Draperies and Top Treatments - drapes - need suggestions and help with terminology

I have a sliding patio door currently covered with some cheap plastic vertical blinds. The sun comes in VERY strong here. I'd like to replace the blinds since the slats don't always lineup straight, and you can see light rays coming through randomly spaced gaps. Also, the sun sneaks in at the ends, and will probably lead to long term fading. I'd like to keep the sun out completely as its not good for my TV screen, and open the drapes if needed. The current blinds are 84x66.

What is the difference between single width and double width? What are the number of panels? I noticed that most drapes are designed for french doors instead of sliding, so they are split in the middle. I'd like to get something that slides to one side only; a single sheet. 50" seems to be a very common width; does that mean the drapes are 50" when fully extended, and when fully stretched, it would look like a flat sheet? I can't seem to find any drapes that much up well with my window dimensions.

As far as keep sunlight from coming in at the ends, what is the best approach to block that? Are there any rods or drapes that curl in at the ends? By ends I mean:

...........................|VERT BLINDS ||||||||||||
.........<---sunlight ||||||||||||||||||||||||||| -----> sunlight
...........................|||||||||||||||||||||||||||

I have items in the corners of the room that I do not want to get sun-faded.

Thanks for any advice.

A panel is one finished curtain or drapery, a width is how many widths of fabric were used to make that panel, so a one width panel means one width of fabric was used, etc. When it comes to readymades, I'm not sure if 50" means the finished size when extended or the size before the heading was put in. If it's a flat panel, with no pleating at the top, then 50" would mean the size when fully stretched out. If there's no pleating, then yes, it will look like a sheet when fully closed. If there's pleating at the top (i.e. pinch pleats) it will not look flat. For a sliding door, you'll need a much bigger size. To keep sun out, especially a strong sun, you need the panels to be blackout lined. To cover the ends, they do sell curved rods, but these are only meant to be used for rod pocket panels. If you want them on rings, you'll need to go custom, to get a return at the end (meaning the end of the panel will go back to the wall). I don't know of any readymades that put a return at the end. JC Penneys sells wide width panels, with different headings, but not sure if any are blackout lined and doubt if they have returns. :(
Hope this helped.

check out draperies specifically for patio doors, like these (http://www4.jcpenney.com/jcp/ProductList.aspx?DeptID=25437&CatID=28606&CatTyp=DEP&Cat=patio+doors&Dep=Window&PCat=Decks+%26+Doors&PCatID=28421&RefPage=ProductList&Page=99&Sale=&ProdCount=23&RecPtr=&FirstCount=0&ShowMenu=&TTYP=&ShopBy=0&ViewAll=True&RefPageName=CategoryAll%252Easpx&RefCatID=28421&RefDeptID=25437) at penney's. they draw to one side and are very wide. :thumbup: