Inline style to act as :hover in CSS

I'm afraid it can't be done, the pseudo-class selectors can't be set in-line, you'll have to do it on the page or on a stylesheet.

I should mention that technically you should be able to do it according to the CSS spec, but most browsers don't support it

Edit: I just did a quick test with this:

<a href="test.html" style="{color: blue; background: white} 
            :visited {color: green}
            :hover {background: yellow}
            :visited:hover {color: purple}">Test</a>

And it doesn't work in IE7, IE8 beta 2, Firefox or Chrome. Can anyone else test in any other browsers?

If you are only debugging, you might use javascript to modify the css:

<a onmouseover="this.style.textDecoration='underline';" 
    onmouseout="this.style.textDecoration='none';">bar</a>

A simple solution:

<a href="#" onmouseover="this.style.color='orange';" onmouseout="this.style.color='';">My Link</a>

Or

<script>
 /** Change the style **/
 function overStyle(object){
    object.style.color = 'orange';
    // Change some other properties ...
 }

 /** Restores the style **/
 function outStyle(object){
    object.style.color = 'orange';
    // Restore the rest ...
 }
</script>

<a href="#" onmouseover="overStyle(this)" onmouseout="outStyle(this)">My Link</a>