Macromedia dreamweaver 8-using dreamweaver User Manual

Using Cascading Style Sheets to format text

397

New CSS Rule

 opens a dialog box in which you can select the type of style you’re creating—

for example, to create a class style, redefine an HTML tag, or to define a CSS selector. For 
more information, see 

.

Edit Style 

opens a dialog box in which you can edit the styles in the current document or in 

an external style sheet. For information about updating a style sheet, see 

Delete CSS Rule

 removes the selected rule or property from the CSS Styles panel, and 

removes the formatting from any element to which it was applied. (It does not, however, 
remove references to that style). 

Related topics

■

■

■

Creating a new CSS rule

You can create a CSS rule to automate the formatting of HTML tags or a range of text 
identified by a 

class

 attribute.

To create a new CSS rule: 

1.

Place the insertion point in the document, and then do one of the following to open the 
New CSS Rule dialog box:

■

In the CSS Styles panel (Window > CSS Styles), click the New CSS Rule (+) button 
located in the lower-right side of the panel. 

■

Select Text > CSS Styles > New CSS Rule.

2.

Define the type of CSS style you want to create:

■

To create a custom style that can be applied as a 

class

 attribute to a range or block of 

text, select the Class option and then enter a name for the style in the Name text box. 

■

To redefine the default formatting of a specific HTML tag, select the Tag option and 
then enter an HTML tag in the Tag text box or select one from the pop-up menu. 

TI
P

Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Macintosh) the CSS Styles panel to open a 
context menu of options for working with CSS style sheet commands.

NOT

E

Class names must begin with a period and can contain any combination of letters 
and numbers (for example, .myhead1). If you don’t enter a beginning period, 
Dreamweaver automatically enters it for you.