HTML/CSS - give li class

Answer 1

We are talking just CSS right?

Something like this?

ul.portfolioCategs li a.cat3:hover {background-color: #660099; }
ul.portfolioCategs li a.cat13:hover {background-color: #CC3300; }
ul.portfolioCategs li a.cat14:hover {background-color: #FF6600; }
ul.portfolioCategs li a.cat17:hover {background-color: #FF6666; }
ul.portfolioCategs li a.cat19:hover {background-color: #FF6699; }
ul.portfolioCategs li a.cat20:hover {background-color: #FF66CC; }
ul.portfolioCategs li a.cat21:hover {background-color: #FF66FF; }

Just remove the :hover if you want a constant background.

Make sure the link tag has the corresponding category.

<a class="cat13" href="http://www.some-things.net/?cat=13"&gt;Fashion&lt;/a&gt;

PS. dont' tag this as PHP and Wordpress when it's only CSS and HTML :)