1. A method for automatically generating style sheet formatting in a web development environment, the method comprising: detecting selection of content within a web page while the web page is edited in a web development environment; responsive to input received by the web development environment, automatically capturing one or more stylistic changes to said selected content; responsive to capturing the one or more stylistic changes, automatically accessing a style data structure, the style data structure defined in a style sheet included in the web page or in a separate style sheet file referenced by the web page, wherein the style data structure comprises a plurality of style sheet rules and wherein each rule is applicable to one or more elements in the web page to control an appearance of the one or more elements; automatically searching the style data structure for a style sheet rule defining a style having attributes that match said one or more stylistic changes to said selected content; and if a style sheet rule in said style sheet data structure matching said one or more stylistic changes is discovered, automatically applying the discovered style sheet rule to said content by modifying markup defining a structural element of said web page corresponding to said content; otherwise automatically generating one or more style sheet rules for each of said one or more stylistic changes associated with said selection and updating the style sheet to include the generated one or more style sheet rules; and automatically applying the one or more generated style sheet rules to said content by modifying markup defining a structural element of said web page corresponding to said content.