Rodent Regatta

Themes, templates, macros?
(Disclaimer: Nothing I’m saying here should in any way detract from the incredible progress that Dave Winer and the team at Userland Software are making with RCS, XML, web services and the tools for developers. The context of these thoughts is one of a satisfied, but struggling end user who has selected Radio as a way to develop and manage content at a single web site. I’m not suggesting for even a second that Dave or others divert their attention from the ultimate direction of Radio to give us ”style.”) 

Writers get it done in a variety of ways. Underwood typewriters can still be serviced in New York. Pens, inks and calligraphy have preserved an old art form. HTML editors, word processors and scratch pads still serve some.
Regardless of content, many writers prefer a unique book design or magazine layout to showcase their work. Weblogs are no different. We’d all like to have a template or theme that is unique to our site.
Russ said this today, ”I hear regular complaints from folks who don’t feel their Radio sites look nice but don’t have the skills to do anything about it themselves.”
I may not be able to design as well as Mena, but I’d love to learn how to take a shot at it. I’m not into scripting and I haven’t been into hand-coding HTML, but I’d love to learn. Radio is my classroom. What I’m looking for are enough pointers to understand (ONCE I’VE BACKED UP MY WWW FOLDER) how to alter the look of my weblog. Do I need to handcode something and paste it into the main template? Do I need to lay it out with FrontPage and paste it into the homepage template? Do I need to find the *.gif file that is my permalink icon and replace it with another *.gif file of my choosing? If so, where? Is CSS vs. tables a big issue for me? Should it be an issue for me? Thanks in advance, Russ, for the 30,000 foot flyby. I’ve got my binoculars out in hopes of seeing some detail!