Title: CSS precedence
Last modified: August 18, 2016

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# CSS precedence

 *  [kalico](https://wordpress.org/support/users/kalico/)
 * (@kalico)
 * [19 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/css-precedence/)
 * I’ve been all over the codex and the web, and haven’t found the key to this. 
   Maybe I just don’t know how to word it in a search, to find the answers.
 * I have all my links looking how I want them with CSS. But when I have a `<h3>`
   that is also a link, things get ugly. Instead of being the normal size h3 font,
   it’s small like my other `<a>` tags.
 * The only fix I’ve found is to remove all the size attributes from my `<a>` tags,
   but then they are bigger than all the rest of the text on the page. If I put 
   all my links in a class, I have to do a huge re-coding project. Not sure I want
   to take that on, but if I have to… 😐
 * Any thoughts?

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

 *  [maerk](https://wordpress.org/support/users/maerk/)
 * (@maerk)
 * [19 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/css-precedence/#post-410380)
 * How are you using the CSS?
 * Are you putting it in a `style` attribute directly on the `a` elements, or are
   you specifying it in an external stylesheet?
 * Because any CSS set in `style` attributes will completely override everything,
   it has the highest precedence.
 * It would be better to put something like the following in your stylesheet:
 * `h3 a:link { color: blue; }
    h3 a:visited { color: purple; } h3 a:hover { color:
   orange; } h3 a:active { color: red; }
 * Obviously, you can set the CSS rules to whatever you want.
 *  [yosemite](https://wordpress.org/support/users/yosemite/)
 * (@yosemite)
 * [19 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/css-precedence/#post-410384)
 * Inheritance is what your after, I think. Hypothetical: Duplicate your css  selector/
   properties but add an H3 to the ‘qualifier’. Example:
    `a{color:#909D73;font-
   size:1em;text-decoration:none;}` and `h3{font-size:1.75em;text-decoration:none;}``
   h3 a{color:#909D73;text-decoration:none;}.`
 * This making any sense?
 *  Thread Starter [kalico](https://wordpress.org/support/users/kalico/)
 * (@kalico)
 * [19 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/css-precedence/#post-410483)
 * Thanks to both of you!
 * I am using an external style sheet, but the h3 and a are in conflict. The a is(
   or was…) overriding the h3 properties.
 * I think I’ve got the “inheritance” working quite nicely for this particular case.
   It’s also great to know that the inline style will override everything — just
   in case I get desperate. 🙂
 *  [moshu](https://wordpress.org/support/users/moshu/)
 * (@moshu)
 * [19 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/css-precedence/#post-410488)
 * The order:
    external stylesheet stylesheet in the head inline style
 * The one coming later always overrides the previous one 🙂

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

The topic ‘CSS precedence’ is closed to new replies.

## Tags

 * [precedence](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/precedence/)

 * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/)
 * 4 replies
 * 4 participants
 * Last reply from: [moshu](https://wordpress.org/support/users/moshu/)
 * Last activity: [19 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/css-precedence/#post-410488)
 * Status: not resolved

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