CSS - Extending class properties

Question

I'm pretty new to CSS and have been finding my way around so far. I am creating these button like links with shadows and stuff. Now there are several such buttons required on the site - everything about the buttons is same - except few properties change like width and font size.

Now instead of copying the same code - over and over for each button - is there a way of extending the button and adding just the properties that change.

Example of two buttons - css

.ask-button-display {
background: #8BAF3B;
border-radius: 4px;
display: block;
letter-spacing: 0.5px;
position: relative;
border-color: #293829;
border-width: 2px 1px;
border-style: solid;
text-align:center;
color: #FFF;
width:350px;
font-size: 20px;
font-weight: bold;
padding:10px;
}


.ask-button-submit {
background: #8BAF3B;
border-radius: 4px;
display: block;
letter-spacing: 0.5px;
position: relative;
border-color: #293829;
border-width: 2px 1px;
border-style: solid;
text-align:center;
color: #FFF;
font-weight: bold;
width:75px;
font-size: 12px;
padding: 1px;
}

And this is how I'm currently using it in my html

<a href="/" id="ask-question-link" class="ask-button-display">Ask a Question</a> <a href="/" class="ask-button-submit" id="ask-button-submit">Submit</a>

So I'm wondering if there is a cleaner way to do this - like

.button {
/* PUT ALL THE COMMON PROPERTIES HERE */
}

AND THEN SOMEHOW EXTEND IT LIKE
.button #display {
/* THE DIFFERENT PROPERTIES OF Display BUTTON */
}

.button #ask {
/* THE DIFFERENT PROPERTIES OF Ask BUTTON */
}

But I'm not sure how to do this. Thanks for your inputs

Answer 1

You can add multiple classes to one element, so have one .button class which covers everything, then a .button-submit class, which adds things in.

For example:

.button {
    padding: 10px;
    margin: 10px;
    background-color: red;
}

.button-submit {
    background-color: green;
}​

See a live jsFiddle here

In your case, the following should work:

.button {
    background: #8BAF3B;
    border-radius: 4px;
    display: block;
    letter-spacing: 0.5px;
    position: relative;
    border-color: #293829;
    border-width: 2px 1px;
    border-style: solid;
    text-align:center;
    color: #FFF;
    width:350px;
    font-size: 20px;
    font-weight: bold;
    padding:10px;
}


.button-submit {
    width:75px;
    font-size: 12px;
    padding: 1px;
}​

See a live jsFiddle here