Here's the Strange Thing

[dwag]

I've been here about this before and still can't slay it. I've got a script link in a master page. In the stylesheet, I set the link to be red. Then I manually applied the master page to a dozen or so topics. Half the links are purple(ish), and half are red. I swear.

I also seem to have acquired the habit of carrying around a palmful of marbles.

[LTinker68]

Purple is the standard color for visited links. Did you also set the visited style in the stylesheet, or did you just change the link style?

Also, what version of Flare are you running? In v4 MadCap inexplicably changed it so that the MadCap.css stylesheet was referenced in generated topics after the main topic stylesheet instead of before, so some styles in the main topic stylesheet were being overridden by the default styles specified in the MadCap.css stylesheet. They corrected that in v5 (or perhaps in one of the later versions of v4).

[dwag]

Running v5. Added dummy topic, applied master page with link, built, and link was the correct color. So perhaps moving forward the links will behave properly? Anyway, just to test further, went back to stylesheet, changed link and visited colors. The handful of random topics that were showing the visited color full time now are showing the new visited color full time, even if the link has not been clicked. I then recreated one of the topics that has the full-time visited color, deleted the old, reapplied the master page, and still, only the visited color shows. So I'm stuck with a handful of topics that refuse to show the correct link color. It has to be something silly, something staring me in the face.

[LTinker68]

Can you post the code for your link styles from the stylesheet, and in the order they appear in the stylesheet file? Also, the code from your masterpage where the link is called.

[dwag]

From stylesheet (hope it's enough):

a.FeedbackLink
mc-master-page: url('../MasterPages/HRNG_Feedback.flmsp');
a.FeedbackLink:link
color: #dc143c;
a.FeedbackLink:visited
color: #ffd700;
html.HRFeedback
mc-master-page: url('../MasterPages/HR_Feedback.flmsp');

From master page:

<p><span style="font-size: 9pt;"><a href="mailto:j.smith@company.com" target="_self" class="FeedbackLink"><span style="font-size: 8pt;"><script type="text/javascript">/*<![CDATA[*/var docfdbk_a="mail"
var docfdbk_b="to:"
var docfdbk_c="j.smith"
var docfdbk_d="@"
var docfdbk_e="company"
var docfdbk_f=".com"
var docfdbk_g="?subject="
document.write ("<a class='FeedbackLink' href='"+ docfdbk_a + docfdbk_b + docfdbk_c + docfdbk_d + docfdbk_e + docfdbk_f + docfdbk_g + document.title +"'>The link that is the wrong color in seemingly random topics.</a>");
/*]]>*/</script></span></a></span>
</p>
</body>
</html>

[LTinker68]

a.FeedbackLink
{
mc-master-page: url('../MasterPages/HRNG_Feedback.flmsp');
}

You can lose that block of code -- it's only the html tag that can have the mc-master-page reference on it, and you already have that specified later in the stylesheet. I don't see anything else wrong with the stylesheet code.

The only other thing I can think of is to compare the page code from a topic that works to the page code from a topic that doesn't work. Check especially the html tag to make sure they're both pointing to the same masterpage.

[dwag]

Hope you'll forgive me, but in combing quickly through the posted code to add generic data, mistakenly edited a mc-master page reference, so in reality, both references read the same (you've got quite the sharp eye, by the way); nevertheless, I'll remove the block of code you've isolated and see what happens.

You've been most helpful. If removing the code doesn't work, I'll compare the code of a bad page and a good page, and if anything turns up, I'll deliver the news.

Thanks, again.

[NorthEast]

I'm not surprised you're getting wierd results.
You have two hyperlinks, and have one nested inside the other - the first link (tags marked in red) is enclosing the second link (blue).

Thought I was getting deja vu here.... LTinker actually answered this same question before.
http://forums.madcapsoftware.com/viewto ... 836#p60833


<p><span style="font-size: 9pt;"><a href="mailto:j.smith@company.com" target="_self" class="FeedbackLink"><span style="font-size: 8pt;"><script type="text/javascript">/*<![CDATA[*/var docfdbk_a="mail"
var docfdbk_b="to:"
var docfdbk_c="j.smith"
var docfdbk_d="@"
var docfdbk_e="company"
var docfdbk_f=".com"
var docfdbk_g="?subject="
document.write ("<a class='FeedbackLink' href='"+ docfdbk_a + docfdbk_b + docfdbk_c + docfdbk_d + docfdbk_e + docfdbk_f + docfdbk_g + document.title +"'>The link that is the wrong color in seemingly random topics.</a>");

/*]]>*/</script></span></a></span>

[dwag]

Thanks for the color-coded help. Just the thing I needed but was too shy to ask. Removed the offending code and rebuilt but haven't noticed any difference. Think I'll just cut my losses with those previous topics and move on, hope for the best.

[LTinker68]

Make sure you delete the output folder before building -- your browser could be loading info from the cache with the old styles instead of picking up the change you made. Deleting the output folder then building tricks the browser (specifically, IE) into thinking it's going to a brand new site.