In Firebug and most built-in browser developer tools, you simply right-click the part of the page you want to modify and choose something like “Inspect.” That will reveal the code at and around the element you want to modify, then just start modifying the code until you see the desired result (the modifications are rendered live in the browser).
Though Firebug doesn’t have an official documentation on using the inspector, there are a number of tutorials: http://getfirebug.com/wiki/index.php/Firebug_Links
Here’s some info on using the inspector in Firefox’s developer tools: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Tools/Page_Inspector/UI_Tour
And, Chrome’s developer tools: https://developer.chrome.com/devtools/docs/elements-styles
Thx for your response. I get the fundamentals of firebug. I have successfully used it quite a few times to modify my websites. The issue I sometimes have is, sometimes I don’t see the css that I need to modify for certain things that I inspect. I wanted to hide my navigation tab for my thank you page. I inspected the tab, went to the css side to adjust to see live changes; but no changes happen. Plus the css code that I received from support doesn’t match the code that i see in firebug. That was the main thing that confuses me. The css code that I received actually worked and removed my nav tabs. I am just curious to understand why i don’t see that same css code when i inspect on firebug.
Finding the right element to target and right code to use is a lot of trial and error, there’s no right way to use it.
Generally, right-click the element you want to target, then try elements above and below until you find the right one to adjust.
Personally, I like dropping in something like this on each one until I hit the right one:
display: none !important;
No matter what, adding that to an element will hide it completely, so it’s an easy way to be sure whether or not your targeting the right element in the first place.
Once you’re targeting the right element, it’s just adjusting the CSS as desired until you get the right effect.
There’s a lot of “trial and error” and “learn by doing” in there, but to answer your original question, most folks usually don’t know the right thing immediately when inspecting with browser tools, and if they do, that’s mostly luck. 😉
Have fun with it, experiment. The constant little tweaking is one of the best parts of owning a site.
