I use basically this template on my site. However, I've changed a few things for the sake of standardizing it - like, you won't get all the cool graphics included that I have.
1) This is a CSS layout, generated online at www.csscreator.com. I have tested it in IE6.0 and Moz Firefox, and it works fine in both. Have not had it tested on a Mac, so no guarantees there.
2) This template uses the following snippets, found here on the forums:
[list]PoweredBy
PageTrail
MainSubMenu
[list]
So remember to copy them out and create them before expecting your site to work with this template.
3) I haven't checked for W3C validation, but the DOCTYPE is for HTML 4.1 Transitional Loose. Just something to remember when adding your own stuff.
Let me know if you have something totally screw up, but I did test it on a page on my site, and it worked well, so I think it should be OK.
Code:
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd" >
<html>
<head>
<title>[(site_name)] - [*pagetitle*]</title>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" />
<!-- "Spring" template for PhaseCMS v0.5.3 created by Coleen Hein (aka WebbyMom) July 2004 -->
<!-- <link  rel="stylesheet" href="styles.css" type="text/css" /> -->
<!-- once your styles are set, put the following styles into an external file and link as per example above -->
<style type="text/css">
html, body {
margin:0;
padding:0;
font: 0.9em verdana, sans-serif;
color: #000000;
}
a:link {color: #696;} /* drk green */
a:visited {color: #c9f;} /* mauve */
a:hover {background-color: #c9f; color: #fff;} /* mauve bg */
a:visited:hover {background-color: #c9f; color: #fff;}
a:hover.nohover { background-color: #fff; }
h1 {color: #c9f;} /* mauve */
h2 {color: #9c0;} /* lite green */
h3 {color: #696;} /* drk green */
h4 {color: #000;} /* black */
.parahdg { padding-top: 8px; } /* padding for paragraph heading images */
.bold {font-weight: bold;}
.indent { margin-left: 2em; margin-top: -15px; padding-top: 0; }
.tab {margin-left: 2em;}
#pagewidth {
width:100%;
 min-width: 500px;
}
#header {
height:70px; Â /* change this height to suit */
padding-top: 10px;
padding-left: 150px;
padding-bottom: 5px;
width:80%;
background-color:#fff;
/* take the font and colour styles out if you use an image instead in the hdr */
font: bold 45px verdana, arial, sans-serif; Â
color: #696;
}
#leftcol {
width:150px;
float:left;
position:relative;
margin-left:-150px;
margin-right:2px;
background-color: #fff;
border-right: 2px solid #696;
border-bottom: 2px solid #696;
}
#leftcol img {
margin: 0 0 10px 0;
padding: 0;
}
#outer{
border:solid white 0px;
 /*/*/ border-left-width: 150px;  /* left column width. NN4 hack to hide borders */
border-left-color: #fff; Â /* left column colour */
border-left-style: solid;
background-color: #fff; /* center column colour */
width: auto;
}
#footer {
height:50px; /* change this height to suit */
width:100%;
font-style: italic;
font-weight: bold;
background-color: #c9f;
color: #fff;
}
#inner {margin:0; width:100%;}
#maincol{
float: left;
width: 90%;
position: relative;
margin: 0 -8px 0 -2px;
background-color: #fff;
}
#outer>#inner { border-bottom: 1px solid #fff; Â }
.clr {clear:both;}
.content {padding:10px;} /*padding for content */
#pagetrail { Â
padding: 3px 5px 3px 0;
font-size: 85%;
font-style: italic;
text-align: right;
background-color: #9c0; color: #fff;
width: 100%;
}
#pagetrail a:link {
color: #fff;
}
#pagetrail a:hover {
background-color: #c9f;
color: #fff;
}
#pagetrail a:visited {
color: #000;
}
/* Menu Styles */
#mainsubmenu {
 margin: 0;
 padding: 0;
 list-style: none;
 width: 95%;
}
.navig a {
 display: block;
 text-decoration: none;
 margin: 0; padding: 1px 6px 1px 3px;
}
.navig a:hover {
 color: #000;
 background-color: #eedeff; /* light mauve */
 border-right: 4px solid #c9f;
 padding-right: 3px;
}
#mainsubmenu li ul {
 margin: 0 0 0 1em;
 padding: 0;
 list-style: none;
}
#mainsubmenu li ul li ul {
 margin: 0 0 0 1em;
 padding: 0;
 list-style: none;
}
#mainsubmenu_active {/* --- style for the current page --- */
  font-weight: bold;
  font-style: italic;
}
#submenu {
display: inline;
}
#header .content{padding-bottom:0;} /*padding bottom 0 to remove space in IE5 Mac*/
/*printer styles*/
@media print{
/*hide the left column when printing*/
#leftcol{display:none;}
#outer{border-left:0;}
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<!-- Generated at www.csscreator.com -->
<div id="pagewidth" >
<div id="header" >
 <a href="index.php" class="nohover">[(site_name)]</a> <!-- Replace with site logo image or header image -->
</div>
<div id="outer" >
<div id="inner">
 <div id="leftcol" >
 <div class="navig">
 <div class="content"><p>Main Menu</p>[[MainSubMenu]]</div></div>  <!-- replace paragraph with image if you like -->
</div>
<div id="maincol" >
<div id="pagetrail">[[PageTrail]]</div>
<div class="content">[*content*]</div><!-- end div class content -->
</div><!-- end div class maincol -->
<div class="clr"></div>
<!-- close inner and outer -->
</div>
</div>
<div id="footer" >
<div class="content">© Your name, 2004. Â All rights reserved.<br />
 <div>[[PoweredBy]]</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="clr"></div>
</div>
</body>
</html>
Enjoy!










