just to report back, still working with the stock style sheet...did find a mod for IE problems that works when I start with zeroing out everything by setting global variables to none or zero. I think a lot of newzenners get distracted with the input button not obeying styles and i think the answers they get assume that the stock buttons styles sheet does not fulfill their needs. Not sure why the input button needs another class attached in html_output.php, but that is all that worked for me.

after a weeks adventure in button land....whew! I guess the zenteam did it right with just leaning how to work the style sheet for individual buttons styling and using background images for the roll over.

"chadderuski's" post above to his site was very helpful in getting my style sheet back under control.

Gotta love zencart....never knew I could be so tenacious about anything.