WordPress Category Templates

Using Page and Category templates, you can provide a different type of reader experience by defining the style with CSS and the features and functions with template tags.

The differences between the default WordPress Page template (page.php) and the template used for the Category template (category-design-portfolio.php) are explained in the table.

Differences between the Page and Category Templates

Element	In Page Template?	In Design Portfolio Template?
Call to the Header template <?php get_header(); ?>	Yes	Yes
Two-column layout	Yes. The <div idclass="code">="class="code">main"class="code">> styling is defined in CSS with a width: 600px.	No. The <div id=class="code">"mainclass="code">" class=class="code">"fullwidthclass="code">"> is defined in CSS with a width of 900px.
Call to the post/page title <?php the_title(); ?>	Yes	No
Call to the post/page content <?php the_content(); ?>	Yes	No
Call to the featured image <?php the_post_thumbnail(); ?>	No	Yes
Call to the Sidebar template <?php the_sidebar(); ?>	Yes	No
Call to the Footer template <?php the_footer(); ?>	Yes	Yes

A lot of people still think of WordPress as simply a blogging platform where you can have and display a typical blog on your domain; however, you can see how you can have a blog and so much more on your website just with a few simple tweaks and adjustments to the templates that power your website theme.

dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/wordpress-category-templates.html