Change body background color on link hover

Question

How can I change the the page background when the mouse is hovered on a a? I\'m looking for a css only solution.

I know that you can reach the child ele

Answer 1

While Mike Ross' demo solves your problem, it doesn't explain how or why it works. It can also be dramatically simplified.

Basically you want to use the ::before notation on your element. This creates a pseudo-element that is the first child of the associated element, for which you can apply extra styling. You can then style the ::before selector to fill the screen with a particular background colour. For example:

Test

.special:hover:before{
    content: '';
    position: fixed;
    display: block;
    top: 0; bottom: 0; left: 0; right: 0;
    z-index: -1;
    background-color: #ff0000;
}

You don't need nth-of-type in there or anything else. See my fiddle here. All you need to do is make sure that the before element is full screen, in the back of the z order and has a particular color.