Achieving arrow-like shapes in a banner in CSS - html

Question

I want to achieve the following shapes using pure CSS, no images.
I've come to the following point.
Here is the HTML structure:
<div class="sixteen columns">
<div id="applicationStatus">
<ul>
<li class="applicationStatus">Application Received</li>
<li class="applicationStatusGood">Language Exam</li>
<li class="applicationStatusNoGood">Oral Exam</li>
<li class="applicationStatus">Grant</li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
And here is the CSS:
#applicationStatus {
position: relative;
width: auto;
height: 140px;
left: 40px; }
ul.applicationStatus {
list-style: none; }
li.applicationStatus, li.applicationStatusGood, li.applicationStatusNoGood {
height: 140px;
background-color: #767676;
display: inline-block;
/* Dirty IE Hack */
zoom: 1;
*display: inline;
margin-right: 30px;
margin-left: 30px;
padding: 10px;
color: white;
font-size: 18px;
text-align: center;
line-height: 150px;
/* vertical-align: middle; */ }
li.applicationStatus:after, li.applicationStatusGood:after, li.applicationStatusNoGood:after {
content: "";
position: absolute;
width: 0;
height: 0;
border-top: 80px solid transparent;
border-left: 30px solid #767676;
border-bottom: 80px solid transparent;
margin: -10px 90px 0 10px; }
li.applicationStatus:before, li.applicationStatusGood:before, li.applicationStatusNoGood:before {
content: "";
position: absolute;
width: 0;
height: 0;
left: 0px;
border-top: 80px solid transparent;
border-left: 30px solid white;
border-bottom: 80px solid transparent;
margin: -10px 0px 0 0px; }
li.applicationStatus:first-child, li.applicationStatusGood:first-child, li.applicationStatusNoGood:first-child {
margin-left: 0px;
text-indent: 30px; }
li.applicationStatus:last-child, li.applicationStatusGood:last-child, li.applicationStatusNoGood:last-child {
border-top: 0px solid transparent;
border-left: 0px solid transparent;
border-bottom: 0px solid transparent; }
li.applicationStatusGood {
background-color: #77a942; }
li.applicationStatusGood:after {
border-left: 30px solid #77a942; }
li.applicationStatusNoGood {
background-color: #c42c00; }
li.applicationStatusNoGood:after {
border-left: 30px solid #c42c00; }
Why doesn't the :before selector apply to all of the shapes or all in all how can I achieve what I want?

Answer 1

Modification of Your Code
The main issue you faced was not having position: relative on your li elements. But there were other things that needed tweaking too.
Here is a fiddle example to see.
I added the class you failed to reference in your HTML above to the ul element, so here is the HTML:
<div class="sixteen columns">
<div id="applicationStatus">
<ul class="applicationStatus">
<li class="applicationStatus">Application Received</li>
<li class="applicationStatusGood">Language Exam</li>
<li class="applicationStatusNoGood">Oral Exam</li>
<li class="applicationStatus">Grant</li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
Then I modified your CSS a bit to condense it (could be more condensed if CSS3 only was being supported):
#applicationStatus {
position: relative;
width: auto;
height: 140px;
left: 40px; }
.applicationStatus li { /* Added this and moved much code to here */
position: relative; /* this was a key property missing from your code */
text-indent: 30px;
height: 140px;
background-color: #767676;
display: inline-block;
/* Dirty IE Hack */
zoom: 1;
*display: inline;
/* margin-right: 30px; Eliminated this */
margin-left: 30px;
padding: 10px 10px 10px 30px; /* tweaked this */
color: white;
font-size: 18px;
text-align: center;
line-height: 150px;
}
ul.applicationStatus { /* this was irrelevant with the HTML you gave, but I added the class to the ul */
list-style: none; }
/* tweaked various things below here */
li.applicationStatus:first-child:after, li.applicationStatusGood:after, li.applicationStatusNoGood:after {
content: "";
position: absolute;
width: 0;
height: 0;
border-top: 80px solid transparent;
border-left: 30px solid #767676;
border-bottom: 80px solid transparent;
margin: -10px 90px 0 10px;
}
li.applicationStatus:last-child:before, li.applicationStatusGood:before, li.applicationStatusNoGood:before {
content: "";
position: absolute;
width: 0;
height: 0;
left: 0;
border-top: 80px solid transparent;
border-left: 30px solid white;
border-bottom: 80px solid transparent;
margin: -10px 0px 0 0px;
}
li.applicationStatus:first-child {
padding-left: 10px;
margin-left: 0;
}
li.applicationStatus:last-child {
padding-right: 30px;
}
li.applicationStatusGood {
background-color: #77a942; }
li.applicationStatusGood:after {
border-left: 30px solid #77a942; }
li.applicationStatusNoGood {
background-color: #c42c00; }
li.applicationStatusNoGood:after {
border-left: 30px solid #c42c00; }

Answer 2

U can try this website.
http://cssarrowplease.com/
.arrow_box {
position: relative;
background: #88b7d5;
border: 8px solid #c2e1f5;
}
.arrow_box:after, .arrow_box:before {
left: 100%;
border: solid transparent;
content: " ";
height: 0;
width: 0;
position: absolute;
pointer-events: none;
}
.arrow_box:after {
border-color: rgba(136, 183, 213, 0);
border-left-color: #88b7d5;
border-width: 30px;
top: 50%;
margin-top: -30px;
}
.arrow_box:before {
border-color: rgba(194, 225, 245, 0);
border-left-color: #c2e1f5;
border-width: 41px;
top: 50%;
margin-top: -41px;
}