Set a style for a tag:

p { font: 12pt/15pt Georgia, Times, serif }

makes all paragraphs like this by default.

ul { font: 10pt/12pt Trebuchet, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif ; list-style: disc inside ; text-indent: -1em }

• makes all unordered lists like this
  by default.

1. Other kinds of text
2. aren't affected.

i { font-style: italic }

is just insurance that when you apply an <i> tag it will show up as italic. But usually you don't need to worry. Just test every page on several browsers!

Create a style that can be applied to a tag:

p.snarky { font: italic small-caps 150% Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif ; color: #456 }

Can be applied to a paragraph to make it like this

• but it won't work on a list

td.red { background-color: #CC3333 }

Create a style that can be applied anywhere:

.standoffish { margin: 36px ; border: 1px solid #C33 ; color: #33C }

You can apply it to a paragraph

• or to an unordered list

1. or an ordered list

or a table...
<table width="216" border="1" class="standoffish">

<table width="216" class="standoffish">

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