Overrides and working with a template design

Hi, I have spent two days of reading and I am still stuck. The problem i am having is that I have successfully insalled the zencart and understand about the custom folder and other sub folders having to be in other custom made areas, I want to use a template glasgow neat, so intalled that successfully, but when I set up the custom folder as described, it goes back to being the default template. So I figured that instead of copying the default template css files, where I had been going wrong was I just had to copy the css and other files and folders not from the default template folder, but the glasgow neat one. But when I did that the layout looked completely wrong. I am very confused and need help! I have searched and searched and done it from scrach 3 times, has anyone got a simple way of explaining how I set it up as custom, but using the template I want? Many thanks and sorry for the dumb questions, i am going round in circles! :blink:

You say you installed the glascow_neat template successfully. Does that mean you were able to select it in admin ?

yes it was there and looking great. So then what do i do? Do I need to transfer those css files etc into a custom folder, then select that custom in the templates, got that to work but then it looked all wrong and not like the original.

this is the link http://www.englishflagsandgear.co.uk/ and the selected template is as I downloaded i.e not custom as yet. If you could go through with me what I do next in order to make it my own custom one so I can start constructing it :)

So shall I make a custom folder in the includes/templates ?

There is no particular reason you need to make a new custom folder; just modify the glasgow neat files as required. It is not like /classic/ which will be overwritten on upgrade, and you will still have the /classic/ template to switch to if needed for debugging.
It won't hurt to keep a complete set of the original glasgow neat files on your home computer for reference.

Right - glascow_neat is your custom template in this case.

oh my God I have been having a completely unecessary nervous breakdown. Thank you for making it simple :) I was trying to be too complicated x