“child_of (integer)” syntax question

Hello,

I am new to wordpress and I am looking forward to the easier maintenance of my (fairly simple) site.

However, since I am new to WP and new to PHP, I am struggling with the syntax a little. I am trying to show subpages much in a horizontal bar when ever the parent page on a horizontal bar imediately above is selected, much like the WP admin interface itself.

I have tried to read the support pages, but I am afraid that my unfamiliarity with PHP is a problem…for instance what does “Put this inside the the_post() section of the page.php template of your WordPress theme after the_content(), or put it in a copy of the page.php template that you use for pages that have sub-pages:” mean?

Does “Put this inside” mean that the argument goes in the “()” or does it mean to put it between the “<?” and “?>”? Is the post section the section between the “<?” and “?>” or is it the <div class=post section? I could ask more question about the precise meaning of that sentence, but perhaps what I need is a little help on the meaning the specific words in the WP lexicon?

This one of those issues that quickly and somewhat exponentially resolves itself as I practice more – I think perhaps this might be my problem just because I haven’t the experience yet.

I apologize if there is a self-evident solution or KB article.

Thank you for your help!

Jim