Contact Form 7 remains one of the most popular WordPress plugins for creating and managing contact forms, with over five million active installations. While the plugin offers excellent functionality out of the box, many website owners and developers want to customize the appearance of form elements to match their site’s design perfectly. One of the most common customization requests involves adding multiple CSS classes to the submit button, allowing for greater styling flexibility and integration with modern CSS frameworks like Bootstrap, Tailwind, or Foundation. This comprehensive guide walks you through everything you need to know about adding multiple classes to your Contact Form 7 submit button, from basic implementation to advanced styling techniques that will make your forms stand out.
Understanding how to properly add multiple classes to form elements is essential for WordPress developers and site owners who want professional-looking forms that align with their overall website aesthetic. The ability to apply multiple CSS classes simultaneously opens up possibilities for combining utility classes, framework-specific styles, and custom design elements without conflicts or code duplication. Whether you’re working with a pre-built theme, a custom design, or popular CSS frameworks, mastering this technique will give you complete control over your Contact Form 7 submit button appearance and functionality. The process is straightforward once you understand the syntax, but there are several approaches and best practices worth exploring to ensure your implementation is clean, maintainable, and compatible with future plugin updates.
Understanding Contact Form 7 Submit Button Syntax
Contact Form 7 uses a specific tag-based syntax for creating form elements, and the submit button follows this same pattern with some unique attributes that control its appearance and behavior. The basic submit button tag in Contact Form 7 looks like this: [submit “Send”]. This simple code creates a functional submit button with the text “Send” displayed on it. However, this default implementation provides limited styling options and doesn’t allow you to leverage custom CSS classes or framework utilities that could enhance the button’s visual design. To unlock advanced styling capabilities, you need to understand how Contact Form 7 handles class attributes and how to properly format multiple class names within the tag structure.
The plugin provides two distinct methods for adding CSS classes to submit buttons, each with its own syntax and use cases. The first method uses the class: prefix followed by individual class names, allowing you to chain multiple class declarations within the same tag. The second method involves wrapping all your class names in quotation marks after a single class: declaration. Both approaches work effectively, but choosing the right one depends on your specific requirements, the number of classes you’re adding, and your personal preference for code readability. Understanding these syntax variations is crucial because using the wrong format can result in classes not being applied correctly, leading to styling issues that can be frustrating to debug.
When working with Contact Form 7’s form editor, you’ll notice that the plugin uses square brackets to denote form tags, and everything within those brackets follows a specific order. The tag type comes first (in this case, “submit”), followed by any attributes or modifiers, and finally the button text in quotation marks. This structure allows Contact Form 7 to parse your form code correctly and generate the appropriate HTML output on your website. The class attributes you add become part of the generated HTML’s class attribute, which your CSS can then target for styling. Knowing this underlying mechanism helps you troubleshoot issues and understand how your changes translate into the final form markup that visitors see on your site.
Method One: Using Multiple Class Declarations
The first approach to adding multiple classes to your Contact Form 7 submit button involves using the class: prefix multiple times within the same submit tag. This method is particularly intuitive for developers who prefer seeing each class explicitly declared, making it immediately clear which styles are being applied. Here’s how you implement this technique: [submit class:btn class:btn-primary class:custom-submit “Send Message”]. In this example, three separate classes are being added to the submit button: btn, btn-primary, and custom-submit. Each class: declaration tells Contact Form 7 to include that specific class name in the final HTML output, and you can add as many class declarations as needed by simply repeating the pattern.
This method offers excellent readability, especially when working with CSS frameworks like Bootstrap where you typically combine multiple utility classes to achieve the desired styling. For instance, if you’re using Bootstrap for your website design, you might want to apply the btn class for basic button styling, btn-primary for the primary color scheme, and btn-lg for a larger button size. Using the multiple declaration method, your code would look like this: [submit class:btn class:btn-primary class:btn-lg “Submit Form”]. This approach makes it easy to see exactly which Bootstrap classes are being applied and allows you to quickly add or remove individual classes without affecting the others. The explicit nature of this syntax also helps when documenting your forms or explaining implementation to team members who may be less familiar with Contact Form 7.
