Title: Custom styles help
Last modified: August 21, 2016

---

# Custom styles help

 *  Resolved [Ian MacGregor](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ardchoille/)
 * (@ardchoille)
 * [12 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-styles-help/)
 * I hope this is in the right section. If not, please accept my apologies.
 * I tried adding a custom style to my style.css file but found that it doesn’t 
   span multiple paragraphs.
 * What I did:
    I added the following custom style to my style.css file:
 *     ```
       .tip {
           display: block;
           margin: 1em;
           padding: 4px 10px 4px 10px;
           background-color: #ebffeb;
           border: 1px solid #99cc66;
       }
       ```
   
 * Then I wrote a couple of paragraphs (using the Text tab in the editor) and enclosed
   them in this:
 *     ```
       <span class="tip">one paragraph here
   
       Another paragraph here</span>
       ```
   
 * This worked fine for a single paragraph but it only works for the first paragraph
   when doing this with multiple paragraphs. Looking at the page source it appears
   that WordPress has added a “p” tag around each paragraph and that is interferring
   with my span.
 * How can I fix this to work on multiple paragraphs without the apparent break 
   between paragraphs? I’ve likely made a noob mistake and would like to learn how
   to fix it.

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

 *  [Pioneer Web Design](https://wordpress.org/support/users/swansonphotos/)
 * (@swansonphotos)
 * [12 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-styles-help/#post-4370861)
 * For help with CSS issues, a link to your site is required. Without we cannot 
   test or troubleshoot the issue(s).
 * To discover what CSS is output by your theme, use a web inspection tool such 
   as Firebug: [http://getfirebug.com/](http://getfirebug.com/) , Chrome Inspect
   Element: [https://developers.google.com/chrome-developer-tools/](https://developers.google.com/chrome-developer-tools/)
   or Internet Explorer 9+ F12 Dev. Tools: [http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd565627(v=vs.85)](http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd565627(v=vs.85)).
   aspx#csstool
 * There are others.
 * When editing CSS, use a Child Theme
    [http://codex.wordpress.org/Child_Themes](http://codex.wordpress.org/Child_Themes)
   Custom CSS Plugin, or Theme provided custom CSS option. Edits to parent themes
   are lost on theme update.
 * Learn CSS: [http://www.w3schools.com/css/](http://www.w3schools.com/css/)
 * That all said, do this: create a test post and write only in the visual editor
   three paragraphs. Share a link to the post here. With that, be clear of what 
   you are trying to achieve.
 *  Thread Starter [Ian MacGregor](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ardchoille/)
 * (@ardchoille)
 * [12 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-styles-help/#post-4370877)
 * I wrote a post, as suggested, and it can be found [here](http://ianmacgregor.net/blog/custom-styles-test/).
 * As you can see, the built-in blockquote works, it spans multiple paragraphs, 
   but my tip style does not. How do I style multiple paragraphs with the tip style
   and have it work like the built-in blockquote style?
 *  Thread Starter [Ian MacGregor](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ardchoille/)
 * (@ardchoille)
 * [12 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-styles-help/#post-4370899)
 * Disregard, I found a nice plugin that does exactly what I was trying to do.

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

The topic ‘Custom styles help’ is closed to new replies.

 * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/)
 * 3 replies
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [Ian MacGregor](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ardchoille/)
 * Last activity: [12 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-styles-help/#post-4370899)
 * Status: resolved

## Topics

### Topics with no replies

### Non-support topics

### Resolved topics

### Unresolved topics

### All topics