I know they're the layout of pages etc., but I can't seem to find any information in a google search on how they work, how to edit them by hand coding etc.

All I can seem to find are the millions of websites that provide templates, or software to create or edit them. All I want is a simple tutorial on them to explain the basics of them and the additional knowledge I need to know if I already know XHTML,CSS and Javascript pretty well.

I bought a php script that contains pages with templates and I need to customize them a little bit.

Can someone please point me in the right direction?

basicly open a template and make the changes you want .. different pictures / colours etc and then change to the template you just created ... if your using something that has that option ... have a look at http://frontier.userland.com/tutorial/editingTemplates

Starlord

For most templates, you are simply given the HTML. You have to edit this to your needs - changing the text and images as starlord explained.

Some CMSs such as Wordpress are specially adapted so that you can upload templates to a directory and then choose a template from here. Otherwise, you just have to upload the HTML and CSS files and code anything in by hand. CSS allows you to easily update the style and layout of a site

Thanks guys.

I see the html now. At first glance I only seen what I now know to be smarty code. I guess I'll go learn the php and smarty soon.