Help Please - New Install - New User

Hi all, am really feeling stupid - have read and printed as much as I can find and made up my custom folders, etc. I don't know what I am doing wrong, I want to use the template that comes up after the new install, but for some reason, when I point to my custom template (thru admin/tools/temp. sel.) what comes up is a totally different template - full screen vs. half screen and totally different colors.

I read in the tutorials that you should base your own template on template_default and not Classic, is that incorrect? I don't know how to resize this and was hoping I didn't have another learning curve - lol. I did change everything and tried to use the info from classic and it came out blue instead of green - maybe I'm too old to attempt this but it is something I really want to do myself.

Is there a place that shows you where everything is that needs to be changed? I did try to buy the book, but that was an experience I don't want to repeat.

Thanks for your time.

The default Classic template is not the same as /template_default/. If you want to base your design on Classic, then you can copy all /classic/ folders and their files to your /custom/ folders, and work from there.

If you are using version 1.3.7 - you can overlook the references to not using classic as your starting point.

Create a folder name for your "custom" template in /includes/templates/my_custom_template_name and copy the contents of the /includes/templates/classic folder to your new folder. Edit the template_info.php file in your folder and change the name for this template.

Then in admin > tools > template selection > edit > you should see this new template > select it and update.

admin > tools > layout boxes controller > reset

This should bring your template name up as a copy of the classic template and you can proceed with changes from there.

Thank you so much for your help it is much appreciated. M

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 either the /classic/ or /template_default/ folders.