Install Skins first or Hacks?
 

I am setting up my forum for the first time.

I want to install a lot of hacks, and want to install them on the default vBulletin installation to keep things nice and simple (even before I set up the categories/forums), just as it is straight after installation.

Should I do this though? will adding the 3 or so skins I want on the forum afterwards mean I have to adapt each hack to each new skin individually?

Or should I install the skins first?

Many thanks!

I'd suggest you install the skins first. Some of the hacks automatically create new templates on the skins you've installed.

Really?

Some of the templates I installed on my localhost practice forum have'nt shown up in the navbar, but have on the default skin, such as vBookie and vbplaza.

What should I look into to have them appear in the navbar on my other skins as intended?

They are all HTML skins (not Flash or anything) ?

Not suggesting or my opinion

You SHOULD install the skin first then the hacks, many reasons, templates etc.

If you install multiple skins I STRONGLY recommend having all of them trace back to a common root. Try to keep template edits limited to that root (usually the default template). This limits the number of template edits needed to perform. Conversely it limits you to using only those skins which contain no template edits (they exist, though they are rare).

Thanks Michael!

How do I go about the 'tracing them back to a common root' thing?

Also I don't understand the difference between skins and templates. Thought they were the same.

A template is the code that defines what a page, or part of a page will be.

A Style (or skin) is a collection of templates.

Make them all a child of the same style - the best choice is the vBulletin default style. This way if you make a change in the vBulletin default style it will be inherited by all your other templates.