changes to one style are changing others

[ktbCA57]

so it seems that when i go in and create a class... get it set just how i want it, somehow, those attributes are forcing other items/elements on that page/topic to take on certain attributes I just set.

for example:

I have a:

plain paragraph class - no indent (9pt Verdana)
a h1 class - no indent (14 pt Verdana)
and I just created the following:

paragraph_indent with an indent of .5" from the left
a. tag : class as "popuplink_indent class that has an indent of .5" from the left
but once I applied any of the newly created stuff to certain items on a topic page, everything else on the page went cocky wobble... the h1 is now indented at .5", the first line of the plain paragraph is also indented .5".

HOWEVER, the first item of the popuplink_indent items is NOT indented!

I have now learned to open the stylesheet to check for certain things (as I had some weird numbering stuff get applied to erroneous other classes - not sure how)... but this time, I cant' figure it out.. i don't see any indent settings in the CSS when i open it... and even if i did, why is this stuff just getting arbitrarily changed on other classes??????

The stuff not only got changed on that one topic page, but on every other topic in the project. WHAT THE...?

I've attached a visual so you can see what's happening in the topic both in the editor and in the preview, and I've listed the code from the CSS below...

PLEASE.. anyone with any idea what is going on, please advise.. every time i think i'm getting the hang of this, something else goes wrong! I'm not changing anything using "local formatting".. i'm trying to do it all with Styles and Classes... i KNOW it's me.. but what am i doing wrong.... AAAGAAAIN?!

THANKS!!!!

--------------------------------
here are the codes from the CSS for each of the styles mentioned above:

h1
{
margin-bottom: .5em;
clear: both;
width: 85%;
font-size: 14pt;
color: #000000;
}
p.paragraph
{
font-size: 9pt;
font-family: Verdana;
margin: 0;
letter-spacing: 0px;
}

a.Popuplink_indent
{
text-indent: 0.5in;
}

[LTinker68]

On the h1 tag, lose the clear:both and the width:85% attributes. If the heading is going to be on its own line then there's no need to limit its width and therefore no reason to clear the text around it. If you don't want the h1 tag to go to the right margin, then specify a margin-right value.

The <a> tag is similar to the <img> tag in that it's not a container tag. It does contain text, but the tag can't stand alone -- it has to be inside another tag (p, td, div, blockquote, etc.). So if you want to have some hyperlinks indented, create a custom paragraph class, not a custom <a> class.

And there must be something on the base <p> tag that's causing the first line of the <p class="paragraph"> line to be indented, because there's nothing in the p.paragraph style that's causing it, so it must be inheriting it from the base <p> tag. Actually, it's probably coming from the body tag, because the h1 and "Global Search" text is being indented, too.

[mattbnh]

Hard to tell from just the picture

You mentioned:
"paragraph_indent with an indent of .5" from the left"

but that is not in the sample picture or .css code you posted.

is this a p.paragraph_indent class or something else like a span?

Maybe this style/span got applied to your paragraphs by mistake.

Another possibility is that you made the style selections in one medium (non-print) but you are viewing/building in another one (like 'print').

[ktbCA57]

OK Lisa.. you fixed me again...

but my question now is.. how did that stuff get suddenly changed.. what did i do when chaing the one paragraph to an indent that cause it to get changed in the "body" tag?

i KNOW it's a user issue.. but i can't figure how i keep affecting things other than the tag and class i'm changing... oy.

thanks for your help!

[LTinker68]

Unfortunately, you have to make sure you left-click on a tag in the Stylesheet Editor to select that tag before you can right-click on it and select Add Class. I've gotten burned on that a couple of times because normally right-clicking on something also selects it, but it doesn't work that way in the Stylesheet Editor. You may have had the body tag selected and tried to create the custom <p> class the same way I mentioned, didn't notice that it created a new body class or something and when you thought you were modifying the custom <p> class you were actually modifying the body tag. Or you had one tag selected with the editor set to the print medium and when you switched to default medium it was on a different tag and you didn't notice.

Unfortunately there are still some glitches in the Stylesheet Editor. I've gotten used to some of them, but to be honest, I open the stylesheet file in the Internal Text Editor quite often, so there may be some other behavioral changes that I haven't noticed just because I don't spend as much time in the Stylesheet Editor.

[NorthEast]

Have you tried setting cocky-wobble: none; ? :o)

[beagley]

Just popping in to second what Lisa says.

The Stylesheet Editor is a little tricky... anytime I make a change, I go back and click on the style and sub-class specifically before clicking to make the change.

I have accidentally changed the wrong item tons of times... this seems to happen a lot after I have saved my changes or left and returned to the window.

-d