IE7 not recognizing attribiutes

HTML & CSS
1

FF does recognize the link/css overall – but IE7, wants to inherit the page link instead, and won’t see certain attributes. Didn’t do a complete run but its mostly here.

What could be the cause of this?

.surround {
position: relative;
background:#fff;
float:left;
border: 1px solid #333;
width: 200px;
color:#999; 
margin: 5px 0 5px 5px;
}

#niche {
color:#333; 
font-size: 0.95em; /* IE7 DOES recognize*/
font-style:italics; /* IE7 not recognizing*/
font-weight: 500;
font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
margin: 10px 0px 8px 10px; 
}
#niche a:link {
color:#FF0000;  /* IE7 not recognizing*/
text-decoration: none;  /* IE7 not recognizing*/
font-size: 0.95em;  /* IE7 not recognizing*/
font-style:none; /* IE7 not recognizing*/
font-weight: 500;   
}

#niche a:hover {
color:#0000FF; /* IE7 DOES recognize*/
text-decoration: underline; /* IE7 DOES recognize*/
}

Then on the page as:

<div class="surround">
<div id="niche">
<h3>Special Pieces:</h3>
<br>
<a href="pagedothtm">First Link</a><br>
Text example number one.<br>
<br>
<a href="pagedothtm">Second Link</a><br>
Text example number two.<br>
</div>
</div>
2

The code above looks the same to me in Fierfox and IE7 but you have only styled the link state so what is the code for the visited state as the link may have been seen before?

a:link only styles the link state and not the visited state.

3

Paul,

See what you mean. Guess I became lost in the habit of having other prior link sets inherit in a way that wasn’t noticed.