Getting started

Bootstrap has a few easy ways to quickly get started, each one appealing to a different skill level and use case. Read through to see what suits your particular needs.

NC State Bootstrap

The Bootstrap CSS and JavaScript code are hosted from a central NC State repository. Source code can be found on GitHub. Any issues or questions about the NC State flavor of Bootstrap can be submitted through GitHub or by emailing web_feedback@ncsu.edu.

<!-- Latest compiled and minified CSS -->
<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdn.ncsu.edu/brand-assets/bootstrap/css/bootstrap.min.css">

<!-- jQuery -->
<script src="//ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.0/jquery.min.js"></script>

<!-- Latest compiled and minified JavaScript -->
<script src="https://cdn.ncsu.edu/brand-assets/bootstrap/js/bootstrap.min.js"></script>

Start with this basic HTML template. We hope you'll use the many CSS styles and components within the NC State flavored Bootstrap to help you create an on-brand website.

Copy the HTML below to begin working with a minimal Bootstrap document.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
  <head>
    <meta charset="utf-8">
    <meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge">
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
    <title>Bootstrap 101 Template</title>

    <!-- Bootstrap -->
    <link href="https://cdn.ncsu.edu/brand-assets/bootstrap/css/bootstrap.min.css" rel="stylesheet">

    <!-- HTML5 Shim and Respond.js IE8 support of HTML5 elements and media queries -->
    <!-- WARNING: Respond.js doesn't work if you view the page via file:// -->
    <!--[if lt IE 9]>
      <script src="https://oss.maxcdn.com/libs/html5shiv/3.7.0/html5shiv.js"></script>
      <script src="https://oss.maxcdn.com/libs/respond.js/1.4.2/respond.min.js"></script>
    <![endif]-->
  </head>
  <body>
    <h1>Hello, world!</h1>

    <!-- jQuery (necessary for Bootstrap's JavaScript plugins) -->
    <script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.0/jquery.min.js"></script>
    <!-- Include all compiled plugins (below), or include individual files as needed -->
    <script src="https://cdn.ncsu.edu/brand-assets/bootstrap/js/bootstrap.min.js"></script>
  </body>
</html>

Stay up to date on the development of the NC State flavor of Bootstrap and reach out to the community with these helpful resources.

Read and subscribe to NC State Web Developers listserv.
Submit pull requests or track issues on the NC State Bootstrap GitHub repo.

You can also email web_feedback@ncsu.edu with any questions, bugs, or suggestions.

Bootstrap automatically adapts your pages for various screen sizes. Here's how to disable this feature so your page works like in this non-responsive example.

Steps to disable page responsiveness

Omit the viewport <meta> mentioned in the CSS docs
Override the width on the .container for each grid tier with a single width, for example width: 970px !important; Be sure that this comes after the default Bootstrap CSS. You can optionally avoid the !important with media queries or some selector-fu.
If using navbars, remove all navbar collapsing and expanding behavior.
For grid layouts, use .col-xs-* classes in addition to, or in place of, the medium/large ones. Don't worry, the extra-small device grid scales to all resolutions.

You'll still need Respond.js for IE8 (since our media queries are still there and need to be processed). This disables the "mobile site" aspects of Bootstrap.

Bootstrap template with responsiveness disabled

We've applied these steps to an example. Read its source code to see the specific changes implemented.

View non-responsive example

Migrating from v2.x to v3.x

Looking to migrate from an older version of Bootstrap to v3.x? Check out our migration guide.

Bootstrap is built to work best in the latest desktop and mobile browsers, meaning older browsers might display differently styled, though fully functional, renderings of certain components.

Supported browsers

Specifically, we support the latest versions of the following browsers and platforms:

	Chrome	Firefox	Internet Explorer	Opera	Safari
Android	Supported	Not Supported	N/A	Not Supported	N/A
iOS	Supported	N/A		Not Supported	Supported
Mac OS X	Supported	Supported		Supported	Supported
Windows	Supported	Supported	Supported	Supported	Not Supported

Unofficially, Bootstrap should look and behave well enough in Chromium and Chrome for Linux, Firefox for Linux, and Internet Explorer 7, though they are not officially supported.

Internet Explorer 8 and 9

Internet Explorer 8 and 9 are also supported, however, please be aware that some CSS3 properties and HTML5 elements are not fully supported by these browsers. In addition, Internet Explorer 8 requires the use of Respond.js to enable media query support.

Feature	Internet Explorer 8	Internet Explorer 9
`border-radius`	Not supported	Supported
`box-shadow`	Not supported	Supported
`transform`	Not supported	Supported, with `-ms` prefix
`transition`	Not supported
`placeholder`	Not supported

Visit Can I use... for details on browser support of CSS3 and HTML5 features.

Internet Explorer 8 and Respond.js

Beware of the following caveats when using Respond.js in your development and production environments for Internet Explorer 8.

Respond.js and cross-domain CSS

Using Respond.js with CSS hosted on a different (sub)domain (for example, on a CDN) requires some additional setup. See the Respond.js docs for details.

