I REALLY need help...

[Maron]

Okay, I've been playing around with all of the themes all day and I can't seem to get something that I want.  I've done everything I could possibly thing of, but nothing is working.

I just want a simple page- a combination on of the horizontal CSSmenu thing with the drop downs and a side (though I'd really like a right and a left) navigation.  Something like this:
http://www.gackt-euphoria.org/cms/index.php?page=Home

Thing is, I have no idea how to edit the drop down menu text (I've searched everywhere...) and I don't know how to get all of my content in there.  How can I make it so that people can post articles and content and it will be displayed on the page?

I've tried working with the divs, but the CSS is too confusing.  So please, I'd really appreciate it if someone could walk me through on how to go about creating the type of layout that I'm looking for.  And...I would need help with this ASAP...I'm looking to get this project done by tonight.

[Maron]

There's that one EllNav theme that has two navigations- a horizontal and a vertical.  So I tried replacing the vertical navigation with the CSS drop down nav.  But...it didn't work, no matter how many times I tried it.

Is it possible to just code the entire layout design in tables and just add {content}, {stylesheets} etc to the desired location?  That may be easier for me to deal with...

I just want a typical three column tables layout with a top nav as well (so three navs all together) and a banner and footer.  Would I have to manually put in all of the links in the navigation?

Okay, basically, can you help me code a regular three column tables layout with the top nav and which stylesheets I should attach/make?  I think I could take it from there.

As for the news module with the content module, what if I want the news to only show up on the main page...then when I click a link on the navigation and go to another page, the content of that page appears where the news was?  So like, the content and the news are in the same place.  Can you help me with how to code that, please?

I really appreciate your help right now- I'm pretty lost at this. 

[jelle]

learning css takes time and might take more than one day. cmsms may make some things easier, it is no substitute for knowledge though.

I guess that you were very much on the right track with combining the two standard navigation modules (you did make copies of the template, didn't you?). The next step would be to attach the right stylesheets. If it does not work as expected, dig into the css + html to find out and cut everything down to simplify the issue. 

[jelle]

@patricia: is it a post or is it a rant?

@maron: It seems I overlooked the tables bit. but if you want to mix and match css with tables; that's perfectly ok. however you cannot recreate some of the menu effects with pure tables only. With 0.12beta you could perhaps create a new menu template with tables, but why bother?

(And the nice :hover tricks will not work with tables alone, you'd need javascript for that if you have not mastered css yet)

[Maron]

Well, I know CSS...but I don't use it to code layouts.  I usually just use it to code the colors and that kind of thing for the page.  It's been on my "to-do" list to learn how to position using CSS for a while, but...I never got to it and now I'm faced to use it for this project. 

Thanks for the help on the news module- I'll give it a try and let you know if it works. =D

The link that you provided there (http://svntest.cmsmadesimple.org/index.php?page=modules), that's something simmilar to the style of layout that I want.  Except where the news is, I want a navigation too, and then I also want a drop down menu on the top.  But whenever I try to use the EllNav template with the two navigations on either side, it throws everything out of alignment.

And I also need help on what stylesheets to attach.

I'm sorry if I'm asking for a lot...    But, thank you.