Using Drupal 7 I am customizing the front page on a web site I am developing for my own (commercial) use. I used the Zen theme as a base, created a subtheme etc. which went well. After creating a tpl.php file just for the front page, I have now added a custom region (between the main content and the footer) and added three blocks to this custom region using the Block Administration page of the theme. Using weights I can arrange the order of the three blocks I have, provided I want them one below the other.
However, I want them side-by-side and I want each block to have some custom formatting. After Googling the drupal site I found this link http://drupal.org/node/1151704 which seems to address my problem.
Since I am new to Drupal I thought I would see if there are any other solutions beside the one in the link? I should also add that before adding the custom region I had added custom PHP code (and corresponding statements in a CSS file) to place the three blocks approximately where I wanted them on the page. However, while they were separated from the main content region, no matter what I did the Footer got intermixed with my block content, hence the Googling described above.
Suggestions greatly appreciated! Thanks.