The Style Inspector toolpane opens by default in the Web Page Editor. The purpose of the Style Inspector is to help you distinguish formatting from a style (applied or inherited) as opposed to direct formatting that is manually applied.

 

Note: As with other toolpanes, you can close the Style Inspector and open it with the Panes submenu.

 

When you select text or an object in a web page, the toolbars show directly applied formatting only. If you applied bold and italics to a word, the Bold and Italic icons appear selected, which means that you can remove the formatting by deselecting the icons. However, formatting attributes that are inherited from the application of a style or the browser do not appear selected in the toolbars. If bold and italics are applied by a text style, you cannot remove the formatting by clicking the icons to turn the attributes off. This behavior applies to all formatting controls on the toolbar.

 

Since attributes from a style do not appear in the toolbars, you do not know the source of the formatting that is used for the current selection or cursor position, nor how to remove or modify those attributes. The Style Inspector shows the attributes by source. Knowing the source of the formatting can help you determine if you want to keep the style settings, choose another style, clear the style, alter the style in the style sheet, or apply direct formatting to override the style.

 

Note: Colors appear in the Style Inspector with a color preview and their RGB values (black = 0,0,0 and so on).

 

The Style Inspector reports on the first character in a text selection. The toolpane is dynamic and the reported attributes change as you move the cursor or make another selection. The Style Inspector is read only; you cannot make changes to it.

 

The Style Inspector toolpane is divided into categories and includes links to open the style sheet and the controlling styles. Clicking the style sheet link opens the style sheet in the Style Editor, with the first style selected. Clicking the style name link in the Style Inspector opens the style sheet to the selected style. You can use these links to find styles and make instant changes. The Style Inspector categories include:

It is important to note that not all styles that control a selection appear in the Style Inspector. In the case of multiple layered styles or complex styles with many elements such as tables, you may need to use the element path to trace additional style attributes.

 

Note: The Style Inspector toolpane only functions in the Web Page Editor; it is inactive in the HTML package editor.


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