Custom Template Creation

Hi! Firstly, let me say thank you for such an informative site. When I first started reading, I didn't even understand some of the questions, let alone the answers, but its starting to make sense.

Originally I thought that I would only need to create a custom template if I wanted to do weird and wonderful things to change zencart. However from further reading, I am now assuming that I should do this even if my customisations are fairly basic (ie renaming "page 2" to something else). Is this right? It sounds rather scary!!

Thanks
Tina

Any customizations should be made using your own custom template and the overrides system.

You're life will be much easier if you use the override system. It's not as scary as it might seem, but everyone starts out :shocking: over it.

To create a very basic custom template (you can build from there), you need:
includes/languages/YOUR_TEMPLATE/english.php
includes/languages/english/YOUR_TEMPLATE/index.php
includes/languages/english/YOUR_TEMPLATE/header.php (to change the logo)
includes/templates/YOUR_TEMPLATE/template_info.php
includes/templates/YOUR_TEMPLATE/common/tpl_header.php
includes/templates/YOUR_TEMPLATE/common/tpl_footer.php
includes/templates/YOUR_TEMPLATE/images/logo.gif
includes/templates/YOUR_TEMPLATE/css/stylesheet.css

Any where you see a /classic/ folder, you can create a folder for your custom template. Copy the required files from /classic/, /template_default/ or the main folder (like /english/).

Thanks so much Kim and Mary Ellen. You want to know anything about general insurance in Australia - I'm your gal, but coding and programming - eeek!!!

I've tried to create a new folder in includes/templates, however it created the folder a couple of layers up, in the (I guess) root directory. I'm guessing from your response, Mary Ellen, that it needs to be in includes/templates. I was in includes/templates when I created it, so I'm not sure why it didn't create there. Does anyone have any clues?

Thanks
Tina

Please ignore my last request for help - I tried it again and it worked this time. Obviously I did something wrong, but not sure what - and no doubt you'll hear from me again soon!

Thanks

Tina