To use styles to format a web page, a style sheet must be linked to the web page. A style sheet is linked to a web page either by having the Options dialog box automatically assign the default style sheet to new pages or by manually assigning a style sheet to a web page.

You can manually assign a style sheet to a web page from the Library, Web Page Editor, or Outline Editor. From the Outline Editor, you assign a style sheet to a web page by displaying the Concept properties in the Properties toolpane. See Style Sheet Property in the General Properties section of the View Document Properties chapter for information on assigning style sheets to web pages. See Assign a Style Sheet to a Document in the Create Styles to Format Content chapter for more information about assigning and removing style sheet assignments.

Note: You cannot use styles for HTML pages created in packages.

Styles are applied to web page elements either by default or by manual application. Default styles are automatically applied when you add the corresponding elements to the web page. You can manually apply a style to text or an element by selecting it from the Styles list. The styles that appear in the list are filtered to show only the styles that can be applied to the selection.

If you have created separate print styles, you can check the formatting for those styles by switching the Display list between Player and Print displays. In addition, you can check the formatting for language variations by changing the Language property of the web page.

The Web Page Editor contains two tools, the element path and the Style Inspector toolpane, to help you understand how styles are affecting the elements in a web page. The element path at the bottom of the web page shows the order of styles and style elements that produce the formatting for a selection. The element path is especially useful for compound elements such as tables, where there are multiple elements that can be individually formatted, and you are not sure which ones affect the format of a specific table element.

The Style Editor toolpane in the Web Page Editor helps you distinguish formatting from a style (applied or inherited) as opposed to direct formatting that is manually applied. While working in a web page, you can use the Style Inspector toolpane to open the assigned style sheet and select the style that is applied to the current web page element.

See Format Content with Styles in the Enhance Content with Web Paqes chapter for more information about using styles in web pages.

 Multi-user Considerations

• Before you can link a style sheet to a document, you must check out the document. If you are assigning a style sheet to multiple documents at the same time, all selected documents must be checked out.
   
  Styles sheets linked to content are excluded from the check in/check out process. You must manually check in or check out a style sheet to edit it.

Table of Contents  Back