How can I disable link color change on ONE LINK?

Question

I have a button where I want the text font color red, but it remains gray because it has been clicked before. How can I disable the link color change for this link?

index.html.erb

<button class="button"><%= link_to 'New Value', new_value_path %></button>

values.css.scss

.button {
    padding: 10px 15px;
    background: #4479BA;
    color: #FF0000;
}

scaffolds.css.scss

body {
  background-color: #fff;
  color: #333;
  font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;
  font-size: 13px;
  line-height: 18px;
}

p, ol, ul, td {
  font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;
  font-size: 13px;
  line-height: 18px;
}

pre {
  background-color: #eee;
  padding: 10px;
  font-size: 11px;
}

a {
  color: #000;
  &:visited {
    color: #666;
  }
  &:hover {
    color: #fff;
    background-color: #000;
  }
}

div {
  &.field, &.actions {
    margin-bottom: 10px;
  }
}

#notice {
  color: green;
}

.field_with_errors {
  padding: 2px;
  background-color: red;
  display: table;
}

#error_explanation {
  width: 450px;
  border: 2px solid red;
  padding: 7px;
  padding-bottom: 0;
  margin-bottom: 20px;
  background-color: #f0f0f0;
  h2 {
    text-align: left;
    font-weight: bold;
    padding: 5px 5px 5px 15px;
    font-size: 12px;
    margin: -7px;
    margin-bottom: 0px;
    background-color: #c00;
    color: #fff;
  }
  ul li {
    font-size: 12px;
    list-style: square;
  }
}

Answer 1

That's invalid HTML - anchor can't be inside of a button.

Your best option is to style the anchor to look like a button:

.btn {
  background: #3498db;
  background-image: -webkit-linear-gradient(top, #3498db, #2980b9);
  background-image: -moz-linear-gradient(top, #3498db, #2980b9);
  background-image: -ms-linear-gradient(top, #3498db, #2980b9);
  background-image: -o-linear-gradient(top, #3498db, #2980b9);
  background-image: linear-gradient(to bottom, #3498db, #2980b9);
  -webkit-border-radius: 28;
  -moz-border-radius: 28;
  border-radius: 28px;
  font-family: Arial;
  color: #ffffff;
  font-size: 20px;
  padding: 10px 20px 10px 20px;
  text-decoration: none;
}

.btn:hover {
  background: #3cb0fd;
  background-image: -webkit-linear-gradient(top, #3cb0fd, #3498db);
  background-image: -moz-linear-gradient(top, #3cb0fd, #3498db);
  background-image: -ms-linear-gradient(top, #3cb0fd, #3498db);
  background-image: -o-linear-gradient(top, #3cb0fd, #3498db);
  background-image: linear-gradient(to bottom, #3cb0fd, #3498db);
  text-decoration: none;
}

.btn:active{
  color:red;
}

<a href="" class="btn">I'm a button</a>

Used the styles from css3buttongenerator, and added the .btn:active to add some styles when the anchor is clicked and holded like that (notice the color:red).

Or to make the button to acts like the anchor - How to create an HTML button that acts like a link?

Update

To use it with rails link_to helper, use it like:

<%= link_to "I'm a button", new_value_path, class: 'btn' %>