Wrap the dropdown’s toggle (your button or link) and the dropdown menu within .dropdown, or another element that declares position: relative;. Dropdowns can be triggered from <a> or <button> elements to better fit your potential needs.

Any single .btn can be turned into a dropdown toggle with some markup changes. Here’s how you can put them to work with either <button> elements:

And with <a> elements:

The best part is you can do this with any button variant, too:

Similarly, create split button dropdowns with virtually the same markup as single button dropdowns, but with the addition of .dropdown-toggle-split for proper spacing around the dropdown caret.

We use this extra class to reduce the horizontal padding on either side of the caret by 25% and remove the margin-left that’s added for regular button dropdowns. Those extra changes keep the caret centered in the split button and provide a more appropriately sized hit area next to the main button.

Button dropdowns work with buttons of all sizes, including default and split dropdown buttons.

Trigger dropdown menus above elements by adding .dropup to the parent element.

Trigger dropdown menus at the right of the elements by adding .dropright to the parent element.

Trigger dropdown menus at the right of the elements by adding .dropleft to the parent element.

By default, a dropdown menu is automatically positioned 100% from the top and along the left side of its parent. Add .dropdown-menu-right to a .dropdown-menu to right align the dropdown menu.

Add a header to label sections of actions in any dropdown menu.

Use data-offset or data-reference to change the location of the dropdown.

Historically dropdown menu contents had to be links, but that’s no longer the case with v4. Now you can optionally use <button> elements in your dropdowns instead of just <a>s.

You can also create non-interactive dropdown items with .dropdown-item-text. Feel free to style further with custom CSS or text utilities.

Add .active to items in the dropdown to style them as active.

Add .disabled to items in the dropdown to style them as disabled.

Add a header to label sections of actions in any dropdown menu.

Separate groups of related menu items with a divider.

Place any freeform text within a dropdown menu with text and use spacing utilities. Note that you’ll likely need additional sizing styles to constrain the menu width.

Put a form within a dropdown menu, or make it into a dropdown menu, and use margin or padding utilities to give it the negative space you require.