More Zen Cart Templates in Plain English - any good?

I have read an excerpt from the lulu site claiming that this guide has been recommended by the ZenCart team. I am looking to radically alter the layout of sites though the use of CSS and the template override system. My PHP is novice level, but I do have some C++ experience from Uni and I have made alterations to basic linear one page php code (two page code at the most). Zencart has way too many includes for me to follow ( not a criticism, just out of my league) so I need a guide to see the flow of code between the four main template files and hopefully pull a gleaming design jewel out of the bag. My XHTML is intermediate to good because I always hand code.
I know that this is a relatively inexpensive option (see title) but just wondered is it the sort of thing that I am looking for or is there a Holy Grail of ZenCart template design out there that I have managed to miss?
I am not looking for the admin book, as good as this is, it will not address my problem.
Thanks Zenners

dml311071:

I have read an excerpt from the lulu site claiming that this guide has been recommended by the ZenCart team.Where is this excerpt you're talking about?
I'm not aware of any endorsements for books other than the eStart Your Web Store with Zen Cart book

DrByte:

Where is this excerpt you're talking about?
I'm not aware of any endorsements for books other than the eStart Your Web Store with Zen Cart book

I naively did not realise that this point would provoke such a reaction, I have not recorded the source and therefore cannot guarantee that I am recalling correctly. I paraphrased this recommendation from memory as I was certain that I had found an endorsed guide (a brief search again has yielded no such claim)made the point more in hope that I had finally found a step by step guide to altering the labyrinthine code (to the relative novice anyhow).
I did not mean to raise heckles, I was more interested in whether anyone knew how useful these guides may be.

Regards

David

I found his books very useful if your just starting out playing with css like me. Someone that has experence might not find them useful as I did.

dave

There are various tutorial guides offered on lulu if you search for "Zen Cart", but I cannot vouch for their accuracy or usefulness, as I haven't seen their content.

My previous post wasn't intended to create havoc. I was mostly trying to correct the suggestion of being recommended by the Zen Cart team.

Perhaps others who have used the guides may be able to offer feedback, as you had hoped.

Thanks, both of you, I am almost always highly impressed by the quality and speed of the responses in this forum.
It would be fantastic for many of the intermediate users to have a book of the same quality as 'E-start your Webstore' but for design purposes. I strongly believe that this would not only expand usage of the cart software but sell very well as a design tool.
I'm sure that I don't speak alone when I state that as excellent and flexible as the software is, if you are not a PHP programmer, then the template designs can be difficult to follow.
It's becoming very competitive out there, designers need to show their flair for designing a site that not only engages the buying customer, but the customer needing a site in the first place.
Use of this cart is relatively limited in the UK (compared to US and Canada sites).
I am sure that some freelance designers have started to see the industry shift towards prepackaged sites from larger design companies. A prominent UK site has recently started to provide ecommerce, as part of its hosting, for around £9 ($17 to $18) per month. This is what we are beginning to compete with in the UK, I'm sure that the States and Canada have seen this for the last 3 or 4 years at least!

Just my twopence worth (4c.)

I may bring this up in the bar!

Regards

David