# Askbot Project Documentation

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# Customizing style.css file in Askbot

File style.css is produced by the lesscss compiler - `lessc`. Secondly, style.css is used in production mode - with an entry ASKBOT_CSS_DEVEL = True in the settings.py file. When ASKBOT_CSS_DEVEL setting is absent or set to `False`, the source style.less will be loaded and compiled by the browser. A side-effect of that is a possible momentary flash of unstyled content and some delay in the page load.

ASKBOT_CSS_DEVEL = True is a convenient setting for the designer.

Please find documentation about the lesscss format elsewhere.

Note

Besides the “official” lesscss compiler, there are other tools that convert .less files into .css: for example a less compiler from codekit (mac) and a portable SimpLESS compiler.

## Compiling lesscss files

The following command will compile the lesscss source file, an option -x will produce compressed css file:

> lessc file.lesscss -x > file.css

## Installing lesscss

Make sure you have recent version of node.js - latest version preferred. More recent versions of node come with the tool called npm, for earlier versions `npm` will need to be installed manually.

To install lesscss, type:

> sudo npm install less