PHP Web Design

[paintballa2006]

Hello, I'm a programmer who is a newb to web design. I am creating/designing a PHP based web site. I am a little confused as far as how I should write the code for my site. I would like to know what all of your opinions are on how I should write my PHP code so that it is easy to maintain, gives me a lot of functionality, and is completely separate from the design of the page. Like I said I am a newb to web design and I want to know some of the ideas you guys have for doing this. I do not want to use a CMS or anything like that I want to build this website on my own from the ground up.

[jeffy777]

Here's a brief anwser:

I would make design a template first (look around for ideas), using as much css as you can (keep it as centralized as possible), then break that up into includes (header, footer, etc.) and plug in your php code from there.