Overcoming CSS Overriding in Chrome Developer Tools

When you encounter overridden CSS rules while using Chrome's Developer Tools, you may wonder how to identify the overriding rule. Fortunately, Chrome provides a convenient solution.

Finding the Overriding Rule

In the element inspector, navigate to the Computed Style panel. Select the property you're interested in and expand it. Here, you'll find a list of applicable rules, with the winning rule at the top.

The winning rule is determined by the following factors:

• Specificity: Rules with higher specificity take precedence.
• Order: Later rules override earlier ones.
• Importance: "!important" rules override ordinary rules.

Example

If you want to inspect the overridden background color of an element, expand the "background-color" property in the Computed Style panel. Chrome will display the following information:

• The winning rule (e.g., "body")
• The source of the rule (e.g., "stylesheet.css")
• The line number of the rule in the source file

This allows you to pinpoint the exact location of the overriding rule and easily resolve CSS conflicts.