How to Create Smooth Scrolling using jQuery

We often use the # (hash) within the href attribute of HTML anchor tag to link to a particular section in a web page. For example, to scroll to the top of the current page you can use <a href="#top"> and <a href="#bottom"> to scroll to the bottom of the page. Clicking a link, with the # will instantly take you to a specified location on the page. I’ll show you how using jQuery, you can create a smooth scrolling effect.

Smooth scrolling using jQuery

The Markup and the Script

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/3.3.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
</head>

<body>
  <section id='top'>
    Header section
    
    <p>
      <a href='#bottom'>
        Click to scroll down
      </a>    
    </p>
  </section>
  <p>
    <img src='../../images/theme/easy-image-resizer.jpg' 
        style='width: 50%; margin: 200px 0 500px;'>
  </p>
    
  <section id='bottom'>
    This is the footer section.
    
    <p>
      <a href='#top'
        Click to scroll up
      </a>    
    </p>
  </section>
</body>

<script>
    $('a').click(function (e) {
        $('html, body').animate({
            scrollTop: $($(this).attr('href')).offset().top
        }, 1000);
    });
</script>
</html>

Try it

I have two sections in the above markup. One section is on the top for header and another section at the bottom for footer. Each section has a link or anchor tag with the hash value pointing to a section.

Clicking the links will scroll the page up and down. To give it a smooth scrolling effect, I have written a small jQuery script.

I am using jQuery .animate() method for a smooth scroll, with a duration of 1000 milliseconds or (1 second). You can change the delay to 2000 or more, depending upon your requirement.

👉 Here's another animation example in jQuery. I am sure you will like this.

Within the animate() method, I have added the scrollTop method. This method takes a parameter as position, to where it will scroll, vertically. The position is the anchor link’s location, which is extracted using the .offset() method.

scrollTop: $($(this).attr('href')).offset().top

Simplifying this further,

When you click the <a> tag, the scrollTop method is called with the anchor links (<a>) location and it animatedly or smoothly scroll to that location, taking a sweet time of 1000 milliseconds (instead of reaching the location instantly). Its that simple.

Note: Not just top and bottom, you can use the same method to scroll to any location of a web page. For example,

<script>
    $('a').click(function (e) {
        $('html, body').animate({
            scrollTop: $('#theBird').offset().top     // Use element id to get element's location.
        }, 1000);
    });
</script>

Try it

The location now, is extracted using the id of the element.

👉 How to show hide and animate controls (or elements) on a web page using jQuery .animate() method and CSS.

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