I'm fairly new to website design and one problem I have more than any other is discovering what controls what in my CSS.

Is there any tips or easy ways of discovering where I need to be looking in my CSS to fix certain issues?

I'm currently working on the layout of my forum and have discovered that this code controls the positioning and styling of the 'add a reply' and 'add new topic' text box

.ak_msgform_subject_right_td input, .ak_msgform_message_right_td textarea

I now have this where I want it, but if I delve deeper into the forum, and start quoting posts and replying to them, the text box is out of alignment. It's almost as though the text box is controlled by different classes on different pages of the forum. What I'm saying is that I can't figure out why this area is aligned as I want it on one page, but not others.

What I need therefore, is an easy way to discover - when I come across a problem - what that particular element is controlled by in the CSS, so that I know where to look.

I hope that was clear enough to understand.

install the web developer bar, Or Firebug (Or both) for firefox.

Don't know what either of them are, but I'll d/l them this minute. Thanks, chrishirst.