Getting started... how do I?
 

I wanted to add some of the hacks I've seen but I'm not sure what to do... say for instance if you are to modify a search.php, what do I open(associate it with) up search.php with? wordpad, notepad? I tried this yesterday then when i went to save it, it said something about will loose the format? so I wasnt sure it would work.. Can you please help get me started... just not sure how to modify the .php's part.. thanks!

There is a good thread about PHP Editors here:
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthrea...threadid=32618
Personally I use EditPlus2 but you will find many editors in that thread so take your pick. :)

do not use HTML editors like frontpage, dreamweaver..

If you dont have a nice text editor, simply use notepad and you'll be fine..

I'll have to disagree on Dreamweaver since it can edit PHP just fine, like any other text based editing program. I use Dreamweaver because its easy to find the code you need to edit or add to it. Dreamweaver lets you edit the HTML code in code view.

Frontpage however I wouldn't dare open a document (even an html one) in that bloated program.

If you are an experienced Dreamweaver user, you are right. I'm a Dreamweaver user too and I'm comfortable with it even editing PHP. But for someone who doesnt know configuring the options of the program correctly, dreamweaver can cause trouble just like other WYSIWYG HTML editors. (You have to be sure "Never rewrite the code" for PHP extensions is checked!)

On the contrary you'll always be safe with Notepad even if you havent used it once. :)