Welcome to the Treehouse Community

Want to collaborate on code errors? Have bugs you need feedback on? Looking for an extra set of eyes on your latest project? Get support with fellow developers, designers, and programmers of all backgrounds and skill levels here with the Treehouse Community! While you're at it, check out some resources Treehouse students have shared here.

Looking to learn something new?

Treehouse offers a seven day free trial for new students. Get access to thousands of hours of content and join thousands of Treehouse students and alumni in the community today.

Start your free trial

CSS CSS Basics (2014) Understanding Values and Units Styling the Intro Paragraph

Posted by Nick Evershed
Nick Evershed
6,429 Points

a: link vs a: unvisited

Why dosen't a:unvisited exist, when a:visited does

1 Answer

Steven Parker
Steven Parker
229,783 Points
Steven Parker
Steven Parker
229,783 Points

You don't need a separate pseudo class for unvisited, since once you define a rule for visited links, all the unvisited ones will have the properties defined simply as "links". For example:

a:link { color: purple; }  /* unvisited links will be purple */
a:visited { color: red; }  /* because visited ones are red */
Nick Evershed
Nick Evershed
6,429 Points

I'm not sure if you answered what I was asking, why are they called a:link instead of a:unvisted

Steven Parker
Steven Parker
229,783 Points
Steven Parker
Steven Parker
229,783 Points

I expect the name ":link" is because it pertains to all links when used by itself. But when you override it with ":visited" it then affects only the unvisited links. So that's why they didn't need a separate one named "unvisited".