Smooth scroll to top of page with CSS/HTML only?

Question

I am not permitted to add in Jquery/Javascript to this site, so I was looking for any way to do a \"Back to Top\" button, and have it transition to top with CSS/HTML only....don

Answer 1

In order to scroll to top of the page through CSS, you would have to add some kind of trigger to change CSS. Which is, AFAIK, only possible through html inline JavaScript triggers, or EventListeners in javascript.

You can, however, jump to a point on the page through the setting of anchors (href=#the_id_of_an_element), but this is not smooth, but instead instantaneous.

Now, I did manage to get some sort of smooth scrolling towards the top of the page, or rather the beginning of an element, but by using CSS only, this has some uneasy side-effects. Though, I'll share the code and see if it helps anyone on a start, or with any other issue.

/*
	KNOWN ISSUES
	
	- requires constant user input.
	Either through hover or buttonpress
		-> If an element would be triggered, they cannot be untriggered. CSS is not made for this.
	
	- moves the page
	Well, what did you expect? CSS visualises the page. You can only move 
	the page through the CSS by editing visual content and making the page smaller,
	basically forcing the client to move the user.
		-> this also means that elements below the element are shown in the view
		-> it is VERY visible, especially if you look at the scrollbar
		
	- has a delay depending on where the user is at
	The animation has to reach the position of the user, basically.
		
	At least it works on IE?
	But honestly, just use javascript to scroll to. It's literally an one-liner
*/

/* Transition types. Fairly universal available in browsers*/
.smooth-transition {
	-webkit-transition: all 0.5s ease;
    -moz-transition: all 0.5s ease;
    -ms-transition: all 0.5s ease;
    -o-transition: all 0.5s ease;
    transition: all 0.5s ease;
}

.slow-transition {
    -webkit-transition: all 1.5s ease;
    -moz-transition: all 1.5s ease;
    -ms-transition: all 1.5s ease;
    -o-transition: all 1.5s ease;
    transition: all 1.5s ease;
}
/* End of transition types */

.bottom {
	position: fixed;
	/*Position wherever, just know that you can set sizes using these*/
	bottom: 0px;
	height: 40px;
	left: 0px;
	right: 0px;
	
	z-index: 10;
}

/*
	Settings for the transitions
	
	On active (which is click), the animation makes sure the page is made smaller, so 
	the top is shown again. This also causes the user to be moved upwards
	
	After that animation, the page is restored in size.
*/
#move:active ~ .mover,
#move:focus:hover ~ .mover {
	height: 0px;
}

#move:after {
	content: "Back to top";
}

#move:focus:after {
	content: "Hover to go up";
}

/* 
	The element that holds all the data
	It's required for this element to also be at the end of the page,
	otherwise the user will be moved upwards, but also with the end 
	of the page in sight. (This can be tweaked with the min-height 
	settings though. Height - height of whatever is beneath it, but
	the user will still see the other elements)
*/
.mover  {
	/*
		Min-height here is the amount of spacing between the element and 
		the top of the HTML page. In most cases, this is 100%, but if the
		element is contained, then this min-height trick might not work
		
		Just make sure that the min-height amount is the same as the visual 
		page size, and NOT its contents or its parent.
	*/
	min-height: 100%;
	/*
		Set to your div height. Unfortunately, animations from auto to
		0px are not supported (yet?), and there's no real good trick 
		as a placeholder for this one. You could mess around with 
		max-height, but remember that this can cause a delay in animation
		and creates differences in speed that are hard to tweak or measure.
	*/
	height: 1400px;
	
	/*
		In order to move the page, you'll have to suppress the content 
		that will be shown outside of the element. Ergo, hide the overflow.
	*/
	overflow: hidden;
}





/* To make the example element look pretty*/
#move:hover {
	color: whitesmoke;
	background-color: rgb(30,30,30);
}

#move {
	background-color: rgb(50,50,50);
	border-radius: 2px;
	text-align: center;
	line-height: 40px;
	color: lightslategrey;
	text-decoration: none;
}
/* 
	End of pretty CSS
*/

<link rel="stylesheet" href="test.css">
<html>
<h1>Welcome at the top</h1>
<a id="move" class="bottom" ></a>
<div class="mover slow-transition">
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</div>
</html>

Make sure to read the comments I added in the CSS so you understand what the issues are and what everything in the file means. Though, I'm fairly sure you will nearly instantly notice one of the nasty side-effects.

Answer 2

It wont be a smooth scroll but u can use an achor tag to link to any part of the page. Here is an example from W3 schools.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<body>

<h2><a id="top">There is a link at the bottom of the page!</a></h2>

<p>In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since.</p>
<p>"Whenever you feel like criticizing any one," he told me, "just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had."</p>
<p>He didn't say any more, but we've always been unusually communicative in a reserved way, and I understood that he meant a great deal more than that. In consequence, I'm inclined to reserve all judgments, a habit that has opened up many curious natures to me and also made me the victim of not a few veteran bores. The abnormal mind is quick to detect and attach itself to this quality when it appears in a normal person, and so it came about that in college I was unjustly accused of being a politician, because I was privy to the secret griefs of wild, unknown men. Most of the confidences were unsought-frequently I have feigned sleep, preoccupation, or a hostile levity when I realized by some unmistakable sign that an intimate revelation was quivering on the horizon; for the intimate revelations of young men, or at least the terms in which they express them, are usually plagiaristic and marred by obvious suppressions. Reserving judgments is a matter of infinite hope. I am still a little afraid of missing something if I forget that, as my father snobbishly suggested, and I snobbishly repeat, a sense of the fundamental decencies is parcelled out unequally at birth.</p>
<p>And, after boasting this way of my tolerance, I come to the admission that it has a limit. Conduct may be founded on the hard rock or the wet marshes, but after a certain point I don't care what it's founded on. When I came back from the East last autumn I felt that I wanted the world to be in uniform and at a sort of moral attention forever; I wanted no more riotous excursions with privileged glimpses into the human heart. Only Gatsby, the man who gives his name to this book, was exempt from my reaction-Gatsby, who represented everything for which I have an unaffected scorn. If personality is an unbroken series of successful gestures, then there was something gorgeous about him, some heightened sensitivity to the promises of life, as if he were related to one of those intricate machines that register earthquakes ten thousand miles away. This responsiveness had nothing to do with that flabby impressionability which is dignified under the name of the "creative temperament"-it was an extraordinary gift for hope, a romantic readiness such as I have never found in any other person and which it is not likely I shall ever find again. No-Gatsby turned out all right at the end; it is what preyed on Gatsby, what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams that temporarily closed out my interest in the abortive sorrows and short-winded elations of men.</p>

<a href="#top">Go to top</a>
</body>
</html>

basically the href uses a css selector to decide which anchor to go to

UPDATE: So I found an interesting link on smooth scrolling thought I would post it on this question.

Answer 3

As far as I am aware of, there is no way to do a smooth page transition using only CSS. As aaronman stated, you can use the HTML attribute of id to help jump to different places on the page. You give the element the id, which can be whatever you want

<h1 id="whatever">Jump to me</div>

Then somewhere on the page, you can use an anchor tag to be able to jump to this.

<a href="#whatever">Jump to "Jump to me"</a>

Fiddle

The way this works is very similar to targeting an element in CSS. You target it using the id, and the href will take you there. This is helpful for projects such as table of contents. In the case you are making something such as a table of contents and you want to show that you have jumped to a section, you can use the :target pseudo class to accomplish this. Here is a very basic example.

The way you can do this without having an element to jump to is by giving the a an href of #. This will jump straight to the top of the page. It is almost like the <html> of the page has an id of #.

Fiddle