Title: Weird behavior: user-defined CSS vs. style.css
Last modified: August 31, 2016
---
# Weird behavior: user-defined CSS vs. style.css
* Resolved [loft75](https://wordpress.org/support/users/loft75/)
* (@loft75)
* [10 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/weird-behavior-user-defined-css-vs-stylecss/)
* Hi Folks, I noticed a very strange behaviour when figuring out the appearance
of my website.
* I wanted to set border color for my posts and articles to #5F5F5F, so I edited
the style.css of the child theme of my parabola (I use several style modifications
in the style.css of my child theme and they work fine). So I inserted the following
code into style.css:
* ```
post, div.page, div.hentry, .sidey .widget-container, #comments, .commentlist .comment-body, article.post, article.page, article.hentry, #nav-below, .page-header, .yoyo > li {
border-color: #5F5F5F;
}
```
* It didn’t work, the border-color was ignored and I deleted it. Then I put the
same code into the “Custom CSS”-Section of the Parabola settings -> NOW IT WORKED!
* So, how can it be? What is the difference between the Custom CSS-section and
editing the style.css? My website is [Loft 75](http://www.loft75.de).
* Many thanks to anyone who can help me understanding this…
Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)
* [paulwpxp](https://wordpress.org/support/users/paulwp/)
* (@paulwp)
* [10 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/weird-behavior-user-defined-css-vs-stylecss/#post-7220012)
* View source and take a look at the HTML ``
* ```
```
* It loads main theme styleseet 2 times, with child theme style in the middle.
That explains your question why CSS works in Custom CSS plugin but not in child
theme stylesheet.
* Another thing, the `post` should be `.post` (with dot)
* Thread Starter [loft75](https://wordpress.org/support/users/loft75/)
* (@loft75)
* [10 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/weird-behavior-user-defined-css-vs-stylecss/#post-7220051)
* Thanks for your analysis, it explains the behaviour. I don’t know about style.
css-versions, what is it? Where do the version numbers come from? And…how do
I fix that?
* [paulwpxp](https://wordpress.org/support/users/paulwp/)
* (@paulwp)
* [10 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/weird-behavior-user-defined-css-vs-stylecss/#post-7220057)
* After a closer look I was wrong. I mean yes there is double loading issue but
it doesn’t account for problem posted here because it loads parent style first
and then child theme style 2 times, so changes in child theme stylesheet should
override parent’s.
* The version number is a parameter in `wp_enqueue_style()`. I think it’s default
to WP’s version if none given.
[https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/wp_enqueue_style/](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/wp_enqueue_style/)
* Look inside your child theme `functions.php`, and make sure it only enqueue child
theme stylesheet once.
* Thread Starter [loft75](https://wordpress.org/support/users/loft75/)
* (@loft75)
* [10 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/weird-behavior-user-defined-css-vs-stylecss/#post-7220067)
* This is my child theme’s functions.php, I have no idea if anything goes wrong
here:
* ```
add_action( 'wp_enqueue_scripts', 'theme_enqueue_styles' );
function theme_enqueue_styles() {
wp_enqueue_style( 'parent-style', get_template_directory_uri() . '/style.css' );
wp_enqueue_style( 'child-style',
get_stylesheet_directory_uri() . '/style.css',
array('parent-style')
);
}
```
* I’ve made the child theme with the “One-click Child Theme”-Plugin, because it
was convenient for me 😉 At the moment, I have only a style.css and a functions.
php in my child theme.
* So, what should I do? In fact, 3 stylesheets are loaded: the parent’s, the child’s
and the extra-css from the parabola settings. I can’t understand why the lines
from my first post are loaded when present in parabola-css, but not in child-
css. Theoretically it should do the same, no matter where I place the lines.
* [paulwpxp](https://wordpress.org/support/users/paulwp/)
* (@paulwp)
* [10 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/weird-behavior-user-defined-css-vs-stylecss/#post-7220139)
* I found the problem, it’s because parent themes already enqueued its own stylesheet(
we see this one coming in the version number 1.6.1 which is parent theme’s version),
as shown at #Line15
[https://themes.trac.wordpress.org/browser/parabola/1.6.1/includes/theme-styles.php#L15](https://themes.trac.wordpress.org/browser/parabola/1.6.1/includes/theme-styles.php#L15)
* So in your child theme function, this line is not necessary, just remove it
* ```
wp_enqueue_style( 'parent-style', get_template_directory_uri() . '/style.css' );
```
* Change this line
* ```
wp_enqueue_style( 'child-style',
get_stylesheet_directory_uri() . '/style.css',
array('parent-style')
```
* To this
* ```
wp_enqueue_style( 'child-style',
get_stylesheet_directory_uri() . '/style.css',
array('parabola-style')
```
* So we use the same parameter `parabola-style` as dependency. What should happen
now is that WP will load the dependency (parent theme stylesheet that registered
as `parabola-style`) first and then your child stylesheet.
* Thread Starter [loft75](https://wordpress.org/support/users/loft75/)
* (@loft75)
* [10 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/weird-behavior-user-defined-css-vs-stylecss/#post-7220170)
* I modified the style.css as you recommended, but after that it didn’t load the
style elements properly, so my site was completely messed up.
* In fact, I do not really need a child theme, because I only modify some style
elements. This can also be done with the “extra css”-option in Parabola (that
is not affected from theme updates), so I decided to switch back to the parent
theme and do all the things I want in the extra css-section.
* A look into page sourcecode showed that only one style.css is loaded – as it
should be. All styling works perfect now.
* Anyway, many thanks for your help and effort 🙂
* [paulwpxp](https://wordpress.org/support/users/paulwp/)
* (@paulwp)
* [10 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/weird-behavior-user-defined-css-vs-stylecss/#post-7220176)
* Thank you for letting me know the problem. Now I figure out why it didn’t work,
look at Line#15 again, it uses **get_stylesheet_uri()** meaning the main theme
will load child theme stylesheet automatically when there is child theme in use.
* So in our child theme functions.php should look like this
* ```
add_action( 'wp_enqueue_scripts', 'my_theme_enqueue_styles' );
function my_theme_enqueue_styles() {
wp_enqueue_style( 'parent-style', get_template_directory_uri() . '/style.css' );
}
```
* I installed the theme in my local development and tested it out, now both stylesheets
from parent and child load properly in order
* ```
```
Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)
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* 7 replies
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* Last reply from: [paulwpxp](https://wordpress.org/support/users/paulwp/)
* Last activity: [10 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/weird-behavior-user-defined-css-vs-stylecss/#post-7220176)
* Status: resolved