The Active Pseudo-class occurs when the current element box is being
activated by the user (such as between the press and release of a
pointing device selector, eg: a mouse button.)
Example
Ext/Doc: a:active
{ color: green }
In-Line: NA
Notes
In CSS1 this Pseudo-class only applied to hyperlinks, and was one of three
exclusive states for the element (the other two being :link and :visited) but
in CSS2 the behavior has been broadened to include any element, and the
:active state may occur at the same time as the :link and :visited states.
Browser Peculiarities
Internet Explorer
4.0+:
- This Pseudo-class currently only applies to hyperlinks.
The "active" state is achieved by activating the hyperlink
or giving the hyperlink focus (eg: by tabbing.)
4.x (Macintosh only):
- The Mac version of 4.x does not appear to apply properties
(such as 'color') to borders on images that are embedded in
hyperlinks. I have only been able to briefly test this in IE
4.5, so it may be a more pervasive a problem than this.