One significant advantage of the multiple declaration method is that it reduces the risk of syntax errors related to quotation marks and spacing. Since each class is declared separately with its own class: prefix, you don’t need to worry about properly formatting a space-separated list within quotation marks. This can be particularly helpful when you’re adding many classes or when you’re copying class names from documentation or design specifications. Additionally, this method makes it easier to comment out specific classes during testing or debugging, as you can simply remove one class: declaration without affecting the structure of the others. However, for forms with many classes, this approach can make your form code appear longer and potentially more cluttered, which is worth considering from a code maintenance perspective.
Method Two: Using Quoted Space-Separated Class Names
The second method for adding multiple classes to Contact Form 7 submit buttons involves using a single class: declaration followed by all your class names in quotation marks, separated by spaces. This approach mirrors how HTML handles multiple classes in the standard class attribute, making it familiar to web developers who regularly work with HTML and CSS. The syntax looks like this: [submit class:”btn btn-primary btn-lg custom-class” “Send Message”]. Here, all four class names are enclosed within quotation marks after a single class: prefix, with each class name separated by a space. This method produces exactly the same HTML output as the multiple declaration method but achieves it with more compact form code.
This quoted method offers superior efficiency when you need to add numerous classes to your submit button, as it requires less typing and results in cleaner, more concise form markup. For example, if you’re using a utility-first CSS framework like Tailwind CSS, you might need to apply many utility classes to achieve your desired styling: [submit class:”bg-blue-500 hover:bg-blue-700 text-white font-bold py-2 px-4 rounded” “Submit”]. Using the quoted method keeps this code manageable, whereas using individual class: declarations for each utility class would make the code significantly longer and harder to read. This approach also makes it easier to copy and paste class lists from other parts of your site or from framework documentation, as you can typically grab the entire space-separated string and drop it directly into the quotation marks.
However, the quoted method requires careful attention to quotation mark usage to avoid syntax errors. You must use double quotation marks around the class list and ensure that your button text also uses quotation marks correctly. If you accidentally use inconsistent quotation marks or forget to close a quote, Contact Form 7 may not parse your form correctly, resulting in a broken submit button or classes not being applied. Additionally, if any of your class names contain special characters or spaces (which would be unconventional but theoretically possible), you need to be extra careful about escaping them properly. Despite these considerations, many developers prefer this method for its conciseness and familiarity to standard HTML syntax, especially when working with modern CSS frameworks that encourage extensive use of utility classes.
Step-by-Step Implementation Guide
Now that you understand both methods for adding multiple classes, let’s walk through the complete implementation process from start to finish. First, log into your WordPress dashboard and navigate to Contact in the left sidebar menu, then click on Contact Forms to see your list of existing forms. If you haven’t created a form yet, you can click Add New to create one, but for this tutorial, we’ll assume you already have a form that needs customization. Click on the name of the form you want to edit to open the form editor, where you’ll see the complete form markup including all field tags, labels, and the submit button code.
In the form editor, scroll down until you find your submit button code. The default submit button typically appears near the bottom of the form template and looks something like [submit “Send”]. This is the code you’ll be modifying to add your multiple CSS classes. Select this entire submit tag to highlight it, or position your cursor just after the word “submit” and before the button text in quotation marks. This is where you’ll insert your class declarations. Based on your preference and requirements, decide whether to use the multiple class: declaration method or the quoted space-separated method. For this example, let’s use the quoted method: modify the code to read [submit class:”btn btn-primary custom-submit” “Send Message”].
After making your changes to the submit button tag, scroll down to the bottom of the form editor and click the Save button to store your modifications. Contact Form 7 will process your updated form template and generate new HTML for your form. At this point, your submit button will have the classes applied in the HTML markup, but you won’t see any visual changes on your site unless you’ve already created CSS rules targeting those class names. To verify that your classes were applied correctly, visit a page on your site that contains this contact form. Right-click on the submit button and select “Inspect” or “Inspect Element” from the context menu to open your browser’s developer tools. In the HTML inspector, you should see your submit button element with all the classes you specified in the class attribute.
