Almost there, getting my design working properly..

here is my regular Zen Cart site:
http://www.expresswhitening.net/zencart/

I was to layout my page like this, sans iframe:
http://www.expresswhitening.net/shoppingcart.html

I thought I could just customize my index.php file and put my html/css around the php tags but that does not work, it screws up the look of the Zen Cart section and will not changes to another page:
http://www.expresswhitening.net/zencart/index_test.php

The iframe method looks exactly like I want but it screws with the SSL security plus it makes it a pain in the ######## to create the initial "buy now" button where the item is listed. This is the last big hurdle I have, just a few more tweaks and then the store gets to go live!

Thanks for any help

I want to layout my page like this, sans iframe:*

sorry, first post, there isnt an edit button on the original post, odd :P

Try customizing the tpl_main_page instead of messing with index.php. See this section of the tutorials/FAQ to get started - https://www.zen-cart.com/tutorials/index.php?category=4

You will want to add your code to /includes/templates/your_template/common/tpl_main_page.php, which builds the overall layout of every page.

You can add divs before, after or around #mainWrapper to hold your other content.

great, ill give this a try this evening, I figured it would be better to do something like that I just wasnt sure exactly how to implement it, leaving the wrapper div is what I was missing :)

ill be back if I have any issues but this should do it for me.

hmm apon trying this I am met with a page that has adopted my new code but no store content is visible. do I just create the page and anywhere I put a mainWrapper div my store should appear? I tried doing that with the same results, updated look, no store content.

do I actually need to copy in the contents of my index.php inside that div?

it looks like it is working I just do not know how to display section within the page/div

the faq page you linked to does have great guides but nothing that goes into any kind of details for this specific type of request.

You need to edit tpl_main_page.php leaving most everything inside the mainWrapper div alone, and just adding your new divs. You should not be copying index.php into any other files.

hmm that must be it, I figured the file had to be created since I didnt already have one in my template file. Ill copy that out of the template_default and try it.

that's working, just one little bug that I had when playing with the index file in the same manner, the navigation bar (home/my account/etc) is VERY tall for some reason...perhaps I have two like named divs by accident:

https://www.expresswhitening.net/zencart/

also, my SSL certificate icon keeps dissapearing when I go to the next page. I will continue playing with this

edit
the nav bug seems to only appear in firefox, not IE

ok, sorry to repost again, I got it working properly! now I am just working on cleaning up my page.

if it helps anyone else, my solution was to style the mainWrapper and navMain styles in the template stylessheet.css. I set the mainWrapper to have a Y overlow and had to set the navMain to a set height rather then 1%