title: Styles and themes on values, values-v11 and values-v14 folders
body: <p>I am currently working on my app to base its design on the Holo theme. Globally what I want to do is working but I am a little confused about the way that are working the folders <code>values</code>, <code>values-v11</code> and <code>values-v14</code>.</p>
  
  <p>So I know that:</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li><code>values</code> is targeting the API inferior to 11</li>
  <li><code>values-v11</code> is targeting the API between 11 and 13</li>
  <li><code>values-v14</code> is targeting the API superior to 13</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>At first I thought I had to specify for every folder all the styles needed for the app but then I realized a kind of inheritance system was in place.</p>
  
  <p>My problem is that I am really confused and don't understand clearly how is working this inheritance between these 3 folders.</p>
  
  <p>I did the following test in order to see the behavior on my phone (running on Android 4.0, so the folder <code>values-v14</code> should be the one loaded):</p>
  
  <p>In <code>values</code> I have a style to set in blue the text color:</p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;style name="TextMedium" parent="@android:style/TextAppearance.Medium"&gt;
      &lt;item name="android:textColor"&gt;@color/Blue&lt;/item&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p></p>
  
  <p>In <code>values-v11</code> I have a style to set in white the text color:</p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;style name="TextMedium" parent="@android:style/TextAppearance.Medium"&gt;
      &lt;item name="android:textColor"&gt;@color/White&lt;/item&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p></p>
  
  <p>In <code>values-v14</code> I have a style to set in red the text color:</p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;style name="TextMedium" parent="@android:style/TextAppearance.Medium"&gt;
      &lt;item name="android:textColor"&gt;@color/Red&lt;/item&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p></p>
  
  <p>For the first case above (every folder with a different color), the color loaded on my text is red, meaning the <code>values-v14</code> folder gets the priority.</p>
  
  <p>Then if I comment out the red style from the <code>values-v14</code> folder, the text becomes white. Does that mean that the system will take the style in the <code>values-v11</code> folder even if the device is targeting the <code>values-v14</code> folder? I thought it would maybe use the <code>values</code> folder by default but not <code>values-v11</code>.</p>
  
  <p>More generally, my question is, are these 3 folders working as parent and child? 
  Meaning that:</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>If the device is running on a API version > 13, the system will load <code>values-v14</code> then <code>values-v11</code> and finally <code>values</code>.</li>
  <li>If the device is running on a API between 11 and 13, the system will load <code>values-v11</code> and then <code>values</code>.</li>
  <li>If the device is running on a API version &lt; 11, the system will load only <code>values</code>.</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>If it is indeed the way it is working, does it make sense then to setup the maximum of styles in the parent folder <code>values</code> and add only specific ones in v11 or v14?</p>
  
  <p>Sorry for the long question, I hope it is clear, this themes/styles system is only described briefly in the Android guide and it is difficult to find information on how it works...</p>
  
  <p>Thanks for your help!</p>