Change SharePoint Search Icon with Just CSS

I created a post awhile ago on how to change the SharePoint site logo via CSS so that you don’t have to modify the titlegraphic.gif file on the file server or change it via the UI for every site to make a global change.

I have a simple solution that changes the search GO icon from the standard to something more custom with just CSS.

The icon is not specified via the master page so you will not be able to change it there.

<asp:ContentPlaceHolder id="PlaceHolderSearchArea" runat="server">
        <SharePoint:DelegateControl runat="server" ControlId="SmallSearchInputBox" />
</asp:ContentPlaceHolder>

You might be tempted take the route of changing the following files on the server and replacing them with your own custom ones. But I have an alternative that works just as well and you don’t have to mess with any of these base Image files.

1. GOSEARCH.GIF
2. ICONGO01.GIF
3. ICONGO02.GIF
4. ICONGO03.GIF

Upload your custom images to a sub folder within the following directory: C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\12\TEMPLATE\IMAGES\YourCustomFolder

Then in your custom CSS simply place the following CSS:

td.ms-sbgo{
background-color:transparent;
padding-left:3px;
padding-right:3px;
padding-bottom:0px;
padding-top:0px;
border:solid 0px #949494;
}
td.ms-sbgo a{
padding: 0px 0px 0px 0px !important;
margin: 0px 0px 0px 0px !important;
}

td.ms-sbgo a{
background-image: url(/_layouts/images/yourcustomfolder/custom_search.gif);
background-repeat: no-repeat;
background-position: top left;
}
td.ms-sbgo a img{
    visibility: hidden;
    height: 17px;
    width: 17px;
}

You will simply just have to change the folder name, image name, and the height and width of the image to be specific to you and you should be good to go. The result should look something like this:

Happy Customizing!