Active menu items

I am trying to get my menu item to stay active when i am on a certain pages of my site but still have the hover effect when looking at other menu items.

i have the a:active set but it doesnt do anything.....for instance all my menu items are red....when i am on services page i want all to be red but services which will be grey...

is this possible

 

:active refers to an active state, i.e. when the [enter] key is hit or a mouse button is down.

Make a ruleset for, let's say, #this-page, then on each page, give the menu link to that page the id, this-page.

#this-page a {
   blah blah blah
   }

#this-page a:hover {
   blah blah blah
   }
=======
<ul>
  <li><a href="">home</a></li>
  <li id="this-page"><a href="">about</a></li>
  <li><a href="">contact</a></li>
</ul>

Code (markup):

cheers,

gary