Bootstrap Navbar border line and active background-color

Bootstrap navbar helps a lot when it comes to responsive web development. You can build numerous variations of the Bootstrap navbar. In this post, you will learn how to create a Bootstrap navbar with border line on top. Also, change background-color for navbar link with active class.

Here is a step-by-step tutorial to create a Bootstrap navbar with border top and change background-color of link with class ‘active’.

Final output:

bootstrap navbar border line on mobile — *on small screen*

1. If you follow the Bootstrap documentation, this is the basic left-aligned navbar:

<nav class="navbar navbar-expand-lg navbar-light bg-light">
  <a class="navbar-brand" href="#">Navbar</a>
  <button class="navbar-toggler" type="button" data-toggle="collapse" data-target="#navbarNav" aria-controls="navbarNav" aria-expanded="false" aria-label="Toggle navigation">
    <span class="navbar-toggler-icon"></span>
  </button>
  <div class="collapse navbar-collapse" id="navbarNav">
    <ul class="navbar-nav">
      <li class="nav-item active">
        <a class="nav-link" href="#">Home <span class="sr-only">(current)</span></a>
      </li>
      <li class="nav-item">
        <a class="nav-link" href="#">Features</a>
      </li>
      <li class="nav-item">
        <a class="nav-link" href="#">Pricing</a>
      </li>
      <li class="nav-item">
        <a class="nav-link disabled" href="#" tabindex="-1" aria-disabled="true">Disabled</a>
      </li>
    </ul>
  </div>
</nav>

Output:

2. Let’s add the border-top first. (I changed the background-color to #26d6f8 and added some CSS.)

.navbar .navbar-nav .nav-link {
    color: #000000;
    font-size: 1.1em;
}
.navbar .navbar-nav .nav-link:hover {
  color: #808080;
}
.navbar {
    border-top: 5px solid #88f2fa;
}

Output:

bootstrap navbar border line top step 2 — *on small screen*

3. Add a background color to the link with class active.

.navbar .nav-item.active {
  background-color: #88f2fa;
}

Update: For the Bootstrap 5 navbar, the active class is added to the nav-link. So set the background color like this:

.navbar .navbar-nav .nav-link.active{
  background-color: #88f2fa;
}

Output:

bootstrap navbar border line top step 3 — *on small screen*

4. To make it look more like the final result, adjust the padding and margin.

@media only screen and (min-width: 992px) {
  .navbar {
    padding-top: 0;
    padding-bottom: 0;
  }
}
.navbar .nav-item {
  padding: 0.5em;
}
@media only screen and (max-width: 991px) {
  .navbar .navbar-nav {
    margin-top: 0.5em;
  }
}

Output:

bootstrap navbar border line top result — *on small screen*

Final Output Code for Bootstrap navbar with border line on top:

HTML

<nav class="navbar navbar-expand-lg navbar-light"
        style="background-color: #26d6f8;">
    <a class="navbar-brand" href="#">Coding Yaar</a>
    <button class="navbar-toggler" type="button" data-toggle="collapse" data-target="#myNavbarToggler12"
        aria-controls="myNavbarToggler12" aria-expanded="false" aria-label="Toggle navigation">
        <span class="navbar-toggler-icon"></span>
    </button>
    <div class="collapse navbar-collapse" id="myNavbarToggler12">
        <ul class="navbar-nav">
            <li class="nav-item active">
                <a class="nav-link" href="#">Home</a>
            </li>
            <li class="nav-item">
                <a class="nav-link" href="#">About</a>
            </li>
            <li class="nav-item">
                <a class="nav-link" href="#">Services</a>
            </li>
            <li class="nav-item">
                <a class="nav-link" href="#">Contact</a>
            </li>
        </ul>
    </div>
</nav>

CSS

.navbar .navbar-nav .nav-link {
    color: #000000;
    font-size: 1.1em;
}
.navbar .navbar-nav .nav-link:hover{
    color: #808080;
}
.navbar {
  border-top: 5px solid #ffffff;
}
@media only screen and (min-width: 992px) {
  .navbar {
    padding-top: 0;
    padding-bottom: 0;
  }
}
.navbar .nav-item {
  padding: 0.5em;
}
.navbar .nav-item.active {
  background-color: #ffffff;
}
@media only screen and (max-width: 991px) {
  .navbar .navbar-nav {
    margin-top: 0.5em;
  }
}