The width=100% determines the size of your table 100%. This is also adjustable. The background is your template background image, you can also replace it with just a specific color. You would change it to this: bgcolor="red". The border size gives the size of your border. The <tbody>is your "visible" canvas area and the <tr><td> are your number of "visible" canvas areas. For instance in the top left image above for the cellspacing it has 4 visible canvas areas and the cellpadding one has 2. That is from using the <tr><td> codes. <tr> states one table row and <td> is the table "cell". The cellspacing is using 2 table rows with 2 "cells" in each row.

Still confuse? Don't worry. When you start creating your own template this will all come together for you.

Let's start by making a basic template with a solid color background.

Cut,copy and paste this into the html section. (don't worry about the colored text, it will not effect anything.)

<table bordercolor=black cellspacing=0 cellpadding=20 width=100% bgcolor=pink border=4><tbody><tr><td>Welcome to my auction template that I created myself.

Now click on the standard mode and check out the beginning of your template. Notice the pink background with the black border. Play around with the border size to give you an  idea of how it works. Click back to the html mode and try making the border 20 instead of 4 and see what happens. See the difference. Now you have an understanding of what the border=4 means. Now, lets change the bgcolor=pink to green. Go back to the html code, change the pink to green. Click back to standard mode and see the green background. Great, you are catching on now. Now let's change the bordercolor. Go back to the html format and change it to red, bordercolor=red. Click back to standard and bammm!

You Are Doing Great !!! When you are in the html mode did you notice the codes added?  .</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>   That is a great thing about e-bays format. It automatically added the ending codes for you. With html there is a beginning and an end. A table has to start and it has to end. Just keep that in mind for now.

Now you have the basic table layout. You can type anything you want while in the standard mode. Lets try it. Click on standard, point your cursor anywhere inside the table, click and start typing. As you can see the table height will adjust in size. The table width is already set to 100%. Also, while in the standard mode you can change your font size, color and alignment.

Ready to learn how to add a pretty background?

Using the same basic codes:

<table bordercolor=black cellspacing=0 cellpadding=20 width=100% bgcolor=pink border=4><tbody><tr><td>Welcome to my auction template that I created myself.

Let's change the bgcolor=pink to this: Copy, cut, and paste this, replacing the entire code     bgcolor=pink    to:

background=http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k280/justonemorewebsite/page%20graphics/backgrounds/dragon-bg36.jpg

Now click back to standard and check out what you just made.

If it didn't work for you here is the same code with the address replace.

<table bordercolor=black cellspacing=0 cellpadding=20 width=100% background=http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k280/justonemorewebsite/page%20graphics/backgrounds/dragon-bg36.jpg border=4><tbody><tr><td>Welcome to my auction template that I created myself.

If you can not see the text it is because the text is still in black because in my code I have not designated it a color, unless you specify it a color it will always be black. To find your text and change the color, point your cursor inside the table near the bottom, while holding the mouse button down drag your cursor up, it should highlight your text. While the text is highlighted you can now use e-bays options to change your text attributes.

Now you have a basic template with a background. The background I used I have stored in my photobucket account. You will have to have a url address to use for a background image. Any web hosting site will give you that, most of them are free.