Respond.js and `file://`

Due to browser security rules, Respond.js doesn't work with pages viewed via the file:// protocol (like when opening a local HTML file). To test responsive features in IE8, view your pages over HTTP(S). See the Respond.js docs for details.

Respond.js and `@import`

Respond.js doesn't work with CSS that's referenced via @import. In particular, some Drupal configurations are known to use @import. See the Respond.js docs for details.

Internet Explorer 8 and box-sizing

IE8 does not fully support box-sizing: border-box; when combined with min-width, max-width, min-height, or max-height. For that reason, as of v3.0.1, we no longer use max-width on .containers.

IE Compatibility modes

Bootstrap is not supported in the old Internet Explorer compatibility modes. To be sure you're using the latest rendering mode for IE, consider including the appropriate <meta> tag in your pages:

<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge">

Confirm the document mode by opening the debugging tools: press F12 and check the "Document Mode".

This tag is included in all Bootstrap's documentation and examples to ensure the best rendering possible in each supported version of Internet Explorer.

See this StackOverflow question for more information.

Internet Explorer 10 in Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8

Internet Explorer 10 doesn't differentiate device width from viewport width, and thus doesn't properly apply the media queries in Bootstrap's CSS. Normally you'd just add a quick snippet of CSS to fix this:

@-ms-viewport       { width: device-width; }

However, this doesn't work for devices running Windows Phone 8 versions older than Update 3 (a.k.a. GDR3), as it causes such devices to show a mostly desktop view instead of narrow "phone" view. To address this, you'll need to include the following CSS and JavaScript to work around the bug.

@-webkit-viewport   { width: device-width; }
@-moz-viewport      { width: device-width; }
@-ms-viewport       { width: device-width; }
@-o-viewport        { width: device-width; }
@viewport           { width: device-width; }

if (navigator.userAgent.match(/IEMobile\/10\.0/)) {
  var msViewportStyle = document.createElement('style')
  msViewportStyle.appendChild(
    document.createTextNode(
      '@-ms-viewport{width:auto!important}'
    )
  )
  document.querySelector('head').appendChild(msViewportStyle)
}

For more information and usage guidelines, read Windows Phone 8 and Device-Width.

As a heads up, we include this in the Bootstrap docs as an example.

Safari percent rounding

As of Safari v6.1 for OS X and Safari for iOS v7.0.1, Safari's rendering engine has some trouble with the number of decimal places used in our .col-*-1 grid classes. So if you have 12 individual grid columns, you'll notice that they come up short compared to other rows of columns. We can't do much here (see #9282) but you do have some options:

Add .pull-right to your last grid column to get the hard-right alignment
Tweak your percentages manually to get the perfect rounding for Safari (more difficult than the first option)

We'll keep an eye on this though and update our code if we have an easy solution.

Modals, navbars, and virtual keyboards

Overflow and scrolling

Support for overflow: hidden on the <body> element is quite limited in iOS and Android. To that end, when you scroll past the top or bottom of a modal in either of those devices' browsers, the <body> content will begin to scroll.

Virtual keyboards

Also, note that if you're using inputs in your modal or navbar, iOS has a rendering bug that doesn't update the position of fixed elements when the virtual keyboard is triggered. A few workarounds for this include transforming your elements to position: absolute or invoking a timer on focus to try to correct the positioning manually. This is not handled by Bootstrap, so it is up to you to decide which solution is best for your application.

Navbar Dropdowns

The .dropdown-backdrop element isn't used on iOS in the nav because of the complexity of z-indexing. Thus, to close dropdowns in navbars, you must directly click the dropdown element (or any other element which will fire a click event in iOS).

Browser zooming

Page zooming inevitably presents rendering artifacts in some components, both in Bootstrap and the rest of the web. Depending on the issue, we may be able to fix it (search first and then open an issue if need be). However, we tend to ignore these as they often have no direct solution other than hacky workarounds.

Printer viewports

Even in some modern browsers, printing can be quirky. In particular, as of Chrome v32 and regardless of margin settings, Chrome uses a viewport width significantly narrower than the physical paper size when resolving media queries while printing a webpage. This can result in Bootstrap's extra-small grid being unexpectedly activated when printing. See #12078 for some details. Suggested workarounds:

Embrace the extra-small grid and make sure your page looks acceptable under it.
Customize the values of the @screen-* Less variables so that your printer paper is considered larger than extra-small.
Add custom media queries to change the grid size breakpoints for print media only.

Android stock browser

Out of the box, Android 4.1 (and even some newer releases apparently) ship with the Browser app as the default web browser of choice (as opposed to Chrome). Unfortunately, the Browser app has lots of bugs and inconsistencies with CSS in general.

Select menus

On <select> elements, the Android stock browser will not display the side controls if there is a border-radius and/or border applied. Use the snippet of code below to remove the offending CSS and render the <select> as an unstyled element on the Android stock browser. The user agent sniffing avoids interference with Chrome, Safari, and Mozilla browsers.

<script>
var nua = navigator.userAgent;
var isAndroid = (nua.indexOf('Mozilla/5.0') > -1 && nua.indexOf('Android ') > -1 && nua.indexOf('AppleWebKit') > -1 && nua.indexOf('Chrome') === -1);
if (isAndroid) {
  $('select.form-control').removeClass('form-control').css('width', '100%');
}
</script>

Want to see an example? Check out this JS Bin demo.

