I am trying to do two things and cannot figure it out:
1) I want to make the width of the forum tables a set pixel width rather than 100%. Every time I try to change it in default/category_list.html, it does not seem to work.

2) I want to change the colors of the table cells....header, background, borders, etc. I have found within the html, $odd_color and $even_color and references to colors that look like this: <%dark_beige%>, but still have no idea how to make changes to it.

Thanks for any help someone could lend to a novice.