The Active Pseudo-class occurs when the current element box is being
activated by the user (such as between the press and release of a
pointing device selector, eg: a mouse button.)
Example
Ext/Doc: a:active
{ color: green }
In-Line: NA
Notes
In CSS1 this Pseudo-class only applied to hyperlinks, and was one of three
exclusive states for the element (the other two being :link and :visited) but
in CSS2 the behavior has been broadened to include any element, and the
:active state may occur at the same time as the :link and :visited states.
Browser Peculiarities
Internet Explorer
4.0+:
- This Pseudo-class currently only applies to hyperlinks.
The "active" state is achieved by activating the hyperlink
or giving the hyperlink focus (eg: by tabbing.)
4.x (Macintosh only):
- The Mac version of 4.x does not appear to apply properties
(such as 'color') to borders on images that are embedded in
hyperlinks. I have only been able to briefly test this in IE
4.5, so it may be a more pervasive a problem than this.
Netscape
6.x:
- This pseudo-class applies to all block and inline elements (including A),
and INPUT types, SELECT and TEXTAREA.
- It behaves a little strangely for TEXTAREA, and INPUT TYPE=
PASSWORD/TEXT fields, as well as some block elements like TABLE -
The "active" clicked state only exists when the mouse is activated
right on the rendered boundary of the element. When the pointer
is inside the magic region, it is not considered an "active"
area to click.
Opera
5.0+:
- This Pseudo-class currently only applies to hyperlinks.