CSS Forum

**jwriter** · 05-09-2008, 04:15 PM

Newbie question: I am trying to define the text inside a table. Using the body text definition below, the text in the table was partially correct but not completely. I then tried to define the text in the table object, but it doesn't work either. Can anybody help me write this correctly?

<style type="text/css">
body {
font-family: Helvetica, Geneva, Arial, SunSans-Regular, sans-serif;
font-size: 12px;
font-weight: normal;
color: #111133
}
table.a {
font-family: Helvetica, Geneva, Arial, SunSans-Regular, sans-serif;
font-size: 12px;
font-weight: normal;
color: #113311
}
</style>

...

<table class="a" width="300" etc.

...

**LadynRed** · 05-09-2008, 07:13 PM

The styling in the body will cascade to everything in it, so the styling on the table class, which only differs on color, is largely redundant. You could get by with this:

table.a{color: #113311;}

I would urge you to just forget the tables altogether unless you're using them for TABULAR DATA.

**jwriter** · 05-09-2008, 07:46 PM

Thanks LNR... I tried using just the body style and it did not cascade into the table (it did work in the rest of the body however). Maybe the problem is the table is nested inside a <form> </form> statement. If you want to see the complete html, it is at...
http://www.jwwriter.com/demo/login_c.html
I am just trying to control the font inside the table with CSS. Any help appreciated.

**LadynRed** · 05-10-2008, 07:57 PM

I put this into your styles and worked just fine - changed the color to green..

table {color: #1F5C20;}

Based on what little you have there, that should work, unless you've got something else that I'm not seeing.

**jwriter** · 05-11-2008, 01:24 AM

Hmmm, this is strange. I put a screen capture jpg on the page to show you how the fonts look on my system. The table text is definitely 2-3 times bigger than the rest of the body text...

http://www.jwwriter.com/demo/login_c.html

Are you seeing something different on your system? I would sure like to know why - it's a mystery. --jw

**LadynRed** · 05-11-2008, 12:42 PM

It might have something to do with your erroneous code:

Quote:

You have an opening and improperly written <font> tag (which you should NOT be using), get rid of it.

You have no DOCTYPE - you must have one if you want anything close to consistent cross-browser compatibility.

If you're going to use css, you won't need that deprecated <center> thing either, or all those <br>'s - -ALL of that can and should be done with CSS.

**jwriter** · 05-11-2008, 02:35 PM

Fantastic. Adding the DOCTYPE made the fonts cascade. I used...
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
For any other newbies out there, I found the list of doctypes at...
http://htmlhelp.com/tools/validator/doctype.html

There is one new problem, and that is my comments now appear on screen, but basically the problem is solved - thanks.