Creating Custom CSS Styles for Your Submit Button
With your multiple classes successfully added to the submit button, the next step involves writing CSS to style the button according to your design requirements. If you’re using a CSS framework like Bootstrap or Tailwind, many of your classes will already have styles defined by the framework, and your button will automatically adopt those styles. However, if you’ve added custom class names or want to override framework styles, you’ll need to write your own CSS rules. In WordPress, you can add custom CSS through your theme’s style.css file, through the Customizer’s Additional CSS section, or by using a custom CSS plugin. For most users, the Customizer’s Additional CSS feature provides the easiest and safest way to add custom styles without modifying theme files directly.
To add custom CSS through the WordPress Customizer, navigate to Appearance > Customize from your dashboard, then look for the Additional CSS option in the Customizer menu. Click on it to open a code editor where you can write your CSS rules. Let’s create a comprehensive style for a custom submit button using the classes we added earlier. Here’s an example of CSS that targets the custom-submit class and creates an attractive, modern button design:
.custom-submit {
background-color: #0073aa;
color: #ffffff;
border: none;
padding: 12px 24px;
font-size: 16px;
font-weight: 600;
border-radius: 4px;
cursor: pointer;
transition: all 0.3s ease;
}
.custom-submit:hover {
background-color: #005177;
transform: translateY(-2px);
box-shadow: 0 4px 8px rgba(0,0,0,0.2);
}
.custom-submit:active {
transform: translateY(0);
box-shadow: 0 2px 4px rgba(0,0,0,0.2);
}This CSS creates a blue button with white text, removes the default border, adds padding for comfortable clicking, uses a semi-bold font weight, and includes subtle rounded corners. The hover state changes the background to a darker blue, slightly lifts the button with a transform, and adds a shadow for depth. The active state (when the button is being clicked) returns the button to its original position with a smaller shadow, providing tactile feedback to users. These transition properties ensure all state changes happen smoothly over 0.3 seconds, creating a polished, professional feel. You can customize these values to match your site’s color scheme, typography, and overall design aesthetic. After adding your CSS to the Customizer, click the Publish button to make your changes live on your website.
Working with CSS Frameworks
If your WordPress site uses a CSS framework like Bootstrap, Foundation, Tailwind CSS, or Bulma, you can leverage the framework’s built-in button classes to style your Contact Form 7 submit button without writing custom CSS. This approach offers several advantages: framework classes are battle-tested and work across browsers, they follow accessibility best practices, and they maintain consistency with other elements on your site that use the same framework. Additionally, using framework classes means you don’t need to maintain custom CSS for your form buttons, reducing your overall stylesheet size and simplifying future updates. Let’s explore how to implement submit button styling with the most popular CSS frameworks.
For Bootstrap users, the framework provides a comprehensive button component system with multiple style variations. A typical Bootstrap submit button implementation might look like this: [submit class:”btn btn-primary btn-lg” “Submit Form”]. The btn class applies Bootstrap’s base button styles, btn-primary uses the primary color from your Bootstrap theme (typically blue), and btn-lg creates a larger button size. Bootstrap also offers other style options like btn-secondary, btn-success, btn-danger, and btn-warning, along with size modifiers like btn-sm for smaller buttons. You can even combine outline styles with btn-outline-primary for a hollowed-out button effect. Additionally, Bootstrap includes utility classes for spacing, shadows, and other properties that you can mix with button classes for even more customization.
Tailwind CSS takes a different approach with its utility-first methodology, where you apply many small, single-purpose classes to build up your desired styling. A Tailwind-styled submit button might use this implementation: [submit class:”bg-indigo-600 hover:bg-indigo-700 text-white font-semibold py-3 px-6 rounded-lg shadow-md hover:shadow-lg transition duration-300″ “Send Message”]. This combines classes for background color (bg-indigo-600), hover state (hover:bg-indigo-700), text color (text-white), font weight (font-semibold), padding (py-3 px-6), border radius (rounded-lg), shadows (shadow-md hover:shadow-lg), and transitions (transition duration-300). While this results in a longer class list, it provides pixel-perfect control over every aspect of the button’s appearance without requiring custom CSS. The utility-first approach also makes it easy to adjust individual properties by simply changing class names rather than modifying CSS rules.
