The modern theme made available by the good folks at Varian for their free e-commerce product Magento is a great template and a good starting point for anyone looking to customise magento for their own look and feel.  However, the default layout has the Related products block in the left hand menu which unless you have very long product descriptions can leave the page unbalanced.

These instructions will move the block to to the centre under the product descriptions.

You can see this at work here on a <a href=”http://www.cl-floraldesigns.co.uk”>wedding flowers</a> site.
In catalog.xml find

<reference name=“right”>
<block type=“catalog/product_list_related” name=“catalog.product.related” before=“-”template=“catalog/product/list/related.phtml”/>
</reference>

Remove or comment out

<block type=“catalog/product_list_related” name=“catalog.product.related” before=“-”template=“catalog/product/list/related.phtml”/>

Change the following to include the above…

<block type=“core/template_facade” name=“product.info.container2″ as=“container2″>
<action method=“setDataByKey”><key>alias_in_layout</key><value>container2
</value>
</action>
<action method=“setDataByKeyFromRegistry”><key>options_container</key>
<key_in_registry>product</key_in_registry></action>
<action method=“append”><block>product.info.options.wrapper</block></action>
<action method=“append”><block>product.info.options.wrapper.bottom</block>
</action>
</block>
<action method=“unsetCallChild”><child>container1</child><call>ifEquals</call>
<if>0</if><key>alias_in_layout</key><key>options_container</key></action>
<action method=“unsetCallChild”><child>container2</child><call>ifEquals</call>
<if>0</if><key>alias_in_layout</key><key>options_container</key></action>
</block>
<block type=“catalog/product_list_related” name=“catalog.product.related” after=“-”template=“catalog/product/list/related.phtml”/>
</reference>

Note the use of after=“-” instead of before=“-”

You may need to restyle it depending on your layout.

Using the modern theme to create a menu like http://www.cl-floraldesigns.co.uk

1)

Create vert_nav.phtml in app / design / frontend / default / default / template / catalog / navigation

__('Categories') ?>

__('Category Navigation:') ?>

getStoreCategories() as $_category): ?>
drawItem($_category) ?>




getChildHtml('topLeftLinks') ?>

2)

in app / design / frontend / default / modern / layout / catalog.xml

add

so it looks like this:

3) in skin/frontend/default/modern/css/menu.css

    /**********************************************Vertical Nav ****************************************/

    #nav_vert { padding:0 20px; font-size:1em; z-index:999; width:180px; background-color: #F6F6F6; }

    /************** ALL LEVELS *************/ /* Style consistent throughout all nav levels */

    #nav_vert li {

    width:200px;

    list-style:none;

    position:relative;

    text-align:left;

    background-color: #F6F6F6;

    border-bottom-width: thin;

    border-bottom-style: solid;

    border-bottom-color: #CCCCCC;

    }

    #nav_vert li.over { z-index:999; }

    #nav_vert li.active { z-index:999; } /* to prevent the li separator from showing through on mouseover on li */

    #nav_vert a { line-height:1.3em; }

    #nav_vert a, #nav_vert a:hover { display:block; text-decoration:none; }

    #nav_vert span { display:block; cursor:pointer; color: #000; }

    /************ 1ST LEVEL ***************/

    #nav_vert li { float:left; background:url(../images/nav_bg.gif) repeat-x 50%; height:30px; margin-right:1px; }

    #nav_vert li.active a { color:#4c6a16; }

    #nav_vert a {

    float:left;

    padding:5px 12px 6px 8px;

    color:#4c6a16;

    font-weight:bold;

    font-family:Trebuchet MS;

    font-size:13px;}

    #nav_vert li.over a, #nav_vert a:hover { color:#CCCCCC; }

    /************ 1ST LEVEL RESET ************/

    #nav_vert ul li, #nav_vert ul li.active {

    float:none;

    height:auto;

    background:none;

    margin:0;

    }

    #nav_vert ul a, #nav_vert ul a:hover {

    float:none;

    padding:0;

    background:none;

    }

    #nav_vert ul li a { font-weight:normal !important; }

    /************ 2ND LEVEL ***********/

    #nav_vert ul {

    position: absolute;

    width:200px;

    margin-left:180px;

    top:0px;

    left:-10000px;

    border:1px solid #666666;

    }

    /* Show menu */

    #nav_vert li.over ul { left:0; }

    #nav_vert li.over ul ul { left:-10000px; }

    #nav_vert li.over ul li.over ul { left:100px; }

    #nav_vert ul li a { background:#FFFFFF/*#ecf3f6*/; }

    #nav_vert ul li a:hover { background: #F2F1D2; /*#d5e4eb;*/ }

    #nav_vert ul li a span { background:url(../images/nav_divider.gif) repeat-x 0 100%; }

    #nav_vert ul li a, #nav_vert ul li a:hover { color:#2f2f2f !important; }

    #nav_vert ul span, #nav_vert ul li.last li span { padding:6px 15px 6px 15px; }

    #nav_vert ul li.last span { background:none; }

    /************ 3RD+ LEVEL ************/

    #nav_vert ul ul { top:5px;}

    #nav_vert ul ul ul { left:-10000px;}

    #nav_vert li.over ul li.over ul ul { left:-10000px;}

    #nav_vert li.over ul li.over ul li.over ul { left:100px; }

    /* Fix for the IE bug */

    #nav_vert iframe {

    position: absolute;

    left: -1px;

    top: 0;

    z-index: -1;

    filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.Alpha(style=0,opacity=0);

    } 

Display on home page

add

bundlebundle/catalog_product_price
bundlebundle/catalog_product_price



right.reports.product.viewed
right.reports.product.compared

tweak to meet your needs.