[wp-hackers] newbie question on custom page templates

[John Black]

Hi,

So I have a news site, but I want it to look less like a blog than it does. I thought about trying to create a custom page template for each category, so it looks like the site has real sections. Only returns from a given category would show up, but there would be many ways of handing them (a slider, a carousel, posts with thumbnails, posts without, etc).

Two questions: I wonder how I'm going to be able to get category returns to show up but not be duplicated across different display elements (slider, carousel, etc).

Second, there's no way am I going to be able to learn the code below Wordpress, so are there premium templates out there for such a  purpose. I know my given theme will matter, but Wordpress is standard in a way, so I don't know why people don't develop custom templates for sale.

I'm probably barking up the wrong flagpole, so any thoughts / guidance much appreciated.

JB