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Learn How To Make A simple menu With Tailwind CSS Like an Expert

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As a FrontEnd technology blogger, you are always looking for ways to improve your skills and stay up-to-date with the latest trends in web development. One of the most popular CSS frameworks today is Tailwind CSS. In this article, we will explore how to create a simple menu with Tailwind CSS, and why it is a great choice for building user interfaces.

What is Tailwind CSS?

Tailwind CSS is a utility-first CSS framework that allows you to style your web pages by applying pre-defined classes to HTML elements. It provides a set of pre-designed styles that you can use to quickly build user interfaces without having to write custom CSS code. Tailwind CSS is highly customizable and allows you to create your own styles by configuring its core settings.

The description of simple menu UI component

A simple menu is a user interface component that allows users to navigate through different sections of a website or application. It typically consists of a list of links that are displayed horizontally or vertically, depending on the design. A simple menu can be styled in many ways, depending on the requirements of your project.

Why use Tailwind CSS to create a simple menu UI component?

Tailwind CSS is a great choice for creating a simple menu UI component because it provides a set of pre-designed styles that you can use to quickly build your menu. You can customize the styles to fit your project's requirements by configuring Tailwind's core settings. This saves you time and effort compared to writing custom CSS code from scratch.

Another advantage of using Tailwind CSS is that it is highly responsive. This means that your menu will look great on different screen sizes and devices. Tailwind CSS provides responsive classes that allow you to adjust the layout and styling of your menu based on the screen size.

The preview of simple menu UI component

Here is a preview of what our simple menu UI component will look like:

Free download of the simple menu's source code

The source code of simple menu UI component

Here is the source code for our simple menu UI component:

<div class="h-16 w-full bg-black bg-opacity-50">
        <div class="w-full h-full flex justify-center items-center">
            <div
                class="flex h-full items-center  hover:bg-black hover:bg-opacity-50">
                <div class="mx-4 text-white">Opcion</div>
                <div class=" h-8 w-px bg-gray-300"></div>
            </div>
            <div class="flex h-full items-center  hover:bg-black hover:bg-opacity-50">
                <div class="mx-4 text-white">Opcion</div>
                <div class=" h-8 w-px bg-gray-300"></div>
            </div>
            <div class="flex h-full items-center  hover:bg-black hover:bg-opacity-50">
                <div class="mx-4 text-white">Opcion</div>
                <div class=" h-8 w-px bg-gray-300"></div>
            </div>
            <div class="flex h-full items-center  hover:bg-black hover:bg-opacity-50">
                <div class="mx-4 text-white">Opcion</div>
                <div class=" h-8 w-px bg-gray-300"></div>
            </div>
            <div class="flex h-full  items-center hover:bg-black hover:bg-opacity-50">
                <div class="mx-4 text-white">Opcion</div>
            </div>
        </div>
    </div>

How to create a simple menu with Tailwind CSS?

To create a simple menu with Tailwind CSS, follow these steps:

  1. Create a new HTML file and add the following code:
<nav class="bg-gray-800">
  <div class="max-w-7xl mx-auto px-2 sm:px-6 lg:px-8">
    <div class="flex items-center justify-between h-16">
      <div class="flex items-center">
        <div class="flex-shrink-0">
          <img class="h-8 w-8" src="https://tailwindui.com/img/logos/workflow-mark-indigo-500.svg" alt="Workflow">
        </div>
        <div class="hidden md:block">
          <div class="ml-10 flex items-baseline space-x-4">
            <a href="#" class="text-gray-300 hover:bg-gray-700 hover:text-white px-3 py-2 rounded-md text-sm font-medium">Dashboard</a>
            <a href="#" class="text-gray-300 hover:bg-gray-700 hover:text-white px-3 py-2 rounded-md text-sm font-medium">Team</a>
            <a href="#" class="text-gray-300 hover:bg-gray-700 hover:text-white px-3 py-2 rounded-md text-sm font-medium">Projects</a>
            <a href="#" class="text-gray-300 hover:bg-gray-700 hover:text-white px-3 py-2 rounded-md text-sm font-medium">Calendar</a>
          </div>
        </div>
      </div>
      <div class="-mr-2 flex md:hidden">
        <button type="button" class="bg-gray-800 inline-flex items-center justify-center p-2 rounded-md text-gray-400 hover:text-white hover:bg-gray-700 focus:outline-none focus:ring-2 focus:ring-offset-2 focus:ring-offset-gray-800 focus:ring-white" aria-controls="mobile-menu" aria-expanded="false">
          <span class="sr-only">Open main menu</span>
          <!-- Heroicon name: menu -->
          <svg class="block h-6 w-6" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" fill="none" viewBox="0 0 24 24" stroke="currentColor" aria-hidden="true">
            <path stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" stroke-width="2" d="M4 6h16M4 12h16M4 18h16"></path>
          </svg>
          <!-- Heroicon name: x -->
          <svg class="hidden h-6 w-6" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" fill="none" viewBox="0 0 24 24" stroke="currentColor" aria-hidden="true">
            <path stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" stroke-width="2" d="M6 18L18 6M6 6l12 12"></path>
          </svg>
        </button>
      </div>
    </div>
  </div>

