Yes. Any changes made to your site  definitions will not be reflected on the master site edited in FrontPage, or any other sites  created from a template  based on the FrontPage edited site.

My understanding was if you made a template  then all sites  created from this template would be ghosted to this template unless the site  was changed from the template version

Are you saying this is not the case ?

If you edit a master site  that was used to create a site template, it will not affect any other sites  that were made from the template, nor will it update the template  file.  A template (made from either a ghosted or unghosted  site) is a snapshot of a site’s current state that can be used as a footprint or starting point to make a new site, but the template is not a dynamic control, connection or dictator for that site.   It is akin to using a DOT file for a new Word document.

So no, that is not the case.

So how do you get to create ghosted pages with new look and feel.

You have several options¦

- Create and use a theme

- Modify the look and feel of the site  through image replacement and CSS changes

- Create your own custom site definition

This may help: heathersolomon.com/.../IntroCustomization.aspx

Create a custom site  definition. Check out http://www.devx.com/dotnet/Article/27673/0/page/2

I have some recommendations on creating custom site  definitions on the Mindsharp Premium Content Page and sample custom site definition code too.

1. You cannot unghost a site, you can only unghost a page. By default,
all pages in a site  will be ghosted (uncustomized). You can, by simply
clicking save  in FrontPage 2003 or by altering the properties associated
with an ASPX page  in a document library in the browser, unghost
(customize) an instance page. Admin pages in _layouts cannot be
unghosted. This unghosted  snapshot will always be different than the
direct-mode page template  (found in the site definition) upon which it
was based. Any changes to the direct-mode page template will not be
reflected in the customized instance page.

In WSS v2, there is no OOB way to tell that a page has been customized
(unghosted). However, Maurice Prather wrote the Web Part Toolkit which
contains the Ghost Hunter Web Part. You can download this Toolkit from
http://BlueDogLimited.com and install the Ghost Hunter Web Part from
your SharePoint Web Server. When you put the Ghost Hunter Web Part on a
page, you will see all the pages in the entire site collection that have
been unghosted. The Web Part also lets you reghost pages (abandon any
changes made to the page outside of a container like a WebPartZone or
LinkBar).

2. Customized (unghosted) pages that are included in a custom site
template (STP) will result in unghosted pages in any site created  from
that template. Worse, any page that has been reghosted and subsequently
included in a site STP will bleed thru as unghosted in any site created
from that template.

<soapbox>
G-g-g-ghosted is g-g-g-good. Unghosted (in WSS v2) is bad.
mindsharpblogs.com/.../626.aspx

WSS v3 has fixed these problems for instance pages. So, customizing them
with SharePoint Designer (SPD) is fine in WSS v3. However, IMHO,
unghosting master pages in WSS v3 is still not a good idea.
</soapbox>