I am a CSS newbie. Is there a tool that can help debug CSS styles applied to a web page.
How does one generally debug CSS and resolve issues when some elements on the page are not appearing as they should? For now, I have to painfully comment out CSS declarations one by one to understand how the styles are getting displayed.
You can use the Firebug plugin for Firefox. It is very useful for CSS. You can dynamically switch on and off styles and fields from styles. It is great.
Web developer tools like Safari’s Web Inspector or Firebug for Firefox can help you to debug your CSS. Those tools can show you the rule cascade applied to a specific element and allow you to change or disable particular properties.
If you're not using Firefox you can now get Firebug Lite which you can use in IE etc.
For Firefox there is a plug in module called Firebug. It is easy to install and very powerful. It is even better when combined with 'Web Developer' for Firefox.
Internet Explorer has a Developer Toolbar, which is not as good as Firebug but good enough to check things still work in IE. Additionally there is a tool called IE DOM inspector you could check out. There is also a version of Firebug for IE caled Firebug Lite.
Google Chrome comes with built in tools similar to Firebug. See the 'tools->developer' option in the pull down menu to the right of the address bar. This allows you to see the css rules used by each element. It also has Javascript debugging support.
Safari uses a tool called Web Inspector.
Opera has a built in utility called Dragonfly.
Regards
Use Firefox to develop and test your CSS first, then switch to other browsers to test your code. This is a generally accepted method IMHO. Firebug is great, but it works even better if you combine it with Web Developer plug in for FF.
There is a great site, worth checking out, with lots of info about CSS and HTML development.
When you need to debug IE - specific problems. I've heard people telling IE DOM inspector is not too bad. You can also try tools described in this post.