Common Issues and Troubleshooting
Even when following the correct syntax, you might encounter issues when adding multiple classes to your Contact Form 7 submit button. Understanding common problems and their solutions will save you time and frustration during implementation. One frequent issue involves classes not appearing in the rendered HTML despite being correctly added to the form template. This typically happens due to caching at various levels: WordPress plugins, CDN services, or browser cache. To resolve this, start by clearing your browser cache using your browser’s settings or developer tools. Next, if you’re using a caching plugin like WP Super Cache or W3 Total Cache, clear the plugin’s cache through its settings page. If your site uses a CDN like Cloudflare, you may also need to purge the CDN cache to see your changes reflected on the live site.
Another common problem involves CSS specificity conflicts where your custom styles don’t apply even though the classes are present in the HTML. This happens when other CSS rules targeting the submit button have higher specificity than your custom rules, causing them to override your styles. To diagnose this issue, use your browser’s developer tools to inspect the submit button and examine the Styles panel. Look for styles that are crossed out, which indicates they’re being overridden by more specific rules. You can resolve specificity issues by making your selectors more specific, such as changing .custom-submit to .wpcf7-form .wpcf7-submit.custom-submit, or by using the !important declaration as a last resort. However, be cautious with !important as it can make future style updates more difficult and is generally considered poor practice in production code.
Some users experience issues with quotation marks, particularly when using the quoted space-separated method for adding classes. If you’re copying and pasting code from rich text editors or word processors, you might inadvertently include curly quotes or smart quotes instead of straight quotes. Contact Form 7 requires straight double quotes (“) for proper parsing, and using curly quotes (” or “) will break the form syntax. Always ensure you’re using straight quotes by either typing them directly in the form editor or pasting into a plain text editor first to strip any formatting. Additionally, make sure you’re not missing any closing quotes, as an unclosed quote will cause Contact Form 7 to misinterpret your entire submit tag, potentially breaking the form’s functionality.
Advanced Customization Techniques
Once you’ve mastered the basics of adding multiple classes to Contact Form 7 submit buttons, you can explore advanced customization techniques that provide even greater control over button appearance and behavior. One powerful approach involves combining custom classes with CSS pseudo-elements to add decorative elements or icons to your submit buttons. For example, you could add an arrow icon after the button text using the ::after pseudo-element, or create a loading spinner animation that appears when the form is being submitted. These enhancements improve user experience by providing visual feedback and making your forms feel more interactive and responsive to user actions.
Another advanced technique involves using CSS custom properties (also called CSS variables) to create maintainable, themeable button styles. Instead of hardcoding colors and sizes directly in your CSS rules, you can define variables for your button’s primary color, hover color, padding, and other properties. This approach makes it easy to create consistent button styling across multiple forms and allows you to adjust the overall button appearance by changing just a few variable values rather than hunting through multiple CSS rules. Here’s an example of how to implement this approach:
:root {
--button-primary-color: #0073aa;
--button-hover-color: #005177;
--button-padding: 12px 24px;
--button-radius: 4px;
}
.custom-submit {
background-color: var(--button-primary-color);
color: #ffffff;
padding: var(--button-padding);
border-radius: var(--button-radius);
border: none;
cursor: pointer;
transition: all 0.3s ease;
}
.custom-submit:hover {
background-color: var(--button-hover-color);
}For sites that need to support multiple themes or color schemes, you can even create different sets of CSS variables and switch between them based on user preferences or site sections. This technique works particularly well with WordPress’s dark mode support or when building sites with multiple brand colors for different departments or product lines. The flexibility of CSS custom properties combined with properly structured class names on your Contact Form 7 submit buttons creates a powerful foundation for scalable, maintainable form styling that can evolve with your site’s design over time.
Best Practices for Maintaining Form Styles
- Use Semantic Class Names: Choose class names that describe the button’s purpose or appearance rather than arbitrary names. For example, submit-primary or contact-submit are more meaningful than btn-1 or button-blue. Semantic naming makes your code more maintainable and helps other developers understand your styling intentions. Additionally, descriptive class names make it easier to identify which buttons are affected when you need to update styles across your site.
