csleh

it won’t display properly until you get rid of the code word put in the post. Inline styles trump stylesheet every time.

To do this, go the post, select html view, and get rid of everything that isn’t your text. There’ll be lots of “MSO” blah blah crap in there.

To paste from word, try clicking on “show kitchen sink” (right below upload media). A new bar appears, including a clipboard with a w. click on that, paste the text from word into the pop-up box, then choose Ok. The post should appear correctly.

dlgentle,
it sounds like you are where I was a year ago. Let wordpress handle the whole thing! never worry about title tags, meta tags, etc. The only thing that’s generally editable is the content (as a designer, you’ll know how to change the template files but clients won’t). Set up a custom theme (overall look) with custom templates (the php bits like header, single post, etc). Paste the html into the proper php template file, then customize from there. Make sure to work off a duplicate, so if things get messed up the original theme can be turned back on/copied from.

One thing I did learn was to bookmark pages that are helpful, as you’ll refer to them over and over again while figuring out how to modify the default theme to your own theme, and how to set up templates. Try a google search for learning wordpress tutorials — the info here is good only if you know where it’s starting from.
Also try MAMP, which runs an install of wordpress right on a mac. this way I can fool around setting up a theme without risking a live site.

Sorry if this is elementary level…

Why not just edit the default template and let wordpress automate the whole thing?
There is already a header and footer and one sidebar, you can simply replace the header html part with your own, same with the footer and sidebar. Add another sidebar to complete the wrap.
Then, copy the html for the main area, calling in the appropriate wrapping files. Copy this bit into the various template files (page, single post, archive, index, etc).

The title, if it’s a link, should look like this:
<h2><a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to <?php the_title(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a></h2>

otherwise like this:
<h2><?php the_title(); ?></h2>

You should be editing the template used for the Page.

I don’t write php, but try this:

<?php $my_query = new WP_Query('cat=5&showposts=3'); ?>
<?php while ($my_query->have_posts()) : $my_query->the_post(); ?>
<div class="post"><h2><?php the_title(); ?></h2></div>
 <div class="entry">
<?php the_content(); ?>
<p class="postmetadata">
<?php _e('Filed under:'); ?> <?php the_category(', ') ?> <?php _e('by'); ?> <?php the_author(); ?>
<?php comments_popup_link('No Comments »', '1 Comment »', '% Comments »'); ?> <?php edit_post_link('Edit', ' | ', ''); ?>
</p>
</div>
<?php endwhile; ?>

which looks a bit different than the beginning of the bit pasted in the original post. You’ve also got an extra end </p> tag at the end.

Can you give the “more” or “read more” a class? or set to an unused tag, like h6? then in the css add padding or margin as needed.

best to use something you have control over.