jquery from external file

[Kandice61]

I am a newbie to Jquery as will be evident.I have 2 scripts in an external file named scrip.js and it is included with a simple\[code\]<script src="http://stackoverflow.com/media/javascripts/scrips.js"></script>\[/code\]the two scripts in scrips.js are \[code\]function textCounter(field,cntfield,maxlimit) { if (field.value.length > maxlimit) // if too long...trim it! field.value = http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3723081/field.value.substring(0, maxlimit); // otherwise, update'characters left' counter else cntfield.value = http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3723081/maxlimit - field.value.length; }$(function() {$("button").click(function(){$("p").css("color","black"); });});\[/code\]The first script works fine. the second does not. The html for the second scrip looks like this, very simple:\[code\]<span><? echo $row->date, nbs(10), $row->author, nbs(20), anchor("http://twitter.com /home?status=$twittermsg", 'ReTweet', $tweet), nbs(15), "<button>Black Font</button>"; ?></span> \[/code\]The button Black font should be selected by the second script in the external file but it doesnt work. Is there something else to be done to a jquery scrip in an external file to make it work? Is there anything I should be doing in the html to get it to work?(the html is Codeigniter btw)I have read several questions on here about this but they appear very confusingThank you