How can I create a customizable slider with a custom slider navigation, allowing users to switch slides by hovering over the buttons in Webflow?
TL;DR
- Use a Webflow Slider element and create custom nav items outside the slider using Divs or Buttons.
- Assign each nav item to a corresponding slide using unique IDs or data attributes and set up hover interactions to trigger slide changes, with click interactions as fallbacks for mobile.
To create a customizable slider with custom hover-based navigation in Webflow, you’ll use native elements for structure and interactions for hover control.
1. Set Up the Custom Slider Structure
- Drag in a “Slider” element from the Add panel.
- Delete the default slider nav and arrows if you don’t need them.
- Inside each Slide, add your custom content (images, text, etc.).
- Add a new Div Block outside the Slider element to act as your Custom Nav Container.
2. Add Navigation Buttons
- Within the Custom Nav Container, add individual Div Blocks or Buttons that will serve as custom nav items.
- Each nav item should correspond to a specific slide (e.g., Nav Item 1 for Slide 1, Nav Item 2 for Slide 2).
3. Assign Attributes and Custom IDs
- Give each Slide a unique ID or custom attribute that's easy to reference (e.g., “slide-1”, “slide-2”).
- Optionally, add a unique “data-slide” attribute to each nav item (e.g., data-slide="1").
4. Set Up Hover Interactions
- Select the first nav item, go to “Interactions”, and create a Mouse Hover (Hover In) interaction.
- Under the interaction step, choose “Slider” → Element Trigger → Slide Action.
- Choose Go to Slide and select the corresponding slide index (Slide 1 = 1, Slide 2 = 2, etc.).
- Repeat this process for each nav item, linking it to the appropriate slide.
- You can leave Hover Out empty or use it to stop any additional animations if you've added any.
5. Style and Position
- Style your hover nav buttons as needed (icons, color blocks, thumbnails, etc.).
- Position the Nav Container above, below, or beside the slider, depending on your layout needs.
- Use flexbox or grid to align the buttons.
6. Mobile Considerations
- Since hover doesn’t exist on touch devices, consider adding click interactions as a fallback.
- To do this: duplicate the hover interaction and bind it to a Click Tap trigger for each nav item.
Summary
You can build a custom hover-based slider navigation in Webflow by using custom divs or buttons as nav items, linking them to specific slides via interactions on hover, and ensuring accessibility for mobile devices with click fallbacks.