

The “closer” the style is to the element, the higher precedence it has. One way to think about it is like layers. It works kind of counter-intuitively, so just to explain further: inline styles override internal CSS, and internal CSS overrides external CSS files, and external CSS files override browser defaults. Inline Styles (styles directly applied to elements).External CSS Files (Linked or Internal CSS (in the ).But what if we have multiple documents, or styles placed in an external document and styles in the header of the HTML file? The Cascading Order helps us determine how styles will be overridden depending on their location.

To override a previously declared style, we simply have to declare it farther down in the document. It sounds more complicated than it actually is, but essentially the Cascading Order has to do with how styles are overridden depending on their placement. The first thing we need to take into account, however, is the Cascading Order. Cascading orderĬSS Specificity allows us to determine which style selectors in our CSS take precedence. CSS Specificity helps us determine how styles interact with other conflicting styles.

It leads to confusion, messy and unorganized CSS, and a lot of hacks and convoluted CSS selectors. I think other than poor organization, a lot of the frustration has to do with not knowing how styles override other styles.
