CSS programming style - universal selector

[JGH]

Okay, CSS isn't a programming language, but you get the idea... Today I was getting acquainted with the universal selector (*) in CSS, and was wondering what is approrpiate use/good programming style with this all powerful selector?

For instance, most of my sites use the same font-family for all elements (maybe one or two exceptions), and I could either set in the stylesheets something like:

BODY, TH, INPUT, etc. etc. { font-family:verdana }

or I could just do:

* { font-family:verdana }

and take a nap.

Any reason, stylistically, intuitively, or otherwise, why I shouldn't?

Thanks - Jim

 

[Foamcow]

So long as you accept that EVERYTHING on your page will now use verdana.

You may find that some older browsers don't like the selector, but if they show up, it probably won't be enough of a blip to warrant being described as a problem.

Foamcow Heavy Industries - Web design and ranting
Buy Languedoc wines in the UK

 

[manarth]

When paired with the child selector, it's a useful CSS hack to hide things from IE:

[COLOR=red]*>[/color]foo {
  font-family: verdana;
}

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Marcus
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