My name is Alyx and I will be helping you make a website. 1st of all let's make a file in your file manager called "database.php". After you name it copy this into your file.
<?php
mysq_connect("Host","username","password") or die(mysq_error());
echo"Connect";
mysq_select_db("database_name") or die (mysql_error());
echo"Connect";
?>
That will help you save time than posting it in every file when you can just include it. That is also a good place to put you whole site's CSS.
CSS will be discussed in my blogs. Further CSS info will be found there and good CSS samples will be found here.
I hope I can help you make the site you've always wanted.