- Document Your Class Combinations: Keep a reference document or comment in your CSS file that explains which class combinations are used for different button styles on your site. This documentation proves invaluable when you or other team members need to create new forms or modify existing ones months or years after initial implementation. Include notes about any framework dependencies, required plugins, or specific version requirements that affect your form styling.
- Test Across Browsers and Devices: Always test your styled submit buttons in multiple browsers including Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge, as well as on different devices like smartphones and tablets. CSS rendering can vary between browsers, and what looks perfect in one environment might have issues in another. Pay particular attention to touch targets on mobile devices, ensuring buttons are large enough to tap comfortably and have adequate spacing from other form elements.
- Consider Accessibility: Ensure your custom button styles maintain proper color contrast ratios between text and background colors to meet WCAG accessibility guidelines. Use tools like WebAIM’s Contrast Checker to verify your color combinations. Additionally, make sure your buttons are fully keyboard accessible, with clear focus states that help keyboard users navigate your forms effectively. Never remove outline styles without providing alternative focus indicators.
- Avoid Over-Styling: While it’s tempting to add elaborate animations, shadows, and effects to your submit buttons, remember that excessive styling can distract from the form’s purpose and may impact performance. Keep your button styles clean, purposeful, and consistent with your overall site design. Focus on clarity and usability rather than decorative flourishes that don’t enhance the user experience.
- Version Control Your Form Templates: If you’re managing multiple Contact Form 7 forms or making frequent changes, consider keeping copies of your form templates and associated CSS in a version control system or at minimum in documented backups. This practice allows you to track changes over time, revert problematic updates, and understand how your forms evolved. Include notes about when changes were made and why, creating an audit trail for your form development.
- Stay Updated with Plugin Changes: Contact Form 7 occasionally updates its markup structure or class naming conventions. Subscribe to the plugin’s changelog or update notifications to stay informed about changes that might affect your custom styling. When major updates are released, test your forms in a staging environment before updating your production site to ensure your custom classes and styles continue working as expected.
- Create Reusable Button Style Systems: Rather than creating unique styles for every form, develop a consistent button style system with defined variations for primary, secondary, and tertiary actions. This systematic approach creates visual consistency across your site and makes it easier to implement new forms quickly. Document your button system with examples and implementation instructions for future reference.
Conclusion
Adding multiple classes to Contact Form 7 submit buttons opens up extensive styling possibilities that help integrate your forms seamlessly into your WordPress site’s design. Whether you choose the multiple class: declaration method or the quoted space-separated approach, both techniques provide reliable ways to apply CSS classes that enable custom styling or leverage popular CSS frameworks. The key to success lies in understanding the syntax options, choosing an approach that matches your workflow and requirements, and following best practices for maintainable, accessible form styling. By combining proper class implementation with thoughtful CSS, you can create submit buttons that not only look professional but also provide clear visual feedback and enhance the overall user experience.
Remember that effective form styling goes beyond aesthetics and plays a crucial role in conversion rates and user satisfaction. Well-designed submit buttons that clearly indicate their purpose, provide appropriate hover and focus states, and maintain consistency with your site’s overall design help users complete forms with confidence. Whether you’re building a simple contact form or a complex multi-step submission process, the techniques covered in this guide give you the foundation for creating polished, professional forms that serve both your design goals and your users’ needs. Take time to experiment with different class combinations, test your implementations thoroughly across browsers and devices, and iterate on your designs based on user feedback and analytics data.
As you continue developing your WordPress sites and working with Contact Form 7, the ability to efficiently add and manage multiple CSS classes will become second nature. This skill transfers beyond just submit buttons, as similar techniques apply to other Contact Form 7 elements and WordPress development in general. Keep learning, stay current with web design best practices, and don’t hesitate to explore advanced CSS techniques that can elevate your forms from functional to exceptional. With the knowledge gained from this comprehensive guide, you’re now equipped to create beautifully styled, highly functional contact forms that enhance your WordPress site’s professional appearance and user experience.
