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How Can You Combine Multiple CSS Properties in One HTML Element?

Published in CSS Styling 4 mins read

You can apply multiple CSS properties to a single HTML element using various methods, primarily through stylesheets or inline styles.

Combining multiple CSS properties for an element is a fundamental aspect of web development, allowing you to control its appearance comprehensively. Whether you want to set its color, font, size, borders, or layout, these are all done by applying multiple style declarations.

Here are the main ways to combine multiple CSS properties on a single HTML element:

1. Using Inline Styles

You can apply multiple CSS properties directly within the HTML element's opening tag using the style attribute. Each property and its value are listed, separated by a semicolon ;.

Structure:

<element style="property1: value1; property2: value2; property3: value3;">
  Content
</element>

Example:

<p style="color: blue; font-size: 16px; border: 1px solid black;">
  This text has multiple inline styles.
</p>
  • Pros: Quick for applying unique styles to a single element.
  • Cons: Makes HTML less readable, difficult to manage and update styles across a website, violates the separation of concerns (structure vs. presentation).

2. Using CSS Rule Sets in Stylesheets

The most common and recommended method is to define CSS rule sets in <style> tags within the HTML <head> (internal stylesheet) or, preferably, in external .css files (external stylesheet). A rule set targets an element (or a group of elements) using a selector and lists multiple properties within curly braces {}.

Structure (within <style> tags or a .css file):

selector {
  property1: value1;
  property2: value2;
  property3: value3;
}

Example:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>Multiple CSS Properties</title>
<style>
  .my-box {
    width: 200px;
    height: 100px;
    background-color: lightgray;
    padding: 20px;
    margin-top: 10px;
  }
</style>
</head>
<body>

<div class="my-box">
  This div has multiple properties defined in a CSS rule.
</div>

</body>
</html>
  • Pros: Centralizes styles, easy to manage and update, promotes reusability, better separation of concerns.
  • Cons: Styles are applied based on selectors, which can sometimes become complex.

3. Combining Multiple CSS Classes

A very flexible and powerful way to apply a combination of styles to an element is by assigning multiple CSS classes to its class attribute. Each class typically defines a set of related properties (e.g., a button's base style, a color theme, a size). By applying multiple classes, you combine these sets of properties.

As stated in the reference, the class attribute in HTML can reference multiple CSS classes separated by a space (e.g., <a class="btn btn-default">).

Example:

Suppose you have these CSS classes defined:

/* styles.css */
.text-center {
  text-align: center;
}

.text-bold {
  font-weight: bold;
}

.text-large {
  font-size: 24px;
}

.text-blue {
  color: blue;
}

You can apply all these styles to a single element by listing the class names in the class attribute, separated by spaces:

<p class="text-center text-bold text-large text-blue">
  This text is centered, bold, large, and blue.
</p>
Class Name Property & Value
text-center text-align: center;
text-bold font-weight: bold;
text-large font-size: 24px;
text-blue color: blue;

By using <p class="text-center text-bold text-large text-blue">, you effectively apply all these individual properties to the <p> element.

  • Pros: Highly modular and reusable. You can mix and match classes to create variations of elements (like different button styles).
  • Cons: Can lead to many small, utility-like classes, sometimes referred to as "utility-first" CSS, which might make the HTML verbose for complex elements.

Dynamic Classes:

The reference also mentions that if the CSS classes on some element depend on the viewmodel properties, you can use value binding expressions to calculate the class attribute value. This is common in front-end frameworks (like Angular, React, Vue) where you can dynamically add or remove class names based on the state of your application, further enhancing the ability to combine styles conditionally.

Summary

In essence, you combine multiple CSS properties for an element by listing them within a single style declaration block, whether that block is:

  • Directly in the element's style attribute (inline).
  • Within a CSS rule set defined for that element (using a selector in internal or external stylesheets).
  • By applying multiple classes to the element, where each class contributes a set of properties defined in CSS rules.

Combining properties within a single rule set or by using multiple classes are the standard and most maintainable approaches.

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