how do i tweak my template?

[ddigger]

I've just gotten S9y up and running for An Old Gringo's Gazette (scribz.com/blogs/gringogazette), and am using one of the templates supplied with the downloaded Serendipity code.
Now I'd like to tweak that template, and -- as somebody who thought Smarty was a sugar candy and java was a cup of coffee -- I'm without a clue as to how to proceed.
Might someone have an idea where I might find some simple (and I certainly stress that word) documentation on how to edit existing templates? I was hoping I might be able to do some editing in Dreamweaver, but I've not seen any references to it in online literature, and I'm beginning to wonder if I'm going to be required to use some other means of editing. I hope not.
Any advice would be welcomed. Thanks.

[garvinhicking]

Basically, Templates are composed of multiple *.tpl files inside the templates/ subdirectory.

The first thing to do would be to copy your "default" template into a "gringo" directory, for example.

Then you edit the templates/Gringo/info.txt and adjust the name of your template.

Now you can use dreamweaver to edit the style.css or index.tpl files for example.

There is a bit of Smarty markup included, but Dreamweaver should be able to not get upset by this. Smarty Documentation can be found at http://smarty.php.net/.

More templating instructions can be found on http://www.s9y.org/40.html or on Carl Galloways Page: http://www.carlgalloway.com/

HTH,
Garvin

[ddigger]

garvin:

Many thanks. I'll dive in and see if I float.