While we don't officially support any third party plugins or add-ons, we do offer some useful advice to help avoid potential issues in your projects.

Box-sizing

Some third party software, including Google Maps and Google Custom Search Engine, conflict with Bootstrap due to * { box-sizing: border-box; }, a rule which makes it so padding does not affect the final computed width of an element. Learn more about box model and sizing at CSS Tricks.

Depending on the context, you may override as-needed (Option 1) or reset the box-sizing for entire regions (Option 2).

/* Box-sizing resets
 *
 * Reset individual elements or override regions to avoid conflicts due to
 * global box model settings of Bootstrap. Two options, individual overrides and
 * region resets, are available as plain CSS and uncompiled Less formats.
 */

/* Option 1A: Override a single element's box model via CSS */
.element {
  -webkit-box-sizing: content-box;
     -moz-box-sizing: content-box;
          box-sizing: content-box;
}

/* Option 1B: Override a single element's box model by using a Bootstrap Less mixin */
.element {
  .box-sizing(content-box);
}

/* Option 2A: Reset an entire region via CSS */
.reset-box-sizing,
.reset-box-sizing *,
.reset-box-sizing *:before,
.reset-box-sizing *:after {
  -webkit-box-sizing: content-box;
     -moz-box-sizing: content-box;
          box-sizing: content-box;
}

/* Option 2B: Reset an entire region with a custom Less mixin */
.reset-box-sizing {
  &,
  *,
  *:before,
  *:after {
    .box-sizing(content-box);
  }
}
.element {
  .reset-box-sizing();
}

Bootstrap follows common web standards and can help create sites that are accessible to those using AT.

Web pages and applications must be designed to accessibility standards. Bootstrap can assist you in meeting some of those needs automatically; however, additional manual work may be necessary. To check your site for accessibility you can submit it to the NC State Accessibility Scan, or you can refer to the Accessibility Handbook for tutorials on accessible Web design.

For questions, please contact accessibility@ncsu.edu.

Bootstrap is released under the MIT license and is copyright 2017 Twitter. The NC State flavor of Bootstrap is created and maintained by NC State University Communications. Boiled down to smaller chunks, it can be described with the following conditions.

It requires you to:

Include the license and copyright notice in your works

It permits you to:

Freely download and use Bootstrap, in whole or in part, for personal, private, company internal, or commercial purposes
Use Bootstrap in packages or distributions that you create
Modify the source code
Grant a sublicense to modify and distribute Bootstrap to third parties not included in the license

It forbids you to:

Hold the authors and license owners liable for damages as Bootstrap is provided without warranty
Hold the creators or copyright holders of Bootstrap liable
Redistribute any piece of Bootstrap without proper attribution
Use any marks owned by Twitter in any way that might state or imply that Twitter endorses your distribution
Use any marks owned by Twitter in any way that might state or imply that you created the Twitter software in question

It does not require you to:

Include the source of Bootstrap itself, or of any modifications you may have made to it, in any redistribution you may assemble that includes it
Submit changes that you make to Bootstrap back to the Bootstrap project (though such feedback is encouraged)

The full Bootstrap license is located in the project repository for more information.

Bootstrap at NC State

NC State Bootstrap

Basic template

Community

Disabling responsiveness

Steps to disable page responsiveness

Bootstrap template with responsiveness disabled

Migrating from v2.x to v3.x

Browser and device support

Supported browsers

Internet Explorer 8 and 9

Internet Explorer 8 and Respond.js

Respond.js and cross-domain CSS

Respond.js and `file://`

Respond.js and `@import`

Internet Explorer 8 and box-sizing

IE Compatibility modes

Internet Explorer 10 in Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8

Safari percent rounding

Modals, navbars, and virtual keyboards

Overflow and scrolling

Virtual keyboards

Navbar Dropdowns

Browser zooming

Printer viewports

Android stock browser

Select menus

Third party support

Box-sizing

Accessibility

License FAQs

It requires you to:

It permits you to:

It forbids you to:

It does not require you to:

Getting started

Bootstrap at NC State

NC State Bootstrap

Basic template

Community

Disabling responsiveness

Steps to disable page responsiveness

Bootstrap template with responsiveness disabled

Migrating from v2.x to v3.x

Browser and device support

Supported browsers

Internet Explorer 8 and 9

Internet Explorer 8 and Respond.js

Respond.js and cross-domain CSS

Respond.js and file://

Respond.js and @import

Internet Explorer 8 and box-sizing

IE Compatibility modes

Internet Explorer 10 in Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8

Safari percent rounding

Modals, navbars, and virtual keyboards

Overflow and scrolling

Virtual keyboards

Navbar Dropdowns

Browser zooming

Printer viewports

Android stock browser

Select menus

Third party support

Box-sizing

Accessibility

License FAQs

It requires you to:

It permits you to:

It forbids you to:

It does not require you to:

Respond.js and `file://`

Respond.js and `@import`