Left column not showing

I'm a beginner, have just installed Zen Cart and am trying to customise according to the Wiki article at http://www.zen-cart.com/wiki/index.php/Customisation_-_Templates_-_Create

So I have created my own "CUSTOM" directory with a few of the default files copied in there as suggested.

I have: includes/templates/try

"try" contains a css directory with .css file copied from the default templates. I have edited the template_info.php file to add a meaningful title.

However when I switch to my template and use it, the left hand column is missing when I view the store.

This also occurs when I try to install and use some of the downloadable templates such as "FutureZen" or "barebones".

I'm obviously missing something, does anyone have any ideas? I'm using v1.3.7.1

Thanks

When you change to a new template, you have to change the settings in the admin for the layout. I believe there's a mod in the download section which will keep your settings as a default, but I haven't tried it, so I don't know much about it.

afo:

When you change to a new template, you have to change the settings in the admin for the layout. I believe there's a mod in the download section which will keep your settings as a default, but I haven't tried it, so I don't know much about it.

Thank you. Yes,I tried the mod and it resets the sort order to match the default for the particular template loaded so that worked a treat!