use document.getElementById('hiddencontrol').value = 1 - document.getElementById('hiddencontrol').value (with 0 or 1 as default).

However, I don't know how to make it without Javascript.

Answer 4

Check this out

HTML

<input id="chk_aliens" type="checkbox" name="wpuf_post_tags[]" class="vis-hidden new-post-tags" value="Aliens" />
<label for="chk_aliens">Aliens</label>

<input id="chk_ghosts" type="checkbox" name="wpuf_post_tags[]" class="vis-hidden new-post-tags" value="Ghosts" />
<label for="chk_ghosts">Ghosts</label>

<input id="chk_monsters" type="checkbox" name="wpuf_post_tags[]" class="vis-hidden new-post-tags" value="Monsters" />
<label for="chk_monsters">Monsters</label>

CSS

.vis-hidden {
    border: 0;
    clip: rect(0 0 0 0);
    height: 1px;
    margin: -1px;
    overflow: hidden;
    padding: 0;
    position: absolute;
    width: 1px;
}

label {
  margin: 10px;
  padding: 5px;
  border: 1px solid gray;
}

input:focus + label {
  border-color: blue;
}

input:checked + label {
  border-color: red;
}

input:focus:checked + label {
  border-color: green;
}

Note that the last selector may not work in older IE.

Answer 5

Checkboxes, radio buttons and SELECT elements have very limited styling capabilities and they vary widely across browsers.

You're better off accomplishing these using styled links or buttons, then using JavaScript to set the actual on/off appearance and form values.