Hi dougtop-ss,
Welcome to the MSDN forum.
Refer to your description, your issue is about the ASP.NET development. Since our forum is to discuss the VS IDE, please redirect to this appropriate forum:
https://forums.asp.net/130.aspx/1?HTML+CSS+and+JavaScript and start a new thread
to seek for a more professional support, please check this similar issue:
Compressing CSS file
BTW, you can have a look at the following resources:
How to compress CSS/JavaScript before publish/package
Using Microsoft AJAX Minifier with Visual Studio 2010 1-click
publish
Best regards,
Sara
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