Hi
It is quite understandable that you are really confused. Your first problem is that you have been using FrontPage. The second problem is that the foundations of a phpwcms site are as different from that used by FrontPage as jet aircraft are from an ox cart. The third problem is the support documentation available here as it relates to the total newbie.
Please do not misunderstand. Oliver Georgie and others have made a heroic effort to document the operation of this cms. However, the documentors have come to the project with a much higher level of understanding of php, mysql and cms than the average newbie. As a result, the documentation speaks to the experienced php-mysql user rather than the neophyte.
So, where to begin. Ok, the structural concept of phpwcms. Think of the Russian dolls - those little dolls where the smallest fits inside the next one and that one fits inside the next and so on until you have the whole collection of dolls all fitting inside just one doll. (If you don't know what a Russian doll is, go find one on the net. It makes understanding phpwcms a lot easier.)
The smallest phpwcms part or building block is the 'replacement tag'. The replacement tag is an 'alias' for a bunch of code that is substituted into the page when the page is called for by the web visitor. For example, the {NAV_TABLE_SIMPLE} replacement tag generates the menu you see on the left side of the page on the '
www.phpwcms.de' site.
These tags are grouped based on functionality into system tags, link tags, article tags, navigation tags, image tags and mod tags.
I will come back to where the tags are used in a moment.
The next largest Russian doll is the 'content part'. These are a more extensive version of the 'replacement tag'. The parts come in a number of types - plain text, text with image, link list, file list, search, guestbook and so on.
These content parts fit into the 'article' which is the next largest structure (ie the next Russian doll up the chain) in phpwcms. And since you are a FrontPage user, one of the content parts is WYSIWYG HTML. You can use this 'content' type in much the same way as FrontPage.
The article then goes into a 'site structure'. You can think of site structures as a 'web page category'. For example, if you were creating a site on household pets, you might have a category for dogs, another for cats, and another for tropical fish. The individual 'site structure' would be 'dogs', 'cats', and 'fish'. Into these categories is where you place your articles.
Finally, the largest doll is the 'Home' category which contains all the individual categories.
In reverse order, the 'home' structure contains the 'category' structures which contain the articles which contain the content parts which are made of plain text, html code, images, and replacement tags an so on.
The one thing that is missing from this description is the shape of the dolls. That is defined by the 'template'. 'Templates' as used on phpwcms are not the same as those used in other cms systems. In phpwcms you create your own template(s) in the admin section. The phpwcms system provides an extensive set of options that enable you to create a wide variety of page layouts. It also includes the ability to include some of the replacement tags. You can create as many templates as you see fit. These templates define what the content will look like to the web visitor. You do this by assigning to each 'site structure' a template that you have created. Thus, you give the doll its shape.
With this in mind, go to the home site for phpwcms (
http://www.phpwcms.de). This is a fully functional demo of the phpwcms system. More importantly, take a look at each of the 'pages' in the site. They provide a more advanced conceptual description description of the phpwcms system than I. Then get a copy of the excellent 'phpwcms_docu_en.pdf' file. It is available from the main phpwcms site (downloads). This is a more technical description of how to use the system. There is also a 'quick start' which is useful. It can be found in the forum under the heading 'phpWCMS Quick Start'
Be sure to read the documentation with care. phpWCMS is not one of those things where the adage 'If all else fails, read the manual' has any application.
Other than the 'Quick Start', the last thing to look at for guidance is the forum. I say it should be the last because the individuals adding comments here vary from the highly experienced to the newbie, or even more challenged, the newbie who has to unlearn all the crap foisted on them by things such as FrontPage and its kindred.