HTML Multiple Style Attributes: A Quick Guide

Applying multiple style attributes directly within an HTML element's style attribute is a good way to customize your web content's appearance. This method allows for immediate, inline styling of elements.

This post covers how to use them and what their pros/cons are.

How to apply multiple style attributes?

To apply multiple styles to an HTML element, place the style attribute in the element's opening tag. Format each style declaration with a property followed by a colon and its value, separating each declaration with a semicolon:

<div style="color: blue; background-color: yellow; border: 1px solid black;">
  This div directly showcases multiple styles.
</div>

This example demonstrates applying text color, background color, and border to a div element using inline CSS. This approach is especially useful for quickly adding styles without modifying other elements or creating additional CSS files.

Best practices for using multiple style attributes

Though convenient for small-scale projects or demonstrations, external stylesheets are preferable for more extensive projects because of their scalability and ease of maintenance. Applying styles directly to HTML elements, while efficient, can complicate style management and override processes in more complex applications.

When using inline styles, it's importantl to:

• Maintain readability by spacing out declarations properly.
• Reserve inline styles for scenarios where external CSS files or internal styles are impractical.
• Prioritize code maintainability, considering future work by yourself or others, and potential project growth.

Inline styles serve as a quick styling method, but leveraging external stylesheets or <style> tags within HTML documents generally offers better manageability and scalability for your styles.