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I was screwing around doing some brain storming on an idea for one of my web pages when I accidently hit save. That wouldn't be an issue except it saved the changes I made to my style.css as well! Now all my text is the wrong size and is drifting in some spots. I have the original style.css file I saved like a month ago, however I've made too many changes since then to implement it. I was looking for away to take the current style.css file I have now and the old style.css and see all the entries that have changed, like debug them. There's so many lines I'd hate to go line by line, I'm using Dreamweaver CS4, however if there is another bit of software that can help me compare the two files and see the differences between the two that would be awesome! Any ideas?

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Dani AI

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As confirmed, a side‑by‑side file comparison is the quickest way to spot what changed. After identifying diffs, focus first on rules that commonly alter typography and flow: global selectors (html, body, *), base font-size/line-height, box-sizing, presence or removal of a reset/normalize, added !important flags, unit changes (px ⇄ em/rem), and any misplaced closing brace that can cascade errors.

Practical checklist to isolate the break:

  • Grep/search both files for font-size, line-height, box-sizing, !important, body, html, and common layout properties (margin, padding, display, position).
  • Verify CSS load order in the HTML: framework CSS must load before custom overrides. Framework version mismatches can change class behavior.
  • If diffs are large, revert or comment blocks incrementally until layout returns to expected state, then reintroduce changes piece by piece.

Useful workflows and commands:

  • Use an editor or diff tool that supports syntax highlighting and inline merging. Many editors can run a side‑by‑side diff from the command line:

    code --diff old-style.css new-style.css

  • For a reproducible workflow, put the files under Git and use git diff to view precise changes and roll back if needed. See Git documentation.

When the diff points to a suspect rule, use the browser developer tools to confirm which rule wins: inspect an element, open the Styles/Computed pane, toggle rules off, and note the file/line marker. MDN has a concise guide to developer tools at MDN Web Docs. Finally, adopt version control or automated backups to avoid similar emergencies in the future.

Member Avatar for disposable_zero

YES!! Success! AWESOME program called WinMerge just saved my life! I could see how it would be an invaluable coding tool. And it's open source, even better, check it out.

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