i dont get how to grab the chunks out of the templates... to put it in to my how template... whats the trick?

Short answer, whats in the {tags} is the code and needs to be kept to display the information from the database and what is in the <tags> is the html and can be changed.

What is displayed between the {if} {/if} tags mean that a condition must be met before the coding is displayed.

keep a back up of your original copy and make some changes

cant believe i worked for 3y with php and never thought to learn how to use smarty...