Explanation about errors, please?

[eluser]victorche[/eluser]
Tried to find an answer in the user guide and forums ... No success!

My problem is with the errors/messages which are displayed after a form submission. And in all the examples / tutorials I can find only one solution.

There is always a div, for example:

Code:

<div id="message">&lt;?php echo $message; ?&gt;</div>

So far, so good. But I want to style this div with CSS, adding some beauty in it
And the problem is... It is hardcoded in the template (the view file I mean). So if there is no style, then yes. The div is not visible, until it is populated with some text from the message. But when I add some style, then it is always visible.

Maybe my explanation was not good enough. But I am looking for a way, not only to display the error/message as a text. I need a whole div, which is showing after there is a post (form submit). This div to appear then, with the design and styles. And then maybe I will hide it with some jQuery stuff

Any ideas, or links to such kind of approach? I mean examples, or tutorials ...

Thanks in advance!