I downloaded a template and can't open it!
I click on the index icon and get an error message.
I have searched and searched and don't know where to go or what to do to get a reply
please help!

Are you trying to open index.php off your desktop or local machine? If you are, you won't be able to open it because you probably don't have PHP installed on your local machine. You need it installed and if you are using databases, you need MySQL installed as well.

You can do this by installing XAMPP. It's a program that runs php and mysql off you computer and you can view .php files without having to upload it to a web server.

If you don't want to install anything on your computer, you can also just upload your files to your web server (if you have web space). However, your web host must also have PHP/MySQL installed. (most web hosts do)

Most likely you would have downloaded a zipped version of the template files. You would need an Unzipping utility like Winzip. Extract the files in a separate directory and view the files in a text editor.