See attached.

There are several ways to do this but based on your description, I'd start in Freehand mode and set the page background color to whatever you want for the border color (I selected orange).  Then you can add one white template the size of the inner area of the border: here I added a template (last thumbnail) that is 1 inch less than the page size, giving me a half inch border.  Center that template (you can do that in the full page editor) and then give it an 8 inch white "border": a large border that is bigger than the template size fills the template with white.  Then you can place 9 smaller templates inside that white template (arranging them manually and precisely in the page editor) and you have 9 template locations inside a page with a border.  Save that as a layout.  You can then use the layout and add images to the layout.  Takes a few minutes to set up the layout but once you are done, you only have to open the layout and use it.

P.S.  If you don't want any space between the 3x3 prints, you don't even need the white template in the background.  I put it there because that way you can select any size you like (as long as it will fit 3x3 inside the white rectangle) and it'll still work like a border.

Regards,
Mike

Thanks so much, Mike. I understand.