What does important mean in CSS

Question

What does  important mean in CSS   Is it available in CSS 2  CSS 3   Where is it supported  All modern browsers

User · Answer

It changes the rules for override priority of css cascades   See the CSS2 spec

User · Answer

It is used to influence sorting in the CSS cascade when sorting by origin is done  It has nothing to do with specificity like stated here in other answers   Here is the priority from lowest to highest    browser styles user style sheet declarations  without  important  author style sheet declarations  without  important   important author style sheets  important user style sheets   After that specificity takes place for the rules still having a finger in the pie   References     http   www w3 org TR CSS2 cascade html cascade https   russmaxdesign github io maxdesign-slides 02-css 207-css-cascade html

User · Answer

It means  essentially  what it says  that  this is important  ignore subsequent rules  and any usual specificity issues  apply this rule    In normal use a rule defined in an external stylesheet is overruled by a style defined in the head of the document  which  in turn  is overruled by an in-line style within the element itself  assuming equal specificity of the selectors   Defining a rule with the  important  attribute      discards the normal concerns as regards the  later  rule overriding the  earlier  ones   Also  ordinarily  a more specific rule will override a less-specific rule  So     a          css        Is normally overruled by   body div  elementID ul li a          css        As the latter selector is more specific  and it doesn t  normally  matter where the more-specific selector is found  in the head or the external stylesheet  it will still override the less-specific selector  in-line style attributes will always override the  more-   or the  less-   specific selector as it s always more specific   If  however  you add  important to the less-specific selector s CSS declaration  it will have priority   Using  important has its purposes  though I struggle to think of them   but it s much like using a nuclear explosion to stop the foxes killing your chickens  yes  the foxes will be killed  but so will the chickens  And the neighbourhood   It also makes debugging your CSS a nightmare  from personal  empirical  experience

User · Answer

The  important rule is a way to make your CSS cascade but also have the rules you feel are most crucial always be applied  A rule that has the  important property will always be applied no matter where that rule appears in the CSS document   So  if you have the following   class      color  red  important     outerClass  class      color  blue     the rule with the important will be the one applied  not counting specificity  I believe  important appeared in CSS1 so every browser supports it  IE4 to IE6 with a partial implementation  IE7  full  Also  it s something that you don t want to use pretty often  because if you re working with other people you can override other properties

User · Answer

important is a part of CSS1   Browsers supporting it  IE5 5   Firefox 1   Safari 3   Chrome 1    It means  something like   Use me  if there is nothing important else around   Cant say it better

[css] What does !important mean in CSS?

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