[balinor]

Hi Ian - I'm sorry you are frustrated, but this is NOT an easy system, and there is no 'X-Cart for dummies'. The thread I pointed you to explains all of the techniques and tools necessary to edit the system, there is no simple way to explain it. You need to know html/css well, and eventually Smarty. That thread explains exactly to find out which template is which, but I really can't write a guide for every single possible change. The system is designed so that you can customized ANYTHING but you need to spend the time and get over the learning curve. There is just no magic bullet here.

You can't do an html design and shoehorn X-Cart into it, you need to learn the template system and edit them to get your design into the system. I'm sorry this isn't the answer you are looking for, but you really just need to spend the time and learn the templates. Make backups of your work, and you will slowly get the hang of it.

In your case, start with head.tpl, and then you'll see all the parts to it (top_menu.tpl, search.tpl,etc). Edit the templates and styles to get the design you are looking for. If you want to move the search box, you move the include which is this bit:

{if $usertype eq "C"}
{ include file="customer/search.tpl" }
{/if}

If you want to edit the tabs, you open up customer/top_menu.tpl and then you'll see customer/tab.tpl makes up the tabs. See how that works? Just takes time - the guide I put together outlines which templates are which, and that should give you all you need to start editing things.