Theme development

I've just realised that I posted this in the wrong Forum. I'd delete it if I could.

What I'm trying to do is display specific nodes (of which there are 31) on a page, based on the date. So far, I've got a date-specific link to the relevant node showing, by using this code (and changing the input type to php):

Hello kind folks,

I am trying to figure out how to display a different image in my content based on the taxonomy term for that node.

For example,

I have a node of type "product". This product can have one of several terms applied to it, such as "Small, Medium or Large". In addition, it can have a "color" term, like "red, yellow, or blue"

I want to display a "Small" graphic on the page if the term is "small", a "Medium" graphic on the page if the term is "medium" etc...

Additionally, I want to display a "red" graphic if the term is "red", etc....

I'm trying to get the ECommerce Products listing page to show an alternating background colour for each product teaser. I've found a few guides in the forums on how to get alternating background colours for nodes ... information such as this:

A neat trick is to count how many times each of the hooks is called, so you can pass an extra variable. re :

The theme engine do not include my "mytheme" "template.php" file and others... following situation:

Example directory:

Hi Guys,

tips needed from any theming gurus (is Dub about?) out there who can point me in the right direction to do this:

http://www.todayonline.com/articles/154756.asp

I love the way you can page back and forth between the pages, without loading the entire page again and without scrolling.

Phil

I'm just looking for answers to some basic questions, but the Theme Developer's Guide is so high-level, it isn't very helpful to anyone just staring out of the gate.

How do most people deal with the Drupal administration nav? My public site leaves no room for such a nav, is it customary for administrators to use a different theme than the public?

I want to create a block, and put that block in my template. How is this done? I'm just looking for 'create block named X, place Y code in Z file to call this block'. Is this possible?