Button Groups
Group a series of buttons together on a single line with the button group. Add on optional JavaScript radio and checkbox style behavior with our buttons plugin.
Tooltips & popovers in button groups require special setting
When using tooltips or popovers on elements within a .btn-group
, you'll
have to specify the option container: 'body' to avoid unwanted side effects
(such as the element growing wider and/or losing its rounded corners when
the tooltip or popover is triggered).
Ensure correct role and provide a label
In order for assistive technologies – such as screen readers – to convey
that a series of buttons is grouped, an appropriate role attribute needs to
be provided. For button groups, this would be role="group"
, while toolbars
should have a `role="toolbar".
One exception are groups which only contain a single control (for instance
the justified button groups with <button>
elements) or a dropdown.
In addition, groups and toolbars should be given an explicit label, as most assistive technologies will otherwise not announce them, despite the presence of the correct role attribute. In the examples provided here, we use aria-label, but alternatives such as aria-labelled by can also be used.
Basic Example
Wrap a series of buttons with .btn
in .btn-group
.
Button Toolbar
Combine sets of <div class="btn-group">
into a <div class="btn-toolbar">
for more complex components.
Sizing
Instead of applying button sizing classes to every button in a group,
just add .btn-group-*
to each .btn-group
, including when nesting multiple groups.
Nesting
Place a .btn-group
within another .btn-group
when you want dropdown menus
mixed with a series of buttons.
Vertical Variation
Make a set of buttons appear vertically stacked rather than horizontally. Split button dropdowns are not supported here.
Justified button groups
Make a group of buttons stretch at equal sizes to span the entire width of its parent. Also works with button dropdowns within the button group.
Handling borders
Due to the specific HTML and CSS used to justify buttons
(namely display: table-cell
), the borders between them are doubled. In
regular button groups, margin-left: -1px
is used to stack the borders instead
of removing them. However, margin doesn't work with display: table-cell
.
As a result, depending on your customizations to Bootstrap, you may wish to
remove or re-color the borders.
IE8 and borders
Internet Explorer 8 doesn't render borders on buttons in a justified button group,
whether it's on <a>
or <button>
elements. To get around that, wrap each
button in another .btn-group
.
With <a>
Elements
Just wrap a series of .btns
in .btn-group.btn-group-justified
.
Links acting as buttons
If the <a>
elements are used to act as buttons – triggering in-page
functionality, rather than navigating to another document or section within
the current page – they should also be given an appropriate role="button"
.
With <button>
Elements
To use justified button groups with <button>
elements, you must wrap each
button in a button group. Most browsers don't properly apply our CSS for
justification to <button>
elements, but since we support button dropdowns,
we can work around that.