[Forum] Templates - where to start customizing?

[cyberpundit]

I have VB 4.0.1. The functionality seems to be great, but the look and feel is still hideous! (I'm used to more CSS-savvy web 2.0 interaces, not these old style BBSes).

I'd like to customize the templates. Overhaul them entirely, use CSS for tables and such. And generally reduce the clutter all over the pages.

Where do I start? I've seen this stuff - http://www.vbulletin.com/docs/html/main/templates_basic -- but this doesn't say where the actual template files are! Where can I start customizing? Hopefully this is in simple html templates, not the XML jazz that I see in the admin screen to "download" etc?

Would appreciate some pointers. Thanks!

[cyberpundit]

Okay, I found the "Edit template" dropdown menu stuff in the admin area (not intuitive at all).

Which has a gazillion little templates. Scary!

I'm hoping there's a better way to edit an overall page template somewhere instead of these little bits and pieces?

Would love some direction. Thanks!

[Lynne]

Are you doing this on a test site? If so, you can go into debug mode and a list of all the templates used on that page will be listed on the bottom.
To go into debug mode, put this line in your config.php file after the <?php :

$config['Misc']['debug'] = true;

Most pages have a page template, like SHOWTHREAD or FORUMHOME or FORUMDISPLAY, which is the main page and then several little templates in them - like the header, headinclude, navbar, etc.