Installing templates?? I've tried everything

I downloaded a bunch of the templates on the website and I cant figure out how to use them!! I've spent probably two hours wasting time trying to transfer them to the right place using my FTP but nothing works to make them show up in my admin....

where is what supposed to go??

and I have looked through the threads and FAQ and nothing will clearly tell me, it puts me in circles. I think the FAQ really needs to be reconfigured because this is the second biggest issue I've had trying to use this Zen Cart stuff in the past two hours

If the downloadable template is structured correctly - all you should have to do is upload the /includes/ directory and all of the files will go to the right places.

Thats what I'm doing- but I'm not even sure if I've put the downloaded templates in the right place in includes. I have them in different folders inside templates... but none of them are showing up yet. Is this the right place?

If you open your Admin> Tools> Template Selection - do you see the templates listed in the drop down?

Yes, each time I tried uploading them. They are not there, only the classic "green" one that comes with the zen cart download.

Then you have the files in the wrong places.

Exactly. I downloaded them, saved them in templates in includes. If they dont go there, where do they go?

I think I might have figured it out. The templates I downloaded were in extra folders, I have to go get the files out from the includes file inside the downloaded file!! It worked with one of them. I'm going to try the rest.

thank you for helping me figure out this mess.

You have to FTP the whole template /includes/ folder to the root of your live site (/public_html/ or wherever your Zen Cart is installed). From there, all of the files will drop into the right places, as long as you are using a good FTP program like Filezilla.