define mark up for generic sphinx admonitions with a specific title

Question

I am using Sphinx to generate HTML documentation for a Python program.

I would like to use the generic admonition directive (cf. http://docutils.sourceforge.net/docs/ref/rst/directives.html#generic-admonition) with a specific title and have it marked up in a way I can define, for example like content generated with the note directive, i.e., boxed, but with a different color (most admonitions are not specially styled, cf. http://sphinx.pocoo.org/rest.html?highlight=admonition).

How do I best go about this?

Answer 1

If I understood your question correctly, you'd like to apply a custon CSS style to the admonition. You can do this with a :class: attibute.

For example, the following

.. admonition:: my title goes here
   :class: myOwnStyle

   this is the admonition text

renders as

<div class="myownstyle admonition">
  <p class="first admonition-title">my title goes here</p>
  <p class="last">this is the admonition text</p>
</div>

You then add your own style sheet. For example, by a custom layout.html in the _templates directory in your source directory:

{% extends "!layout.html" %}
{% set css_files = css_files + ["_static/customstyle.css"] %}

Then you can play around with CSS styles in your style sheet using a selector for the myownstyle class

Answer 2

To add css files more easily, put them in the _static folder and then add this to conf.py:

def setup(app):
    app.add_stylesheet('custom.css')