#1. Templates for someone like you are only good when they do what you want without modification or trouble. Even sophisticated design programs can screw up things so that they have to be fixed by someone who understands code. Probably your best choice has been your subscription to Experts Exchange where you can ask questions. Do what you can and we'll try to help you.
#2. Yes, CSS is styles that can be applied to the elements on the page. "styles" in MS Word is close but CSS can also be used to determine the position of elements on the page.
If you need to keep doing this, you should probably get a little more education about it. One of the problems I see most often is that people put things out of order which makes them appear wrong. I use W3Schools frequently
http://www.w3schools.com/default.asp . There is too much to know to not have a place to look things up.