Dude, Ralph, man... Incredibly awesome and helpful post. I do appreciate the long-windedness and, you really made this a billion easier for me. You learned me good.
I see the code now that you posted, with the +14. Got rid of that. Now my site looks beautiful, and everybody is gonna buy my stuff, and Im gonna be rich.
Also indexed my tpl files, as you suggested.
Now I realize there are 3 things you need to track down what you need to edit to change the design. That is firebug, WM, Windows search of file contents. Fellow rookies, take note.
Regarding NOT using Webmaster Mode: I assume you mean don't WM it for editing, but it's okay to use it to track which templates are being used, right? I don't think WM will mess up shtuff as long as you don't click the tpls in the debug window and start editing them directly, true?
Regarding using Winzip or Winrar: All the files look messy in notepad, but have pretty indentations and are easy to read with Notepad++ and UltraEdit. I think I unpacked the tzp on the server and downloaded that.
Regarding searching file contents: CSS files are indexed automatically by Windows 7, but tpl files are not, so I'm glad you brought that up, as that is exactly what I needed to start doing at this stage.
I just figured out how to index tpl with Win 7 and it works pretty darn fast. For any Windows 7 users who want to know how to allow Windows to search the text within tpl files, here's How:
Control Pannel > Search for "Indexing Options" > Indexing Options > Advanced > Tile Types > Select tpl from the list > Change "how should this file be indexed" to "Index Properties and File Contents
Thanks again, Ralph.