Theme development

Hi,

First things first: I know there are a lot of posts about this subject. I've searched in the forum for hours, but couldn't find a thing - since I'm not a programmer this kind of things are pretty complex for me :-\

Right now I'm developing a website, using Drupal for the first time. I have some newspages (news, articles and blog), and some static pages (webdesign, graphic design, digital presentations, about, contact).

Each page needs a different layout. My main headaches are:

• sometimes I want to use image x (eg for al the webdesignpages), sometimes I want to use image y (eg for all the graphic design pages).
• sometimes I need one or more basic drupal menus (eg "recent blog publications" and "recent comments" for blogpages), sometimes I need one or more custom menus (eg with the items "design" and "realisation" for webdesignpages).
• sometimes I need the menus in a division called subnavigation (eg the more important menus like "recent blog publications" and "realisation"), sometimes I need the menus in a division called content (eg the less important menus like "extras" and "links").

There are a lot of posts about "multiple templates", but I can't figure out how to do this. Can anyone tell me how to assign different templates to different contentpages - or vice versa?

I also read lots of posts about a section module. Does anyone know if this is a better solution?

I'm working on putting together a custom PHPTemplate theme for what is largely going to be a static site - the author will mostly be editing it only to update a "news & events" page. I (and he) will not want the login form to be visible to anonymous users on the site, so I'm working on hiding the "$left_sidebar" in the theme so that it's only visible while administering the site.

The tricky part is telling the theme where that is. So far, the best I've been able to come up with is:

Hi,

I have stayed with the democratica theme...wdich i believe best suites the site that i am working on...but this is my issue....

The left menu (as in any website has inportant items and then sub items that there...like a tree...) such as the following links...for example

Home
About
Search
News
Links
Contact

I want it to indocata which level i am on...such as when am on "about" it should indicate on the menu, and open a submenu...

I wan wondering how that can be done...

any ides would be great...

I'm sort of sick of Bluemarine, with the main technical issue is that it's not usng PHPTemplate, but using XTemplate instead (which I personally despise). There are other various things that bug me that I've written notes about on my homepage.

So, I'm developing a new one. It was based on the Bluemarine PHPTemplate version, with many fixes, and ideas from Drupal.org's current theme and the Friendselectric theme.

I'm looking for a slick menu. Something like Macromedia site has. Menu is on the top and submenus show up dynamically just below the main menu. To me that is the most optimal menu. I wonder if anybody have seen something like that for Drupal. Also, it can be written in anything except Flash.

Any help is greatly appreciated,
leszek

democratica theme configration wanted....

I am new the whole drupal thing, and i am currently working on creating a website witht he help of drupal. I did like the democratica theme, except that i would like to configure this theme from a 2 column to a 3 column theme, and i need your help.

I know that you do not have a lot of time on your hands, but I would appreciate if you could let me know which file to play with to make it into a 3 column theme.

Please, I'll appreciate your help.