Templates?

Are you saying that you can’t edit your template from within the WordPress Admin Panel?
What is the version of WP you are using, and what is the exact message you are getting?

There is no message, I’m using whatever the newest one is…Just downloaded
something about it not being writeable?

chmod will do it

….
What the hell is that? And how do I use it?

Well, Kate, CHMOD is a command that is available in most FTP programs like WS_FTP LE or SmartFTP, both of which are freeware.
When your files are listed on the FTP server, right-click on your “index.php” file and you should get a context menu with a command for CHMOD or File Attributes. In the dialog, play with clicking the various buttons or if it lets you type it in the permissions should be set to 666 (don’t fear the reaper!).
Hope that’s a good head start for you. If you don’t know what the hell FTP is, you might have larger issues. Good luck!

On a linux server every file has a set of permissions. They permit various users (including the computer or other programmes to do or not do various things). Unless the particular file has its permissions set correctly it will not let any other file write to it. This is a very important feature of linux’s network security. It is not there to make like difficult and is easy to fix. Use your ftp client, identify the file (index.php) find a widget in ftp for changing the properties and set them so that it is writeable. The precise mechanism depends on your ftp client and possibly your server host. Your blog looks cool so far. Good luck. Stay in touch and we will get you through it.

you can’t be sure about a permissions change with ws_ftp. when i use ws_ftp, i make sure i set permissions for a certain file at least five times. otherwise, i’d use the file manager in cpanel for chmod.

I’ve used cpanel too.
It’s giving me the same message.

AHA!
I got it. THANK YOU,
again, I apologise for being short.

No problem. Good luck with the acting!