How to set up layouts?

[winston2020]

Hey all, first time poster here :p
Well, I've been doing web stuff as a hobby for several years, but I never focused on browser compatibility, or server-side security measures. So my new project is to build a simple blog site as "correctly" as I can.
To that end, I've designed a blog post which uses tables extensively, and I was wondering if there is a cleaner solution, perhaps using css?
Unfortunately, my site is localhost only at the moment, but I can post the code below.



<table width="650" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center">
<tr>

<td width="29"><img src="http://localhost/images/tl.jpe" /></td>
<td height="29" background="http://localhost/images/top.jpe"><!-- TOP, EMPTY DATA--></td>
<td width="29"><img src="http://localhost/images/tr.jpe" /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="29" background="http://localhost/images/left.jpe"><!-- LEFT SIDE, EMPTY DATA --></td>
<td valign="top">
<!-- USER POST TABLE -->
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" border="0">

<tr>
<td width="80" valign="top"> <!-- AVATAR DATA -->
<img src="images/winston2020.jpg" width="60" height="60" border="2" />
<!-- END AVATAR DATA -->


</td>
<td>
<table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
<tr>

<td>
<!-- BLOG TABLE -->
<table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
<tr>
<td>
<!-- BLOG POST TITLE --><strong><div id="title_87">Hello!</div></strong>
<!-- END BLOG POST TITLE -->
</td>
<td align="right" width="85">

<!-- EDIT COMMANDS -->
<!-- END EDIT COMMANDS -->
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">
<!-- AUTHOR AND DATE --><em><font size="2">Wednesday, November 17, 2010 | 01:36 AM | by winston2020</font></em>
<!-- END AUTHOR AND DATE -->
</td>

</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">
<!-- BLOG POST DATA --><br/><div id="content_87">Why, hello!</div>
<!-- END BLOG POST DATA -->
</td>
</tr>
</table>
<!-- END BLOG TABLE -->

</td>
</tr>
</table>
</td>
<td width="80" valign="top" align="left">
</td>
</tr>
</table>
<!-- END USER POST TABLE-->

</td>
<td width="29" background="http://localhost/images/right.jpe"><!-- RIGHT SIDE, EMPTY DATA --></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="29"><img src="http://localhost/images/bl.jpe" /></td>
<td background="http://localhost/images/bottom.jpe"><!-- BOTTOM, EMPTY DATA --></td>
<td width="29"><img src="http://localhost/images/br.jpe" /></td>
</tr>
</table>

[Frederick Lave]

Hi, I am setting up my new sub domain site and need help since I am new at this. Okay, so I have my layout set to go.
- How do I install it?
- Do I upload a file for it or something or paste it in a folder?
- How do I make it so that the layout shows up on all pages?
- If I set up one page, and look at a new page, will all the stuff on my site show up, or just that one page in particular?

about the last question: I made the home page, then made an about the website page. when I went to look at my webpage, I saw that stuff on the home site (links in the navbar) didn't show up on the about page.

also, what do these mean - .html, .php, .index, .text

thanks so much for those who help!
please don't just give me a site with 1321354 tutorials to go read, unless it is really, really helpful.