Help me get webpage templates, please.

I used to build web pages for a communications company about 10 years ago, and it was simple.
Do the HTML coding and you had a page, and all you had to do was load it up to the site. Once loaded, just make sure it was published, and you had a website.

OK, I had even built my own site about 6-7 years ago, using the same procedure.
It worked, so, I was happy.
Now, though, building pages seems more complicated, and I got an XHTML/CSS book last year. I seemed to have an overall grasp, but, there are/were specifics that throw my page totally askew.
So, I am working on a new project, and I decided to start a website. I went with iPage, because it promised greatness, and that, cheaply. Here is where the confusion starts for me.
I used their Simple Scripts function, and it showed that I needed to use another sub-function, or somesuch. I chose WordPress, but, that was a blog sheet builder, and I couldn’t edit it properly. I could edit it about 1/2 way, but, the right column seemed to be all WordPress junk, and I couldn’t edit that out. A professional website can’t have “Hi, from WordPress! Get your hotblogs!” or whatever. So, I ditched that, and installed Joomla.
When I went to Joomla, I couldn’t understand jack. Their page had a lot of icons, and I couldn’t understand what the effect would be were I to utilize one of them. When I went in and tried to use some of them, I couldn’t ‘publish’ it, and when I clicked on ‘Save’ I don’t know where the element was saved to. I couldn’t even understand their nomenclature, and I had no idea what it all meant. I just wanted to grab some coding, publish, and leave it alone. Etc…
So, I just want a good page, that I can build to my specs. Meaning, I want to copy a good page, stuff my own content into it, load it up to File Manager, publish and collect big fat paychecks! Is there a place to find some some templates, that aren’t dependent on some mysterious source page, that I use? For free?
Thanks,
hh
ETA: Oh, I don’t need anything too exotic, like css or anything. I just want something that I can link up to some other pages.

Of course, a link to a page that can explain how to work Joomla into my webpage would work too.

Are you saying that you want a template for a static, HTML-only website that will consist of only a single page?

Because nobody really does it like that any more, and for pretty good reasons.

I have 20 sites all based on Wordpress. Once you get in the back end of Wordpress, it is all pretty user friendly. You can get themes free from Wordpress.org. Just go to Appearance - Themes and click to find themes. you will have a search page where you can define search by color preference, number of columns, whether being widget friendly is important (I always make sure mine are) Your results will be good-sized thumbnails of themes. Select the one you like and install (I generally read the developer’s website about the theme before picking one). After it is installed, you have the option to Preview your site with the theme in place. If you like what you see then click to enable. You can select widgets and plugins in a similar manner to extend the usability of your site. Make sure the widget/plugin has been tested on your version of Wordpress - it will say in the description. You can create pages, posts and make adjustments all in the Admin. Dashboard of Wordpress. I keep an up to date list of sites to ping with new posts and an up to date list of widgets I like to keep things simple. A good SEO plugin is essential as is a sitemap builder, Google Analyticater and a few others - I suggest you Google “important plugins and widgets”

The initial Welcome to Wordpress post should be removed immediately and begin adding content (original content). Have keywords picked out based on your niche. Be sure to go to the bottom of the column in the admin Dashboard and look through General, Write, Comment etc. Be sure to select that you want search engines to crawl your site. Then add your site to Google Analytics and list for inclusion in Google, Bing, Yahoo and other search engines and directories. I don’t use pay directories because they hardly give you much traction with your site’s rating.

You will see a section in the right column usually where Wordpress is mentioned but your visitors do not see that. You can check by entering your url to see what visitors see.

Themes can also be bought, customized or searched for on Google or other search engine. I hope this is helpful…

Sorry, my mind is in a jumble after going through all of the websites with no resolution, so, I’m not quite as coherent as I should be.
No, I just need a template for a home page. Once I have one of those, I can build from there.

Thanks!

Thank for your response, BookCollecting101. It looks like it will take a bit to go through all of this, so it will be a while before I can get back!
Thanks again, guys!

OK, BookCollecting101, this got me pretty much in the ballpark! Thank you very much.
Now, however, how can I delete that swinish “Hello World” that is above my text? I cannot find it on my Edit Page to delete it.
Thx again,
hh

Disregard this question in the last paragraph. I found the answer.

I am rolling!

Thanks,
hh

So what was the answer? Some of us may need to know :smiley:

Well, in this case, I had to delete and make a new page, making sure that I filled in the ‘Title’ field with a title before publishing. That was MY solution, although I’m sure that there is a better one. The best answer is to fill in the 'Title" blank on the new page before publishing it. In short, If it isn’t done before the first publish, if I understand correctly, it is there permanently (again, IIUC).
Point being, I couldn’t edit it out. I’m thinking there is a better way, but, I don’t know of it.

[moderator note]
BookCollecting101, I’m sure you feel that what you have to say is very important (and that post was, indeed, useful information), but there is no need to increase the size of your text to make your post bigger than everyone else’s. Please stick with normal-sized text unless there’s a particular reason to enlarge it.

Thank you.
[/moderator note]

[quote=“Gary “Wombat” Robson, post:11, topic:654808”]

[moderator note]
BookCollecting101, I’m sure you feel that what you have to say is very important (and that post was, indeed, useful information), but there is no need to increase the size of your text to make your post bigger than everyone else’s. Please stick with normal-sized text unless there’s a particular reason to enlarge it.

Thank you.
[/moderator note]
[/QUOTE]

Sorry, I am having a bit of trouble reading the small print that is standard for the forum. I suppose my age is showing - or the fact that I need an eye exam. I noticed the option was there to increase text size so I did. I will stick to the standard size and get that overdue eye exam…

You may be able to zoom the text in your web browser by holding down <ctrl> and rolling your mouse wheel (assuming the device on which you are viewing this has one of each of those).

This will temporarily change the zoom setting (usually in the current page only) - or you can change it more permanently in the view settings of your web browser.

Or CTRL + [the =/+ key at the top of your keyboard]

Another option is to try the free Serif Webplus application: http://www.serif.com/web-design-software/
…which comes with free templates.

No problem!

Try the advice that the others gave. I have found that zooming in the page makes a big difference for my eyes, especially at night when I’m tired. The best part is that it enlarges everyone’s posts, not just yours, so the whole board is easier to read.

That works GREAT! Thanks, I also realized I made some “adjustments” in my control panel and everything has been smaller. Cntrl + using the wheel on my mouse works wonders. Issue resolved. My first computer was a DOS. Funny how you can just miss bits of info along the way. You’d think I would have known that trick to enlarge print… Again, Thanks! :o