« Reply #2 on: September 19, 2008, 12:46:51 PM »
The visual design of the store is controlled by templates. Your installation comes with a default template that is exactly the same as opencart 0.7.7.
Do not modify the default template. We "fall back" on the default template so that the function of the store is not destroyed if you make a mistake in your custom template . Instead, make a copy of the default folder in the template folder. Lets call it adrift.
The following structure should now be visible in the folder structure of your store.
catalog\template\default
catalog\template\adrift
In each template, the visual design starts with layout.tpl and css\default.css. The text displayed comes either from files in the language folder of the currently selected language for the store OR from the database (eg products, categories, order status).
I recommend all template designers to use firefox with the "Web Developer" extension which, among many great features, allows you to examine the actual css and html structure of any single element displayed on the page. NuSphere PhpED is my editor of choice but for free, you can use Notepad++ which has "find in files" functionality which is invaluable here.
The other sections are defined by individual template files and (mostly) the css in default.css.
In the absence of documentation, you will have to examine the php code for the controller of the page you want to style and...
The language file loaded will give you the text if you want to change it.
The template loaded by the $view will give you what is displayed in the "content" area of layout.tpl and that template will contain references to any specific css used to style it or nothing if it uses default.css.
The modules are similar but loaded based on whether they are defined and enabled in your store admin.
I hope this gives you enough rations to continue for a while.
cheers
Bruce