Hi Bryan - I looked at the HTML values are obsolete link and tried to include the html within the 'style' function and it seemed to solve the format issues.
Notwithstanding - WordPress should have given some warning and/or advice that the 'html' formats were being altered to reflect the upgrades ... the linked page is some 2 years old and the formats I have been using have been obsolete all that time ...
Thanks for the comment - but it was the link on 'obsolete values' that tweaked and you should have know andgave me focus on that problem from the outset.
Appreciate the efforts ... Ian.