Scroll to a specific Element Using html

Is there a method in html which makes the webpage scroll to a specific Element using HTML !?

Yes you use this

<a href="#google"></a>

<div id="google"></div>

But this does not create a smooth scroll just so you know.

You can also add in your CSS

html {
  scroll-behavior: smooth;
}

<!-- HTML -->
<a href="#google"></a>
<div id="google"></div>

/*CSS*/
html { scroll-behavior: smooth; } 

Additionally, you can add html { scroll-behavior: smooth; } to your CSS to create a smooth scroll.

You should mention whether you want it to smoothly scroll or simply jump to an element. Jumping is easy & can be done just with HTML or Javascript. The simplest is to use anchor's. The limitation is that every element you want to scroll to has to have an id. A side effect is that #theID will be appended to the URL

<a href="#scroll">Go to Title</a>
<div>
  <h1 id="scroll">Title</h1>
</div>

You can add CSS effects to the target when the link is clicked with the CSS :target selector.

---

With some basic JS you can do more, namely the method scrollIntoView(). Your elements don't need an id, though it is still easier, e.g.

function onLinkClick() {
  document.getElementsByTagName('h2')[3].scrollIntoView();
  // will scroll to 4th h3 element
}

---

Finally, if you need smooth scrolling, you should have a look at JS Smooth Scroll or this snippet for jQuery. (NB: there are probably many more).

Year 2020. Now we have element.scrollIntoView() method to scroll to specific element.

HTML

<div id="my_element">
</div>

JS

var my_element = document.getElementById("my_element");

my_element.scrollIntoView({
  behavior: "smooth",
  block: "start",
  inline: "nearest"
});

Good thing is we can initiate this from any onclick/event and need not be limited to tag.

If you use Jquery you can add this to your javascript:

$('.smooth-goto').on('click', function() {  
	$('html, body').animate({scrollTop: $(this.hash).offset().top - 50}, 1000);
	return false;
});

Also, don't forget to add this class to your a tag too like this:

<a href="#id-of-element" class="smooth-goto">Text</a>

Here is a pure HTML and CSS method :)

html {
  scroll-behavior: smooth;
  /*Adds smooth scrolling instead of snapping to element*/
}

#element {
  height: 100px;
  width: 100%;
  background-color: red;

  scroll-margin-block-start: 110px;
  /*Adds margin to the top of the viewport*/
  
  scroll-margin-block-end: 110pxx;
  /*Adds margin to the bottom of the viewport*/
}

#otherElement {
  padding-top: 500px;
  width: 100%;
}

<a href="#element">Link</a>

<div id="otherElement">Content</a>

<div id="element">
  Where you want to scroll
</div>

<div id="otherElement">Content</a>

 <nav>
      <a href="#section1">1</a> 
      <a href="#section2">2</a> 
      <a href="#section3">3</a>
    </nav>
    <section id="section1">1</section>
    <section id="section2" class="fifty">2</section>
    <section id="section3">3</section>
    
    <style>
      * {padding: 0; margin: 0;}
      nav {
        background: black;
        position: fixed;
      }
      a {
        color: #fff;
        display: inline-block;
        padding: 0 1em;
        height: 50px;
      }
      section {
        background: red;
        height: 100vh;
        text-align: center;
        font-size: 5em;
      }
      html {
        scroll-behavior: smooth;
      }
      #section1{
        background-color:green;
      }
      #section3{
        background-color:yellow;
      }
      
    </style>
    
    <script src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-latest.min.js"></script>
    <script type="text/javascript" >
      $(document).on('click', 'a[href^="#"]', function (event) {
        event.preventDefault();
    
        $('html, body').animate({
            scrollTop: $($.attr(this, 'href')).offset().top
        }, 500);
      });
    </script>
      

I got it working by doing this, consider that top-page is the element that you want to scroll to:

document.getElementById("top-page").scrollTo({ behavior: "smooth", top: 0 });

Yes, you may use an anchor by specifying the id attribute of an element and then linking to it with a hash.

For example (taken from the W3 specification):

You may read more about this in <A href="#section2">Section Two</A>.
...later in the document
<H2 id="section2">Section Two</H2>
...later in the document
<P>Please refer to <A href="#section2">Section Two</A> above
for more details.

By using an href attribute inside an anchor tag you can scroll the page to a specific element using a # in front of the elements id name.

Also, here is some jQuery/JS that will accomplish putting variables into a div.

<html>
<body>

Click <a href="#myContent">here</a> to scroll to the myContent section.

<div id="myContent">
...
</div>

<script>
    var myClassName = "foo";

    $(function() {
        $("#myContent").addClass(myClassName);
    });
</script>

</body>

The above answers are good and correct. However, the code may not give the expected results. Allow me to add something to explain why this is very important.

It is true that adding the scroll-behavior: smooth to the html element allows smooth scrolling for the whole page. However not all web browsers support smooth scrolling using HTML.

So if you want to create a website accessible to all user, regardless of their web browsers, it is highly recommended to use JavaScript or a JavaScript library such as jQuery, to create a solution that will work for all browsers.

Otherwise, some users may not enjoy the smooth scrolling of your website / platform.

I can give a simpler example on how it can be applicable.

<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/3.3.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<script>
$(document).ready(function(){
// Add smooth scrolling to all links
$("a").on('click', function(event) {
// Make sure this.hash has a value before overriding default behavior
if (this.hash !== "") {
// Prevent default anchor click behavior
event.preventDefault();
// Store hash
var hash = this.hash;
// Using jQuery's animate() method to add smooth page scroll
// The optional number (800) specifies the number of milliseconds it takes to scroll to the specified area
$('html, body').animate({
scrollTop: $(hash).offset().top
}, 800, function(){
// Add hash (#) to URL when done scrolling (default click behavior)
window.location.hash = hash;
});
} // End if
});
});
</script>

<style>
#section1 {
height: 600px;
background-color: pink;
}
#section2 {
height: 600px;
background-color: yellow;
}
</style>

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Smooth Scroll</h1>
<div class="main" id="section1">
<h2>Section 1</h2>
<p>Click on the link to see the "smooth" scrolling effect.</p>
<a href="#section2">Click Me to Smooth Scroll to Section 2 Below</a>
<p>Note: Remove the scroll-behavior property to remove smooth scrolling.</p>
</div>
<div class="main" id="section2">
<h2>Section 2</h2>
<a href="#section1">Click Me to Smooth Scroll to Section 1 Above</a>
</div>
</body>
</html>

Should you want to resort to using a plug-in, malihu-custom-scrollbar-plugin, could do the job. It performs an actual scroll, not just a jump. You can even specify the speed/momentum of scroll. It also lets you set up a menu (list of links to scroll to), which have their CSS changed based on whether the anchors-to-scroll-to are in viewport, and other useful features.

There are demo on the author's site and let our company site serve as a real-world example too.