The dropdown menu is here: https://www.w3schools.com/tags/tryit.asp?filename=tryhtml_select
I’d like to change the CSS of the dropdown elements in a <select> element in dev tools, but I can’t make the dropdown stay open.
this post was submitted on 28 Jul 2023
25 points (96.3% liked)
Firefox
17884 readers
126 users here now
A place to discuss the news and latest developments on the open-source browser Firefox
founded 4 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
You can access the option elements inside the select via the dom and style them there. In most browsers on a Mac (which that looks like?) those selects are actually implemented as separate windows - not even part of the browser, so you’re going to struggle to access them directly.
Yeah I was thinking on an OS level those close when the focus changes.
Can you elaborate on that? What do u mean by OS level?
I really people to be specific do I know these things exactly.
I think Firefox should be able to keep the dropdown menu focused somehow, since its essentially HTML inside the browser engine, and its possible to disable pop hiding for Firefox UI popups in the browser toolbox. The browser toolbox can't inspect page HTML though, only Firefox UI elements.
I don't know if your assertions are right or if mine are either. But my understanding is that dropdowns are an OS feature and consequently the OS is responsible for managing the open and close state of dropdowns, depending on focus. Again, I'm not sure and I'm not expert. It's just what it's looked like to me as an observer.
Well I'll note, I'm on Mac its's not a native dropdown menu, this is what it looks like:
If anything, you've proven the opposite. The color scheme and fonts between the two look the same.
I'm on Mac and that's not a native dropdown menu, this is what it looks like:
Did I say it was a native dropdown? Nope. I said it was implemented as a separate window.
You can demonstrate that by trying to take a screenshot of the whole window when you have an open dropdown (cmd + shift + 4, then press space to select a window), and you'll see the contents of the dropdown aren't in the resulting screenshot (but are if you select an area or screenshot the whole screen).
Regardless, the fix is the same: use the inspector tab to navigate to the option element inside the select in the DOM itself, you can manipulate the elements there, although if you want to change the styling supported CSS styles are extremely limited. If you really want to control the appearance of a select element you're probably going to have to render them yourself.