Clean CSS, Theme or Design Wizard

[Golf Tee Warehouse]

I have been using v7 for 12 months but have recently upgraded to V9 Business and am trying to get to grips with designing in V9 which is completely different.
Hopefully if I spend enough time reading through the AUG and this forum it will start to make sense, but was ineterested to heat views of the other forum members on the best way forward bewteen.

I will be starting the design from scratch and I want a layout with section lists on the left and a horizontal nav bar at the top and cart contents in the top right corner and am hoping to use the CSS Designer mentioned by Gabe.
Which is the easiest option which is also good for SEO.

Start with an existing theme such as "Reflective", a clean theme such as "Clean Layout 3", "Clean CSS" or use the design wizard, or does it not matter. I want to create a design that doesn't look like an unmodiifed Actinc install.

[pinbrook]

I'd always start with a CSS theme as this means there is more CSS in the underlying layouts. Some themes are still heavy on tables so its better to kick these into touch before you start

[Golf Tee Warehouse]

How can I find out which themes are CSS themes.
Are all the "Clean Layout 01-14" CSS based and what is the difference between the "Clean Layouts" and the "Clean CSS Layout"?

[jont]

The CSS are marginally better for SEO but how to implement them depends on your level of HTML / CSS skill. The new design wizard works well if you are a n00b to coding. The clean CSS layouts (chose the one that is closest to your desired layout) are the best way forward if you are happy at hacking the CSS.

For ultimate control design your own and throw away most of the actinic CSS

[Golf Tee Warehouse]

Thanks for the replies.

Would designing in Dreamweaver and then registering the design in Actinic be an easier option than the clean layouts.

[jont]

Not necessarily. It depends on your level of knowledge and exactly what you want to do. You may find an existing clean theme is almost what you want and you can tweak that - no point reinventing the wheel.

[Golf Tee Warehouse]

Thanks Jont,

I have spent another couple of days playing around and am starting to get an understanding of the layouts, although still confused. I have worked throught the "Getting Started Guide" which gives you a simple overview, are there are any more detailed instructional guides on learning layouts and making changes to the overall design. In V7 there was a design guide download which doesn't seem to exist for V8 or V9. I realise that Gabe has produced a guide for Blocks which will be helpful later.

I can get a design layout close to what I want if I use the "Design Wizard" or "Clean Layout 04", but was not sure if these themes are too table based rather than CSS. I have also tried the "Clean CSS Layout" but find the default layout is not very close to my requirements, I can improve this if I change the "Advanced Themes Configuration" and change the overall layout to the "Two Header Bars - One Side Bar -Horz Nav Bar 1", although I would then need to work out how to add in a right side bar.

What are the main advantages of selecting a theme with more CSS and less tables.