Note: Before you begin using this template make sure you remove the cssTemplate1 folder from the zipped file. If you try to view this template through the zipped file you may have trouble viewing certain items. Store the unzipped cssTemplate1 folder on your desktop or in your Documents folder. I wanted to create this template because I feel learning CSS can sometimes seem confusing and overwhelming at first. So I developed this basic, 3-column template that will help you design your site and learn a little bit of CSS too. If someone had created something like this for me years ago, I would have picked up CSS quicker and would not have taken so long to begin using it. First of all, I realize the look and feel of the template is completely horrid. I purposely chose outlandish colors to emphasize that you can edit the various sections of the page using the style sheet. Remember you can adjust the height, width, colors, borders, etc. of every section of the template. Using & Editing The Template The best way to use this template and learn CSS is to open the index.html and the style.css files in a Web editor such as Dreamweaver, FrontPage, CoffeeCup, Nvu, etc. so you can visually see the design. You can open it a text editor but it's difficult to learn that way because all you see is the code and not the design. Make sure you keep the style.css file (style sheet) and the index.html file in the same folder as you downloaded them. If you separate them the style sheet won't affect your design if you make changes to it. The index.html would be your homepage. If you want to create additional pages, just File/Save As and rename the page to page2.html for example. Start by reading my notes in the index.html and learn how to customize the template to your liking. Keep checking the HTML code in the index.html to see how the different styles are called up. Notice all the design and layout is controlled in the style.css file so that's the file you will be updating to change the look and feel of index.html. Remember, the style.css is your master style sheet. To get the most out of this template you really should create an image to go in the header section, instead of using text. That will make the design look more professional. I explained how to do this in the index.html file in the header section. Also, when you add images to this design, I would create another folder called "images" first and put it at the same level as the index.html file. Store all your images in that folder. If you want to learn how to apply new styles to your text and layout, W3Schools has a great reference sheet you can use. A style sheet is a powerful thing and it also makes for much cleaner HTML code and faster loading pages. Enjoy and don't forget to visit my site, http://www.2createawebsite.com to learn more about building a site and more importantly making money! Enjoy, Lisa |