Creating Your Own Template Using the Advanced Mode
In your Templates section (Main Menu > Templates) you will see a tab called, "Advanced" - click on this.
To create a new template in Advanced Mode, click "Add an Advanced Template".
Step 1: Name your template. This should be something you will easily identify with this template for future reference.
Step 2: Selecting components. This is where you will select the components you wish to have on your blog. Simply check as many or as few of the components as you wish. (You can always edit your template in the future to add or remove any components). Once you have made your selection, click "Next"
Step 3: You will now see three windows for HTML, CSS and any other web language you may wish to use.
What is Template HTML?
The "Template HTML" refers to the entire blog page and is used to edit and adjust components and general placement for your blog elements.
What is Entry HTML?
The Entry HTML refers to the HTML used just within your entry area. You have full control over this, but certain elements must remain within the Entry HTML area.
Above the "Template HTML" area and the "Entry HTML" area, you will see an option: "Tags". If you click on this a pop-up window will launch listing the Expressions tags for that area.
The Template tags can only be used within the Template HTML and the Entry tags can only be used within the Entry HTML. If you place an Entry tag within the Template HTML, it will not work!
Comments Template:
This area allows you to define a custom template for the Comments pop-up window. Like the other template areas, you can click the "Comment Tags" link above the text area to see a pop-up of the tags that are available to you. The two most important of these tags are <comments> and <comment_form>. The list of comments will be displayed in alternating div classes (commentBlock1 and commentBlock2), so you can style these separately to give clean separation between each comment block. Be sure to see the list of available comment tags so you can know their full potential (like having a thumbnail of the post in your comments window).
Once you have created your template it will be added to your list of template options for all your blog pages. To select a template for a blog page, simply click on "Pages" to get a listing of your blog pages. Click on "Edit" for the blog page you wish to edit. You will be given the option to select a template design from a drop down menu. This menu will show the templates you have selected from the pre-designed templates as well as the templates you have created yourself.