[jQuery] Theming tabs

[jQuery] Theming tabs


I would like to tweak the look of my tabs. I looked at the theme roller,
but I don't think I understand it. I have to download and unzip an archive,
then install the theme somewhere in my app, every time I want to see how the
app looks in my page? There must be a better way. I just want to change
a couple of parameters.
I noticed in the tabs docs that I could override .ui-tabs, .ui-tabs-nav, and .ui-tabs-panel.
So I tried this in my style tag:
.ui-tabs {
background-color: #00FF00;
}
.ui-tabs-nav {
background-color: #0000FF;
}
.ui-tabs-panel {
background-color: #FF00FF;
}
The green showed up as a narrow band at the top
and bottom of the tabs. The blue showed up where
the actual named tabs go, but was instantly then completely
over-written by the tabs themselves. I didn't see any
purple.
Isn't there a better way to tweak the look of the tabs?
Also, are there default themes that I can select from
within my default distribution?
Thanks,
Tobiah