Skip to content

How to style DOM elements using JavaScript

New Course Coming Soon:

Get Really Good at Git

The ways you can apply styling to elements on the page, dynamically, using plain JavaScript

You might have the need to dynamically apply CSS properties to DOM elements.

What are the APIs browser expose to do that?

First, one of the cleanest ways is to add or remove classes from an element, and use classes styling in your CSS.

const element = document.querySelector('#my-element')

You can use the classList property of an element and its add() and remove() methods:

element.classList.add('myclass')
element.classList.remove('myclass')

You can also directly change each CSS property of an element by using the style property, which references the element inline styles.

For example you can change an element color using

element.style.color = '#fff'

You can alter the border:

element.style.border = '1px solid black'

You saw color and border. You can change all the CSS properties, by using camelCase instead of dashes when the CSS property name contains them.

A translation table is conveniently listed in this MDN page.

Are you intimidated by Git? Can’t figure out merge vs rebase? Are you afraid of screwing up something any time you have to do something in Git? Do you rely on ChatGPT or random people’s answer on StackOverflow to fix your problems? Your coworkers are tired of explaining Git to you all the time? Git is something we all need to use, but few of us really master it. I created this course to improve your Git (and GitHub) knowledge at a radical level. A course that helps you feel less frustrated with Git. Launching May 21, 2024. Join the waiting list!
→ Get my JavaScript Beginner's Handbook
→ Read my JavaScript Tutorials on The Valley of Code
→ Read my TypeScript Tutorial on The Valley of Code

Here is how can I help you: