Thanks so much for the detailed and helpful information! I have a feel for it now, but just wanted to understand how much deeper I have to go to see real results.
I know HTML fairly well and CSS to a lesser but workable degree. I've even coded a few test PHP "Hello world" pages.
I work with a graphic person that is used to designing any layout she wants (within reason) and then I have to figure out how to make that work in HTML. Years of working together that way have made us averse to using other people's templates (we've never done it). That's why I want to be sure that I can move stuff around, change textual content, delete things we don't want, etc. Just changing a color scheme would never fly.
I've been reading (pieces of) the manual - ther's just soooooooooooooo much manual...
