What is the best way to track down the source of a CSS rule?

A website built on .asp was passed down to me, and I was tasked with reorganizing forms in tables to the sidebar. Most pages were successfully updated, except for one stubborn page that seems to be ignoring my CSS changes and using values from an unknown source.

Despite my efforts to debug in Firefox/Chrome and add rules directly to the page, I can't seem to fix the issue. Is there a tool available to pinpoint the origin of these conflicting styles? While I am proficient in CSS, this particular problem has me stumped. I'd prefer not to use JavaScript as a workaround, as I view this as an underlying problem.

Is there a method to track down the source of a specific CSS rule?

Answer №1

Using Chrome's web inspector:

To troubleshoot, right click on the element that is causing issues and choose "inspect element."

This will open up the web inspector window, with the left side showing the HTML node tree and the right side displaying the styles and properties of the selected node. The problematic element should already be highlighted.

Next, expand the "Computed Style" tab to identify the problematic style.

When you find the problematic style, there will be a small triangle next to it that is clickable. Clicking on it will reveal a list of selectors that are affecting this style for the element, along with the URLs of the CSS files associated with each selector.

Answer №2

Highlighted by austin and Waterlink, the Computed styles tab displays the currently applied styles and their sources.

Another helpful tab is the Styles tab. By right clicking on an element and selecting "inspect," you can view a list of all applied CSS rules as they were originally written in the source code.

You can also identify which CSS rules have been overridden. A rule in your source code might be overwritten by a user-defined style, an inline style, or a CSS rule with higher specificity.

The formatting indicates the status of a style:

  • normal text = active
  • strike through = inactive due to being overwritten by another style
  • greyed out = identifier not applied. (For example, when inspecting the style of a <p> element and the CSS identifier is p, span, the span identifier would appear greyed out)

For example:

In the image, the color property of #post a is inactive as it has been overridden by the color property in #cashieCatalog.

Answer №3

When using Firebug's HTML tab, a panel will appear on the right side containing tabs labeled Style, Computed, Layout, and DOM. By selecting Computed, you will be able to view the current style applied to the page.

Expanding a rule node will reveal a link on the right side indicating the source of the style sheet it is derived from, as well as any stylesheet rules that are being overridden.

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