  <div class="md:hidden" id="mobile-menu">
    <div class="px-2 pt-2 pb-3 space-y-1 sm:px-3">
      <a href="#" class="text-gray-300 hover:bg-gray-700 hover:text-white block px-3 py-2 rounded-md text-base font-medium">Dashboard</a>
      <a href="#" class="text-gray-300 hover:bg-gray-700 hover:text-white block px-3 py-2 rounded-md text-base font-medium">Team</a>
      <a href="#" class="text-gray-300 hover:bg-gray-700 hover:text-white block px-3 py-2 rounded-md text-base font-medium">Projects</a>
      <a href="#" class="text-gray-300 hover:bg-gray-700 hover:text-white block px-3 py-2 rounded-md text-base font-medium">Calendar</a>
    </div>
  </div>
</nav>

  1. In the nav element, we have added the bg-gray-800 class to set the background color of the menu to gray. We have also added the max-w-7xl class to set the maximum width of the menu to 7xl (which is a predefined value in Tailwind CSS).

  2. Inside the nav element, we have added a div element with the flex class to create a horizontal layout for the menu. We have also added the items-center and justify-between classes to center the items and create space between them.

  3. Inside the div element, we have added another div element with the flex class to create a block of content that contains the logo and the links. We have also added the items-center class to center the items vertically.

  4. Inside the second div element, we have added a div element with the flex-shrink-0 class to create a block for the logo. We have also added the h-8 and w-8 classes to set the height and width of the logo.

  5. Inside the second div element, we have added another div element with the hidden and md:block classes to hide the links on small screens and show them on medium screens and above.

  6. Inside the third div element, we have added a div element with the ml-10 class to create space between the logo and the links. We have also added the flex and items-baseline classes to align the links with the baseline of the logo.

  7. Inside the fourth div element, we have added four a elements with the text-gray-300, hover:bg-gray-700, hover:text-white, px-3, py-2, rounded-md, text-sm, and font-medium classes to style the links. We have also added the href attribute to specify the destination of each link.

  8. Inside the nav element, we have added another div element with the -mr-2, flex, and md:hidden classes to create a button for the mobile menu. We have also added the aria-controls and aria-expanded attributes to specify the target of the mobile menu.

  9. Inside the fifth div element, we have added a button element with the bg-gray-800, inline-flex, items-center, justify-center, p-2, rounded-md, text-gray-400, hover:text-white, hover:bg-gray-700, focus:outline-none, focus:ring-2, focus:ring-offset-2, focus:ring-offset-gray-800, and focus:ring-white classes to style the mobile menu button. We have also added the type attribute to specify the type of the button.

  10. Inside the button element, we have added two svg elements with the block and hidden classes to create the menu icon and the close icon. We have also added the xmlns, fill, viewBox, stroke, and aria-hidden attributes to specify the properties of the icons. We have also added the path element inside each svg element to define the shape of the icons.

  11. Finally, we have added another div element with the md:hidden and id attributes to create the mobile menu. Inside this element, we have added four a elements with the same classes as before to style the links.

Conclusion

In this article, we have learned how to create a simple menu with Tailwind CSS. We have seen how Tailwind CSS can save us time and effort by providing pre-designed styles that we can customize to fit our project's requirements. We have also seen how Tailwind CSS provides responsive classes that allow us to create menus that look great on different screen sizes and devices. With this knowledge, you can now create your own menus and user interfaces using Tailwind CSS.