I'm new as well, but I'll answer were I can...

- how do I customize my skin? can I do with Dreamweaver? How???
- can edit what appears on the blog main page? I don't want the categories name to be shown, I don't want words count, I don't want the flag. how do I get this out?
I don't want search engine in the blog, how do I get it out?

All of these things can be handled form within the main file of the skin you want to change. To customize your skin you open the the _main.php file from yours skin's folder and you edit this file as required.
I would strongly suggest you use a "code friendly" text editor. I use Notepad++ and I love it.

Now, how to edit this file?? Well, to get rid of "categories" you find the

 // -------------------------- CATEGORIES INCLUDED HERE -----------------------------
		// Call the Categories plugin:
		$Plugins->call_by_code( 'evo_Cats', array(	// Add parameters below:
			) );
		// -------------------------------- END OF CATEGORIES ---------------------------------- 

in the _main.php file and remove it.

To get rid of the word count and flag, look for the following in the main area:

<div class="bSmallHead">
		<?php
			$Item->permanent_link( '#icon#' );
			echo ' ';
			$Item->issue_time();
			echo ', '.T_('by').' ';
			$Item->author( '<strong>', '</strong>' );
			$Item->msgform_link( $Blog->get('msgformurl') );
			echo ', ';
			$Item->wordcount();
			echo ' '.T_('words');
			echo ', ';
			$Item->views();
			echo ' &nbsp; ';
			locale_flag( $Item->locale, 'h10px' );
			echo '<br /> ', T_('Categories'), ': ';
			$Item->categories();
		?>
		</div>

I made mine look like:

<div class="bSmallHead">
		<?php
			$Item->permanent_link( '#icon#' );
			echo ' ';
			$Item->issue_time();
			echo ', ', T_('Categories'), ': ';
			$Item->categories();
			echo ' &nbsp; ';
		?>
		</div>

and finally the search engine...find and delete:

<div class="bSideItem">
		<h3 class="sideItemTitle"><?php echo T_('Search') ?></h3>
		<?php form_formstart( $Blog->dget( 'blogurl', 'raw' ), 'search', 'SearchForm' ) ?>
			<p><input type="text" name="s" size="30" value="<?php echo htmlspecialchars($s) ?>" class="SearchField" /><br />
			<input type="radio" name="sentence" value="AND" id="sentAND" <?php if( $sentence=='AND' ) echo 'checked="checked" ' ?>/><label for="sentAND"><?php echo T_('All Words') ?></label><br />
			<input type="radio" name="sentence" value="OR" id="sentOR" <?php if( $sentence=='OR' ) echo 'checked="checked" ' ?>/><label for="sentOR"><?php echo T_('Some Word') ?></label><br />
			<input type="radio" name="sentence" value="sentence" id="sentence" <?php if( $sentence=='sentence' ) echo 'checked="checked" ' ?>/><label for="sentence"><?php echo T_('Entire phrase') ?></label></p>
			<input type="submit" name="submit" class="submit" value="<?php echo T_('Search') ?>" />
		</form>
	</div>

You really don't need to know a whole lot about PHP, you just need to know how to find the components you want to change.

You can also edit the CSS file for style and the other PHP file depending on the component you want to affect.

Hope this helps. So far I love b2evo, but then again my only other experience was Blogger!

lynne wrote:

I made mine look like:

<div class="bSmallHead">
		<?php
			$Item->permanent_link( '#icon#' );
			echo ' ';
			$Item->issue_time();
			echo ', ', T_('Categories'), ': ';
			$Item->categories();
			echo ' &nbsp; ';
		?>
		</div>

If you don't want the categories in your article itself, you use this code

<div class="bSmallHead">
		<?php
			$Item->permanent_link( '#icon#' );
			echo ' ';
			$Item->issue_time();
		?>
		</div>

Just to point out, but the wiki/manual is a great place for begginers;
http://manual.b2evolution.net/Main_Page