[doob]

That basically makes sense. I had planned on integrating it differently though.

I'd like to use divs rather than tables. I'm not a big fan on the old-school use of tables and have pretty much abandoned them.

I'd like to do the following, and am not sure if I'm just totally on the wrong track as far as programming for VB or if I'm making a small syntax error...

1) add a global_start plugin that reads something like: ob_start();
include('../nav/sidebar/includes/forumsGeneric.php');
$include_daSidebarRight = ob_get_contents();
ob_end_clean();

1a) the forumsGeneric.php page would have its own css to control the placement of the content: i.e. it would float:right; width: 220px; etc... That page pretty much just consists of a <div> instead of a table, but I can then edit it seperately from FORUMHOME etc.

2) Then if I undestand, I should be able to just drop in a single variable into the relavant template to get my new <div> in there. That is what I did to add a custom $navbar and $footer. So I think I should be able to call my sidebar plugin $sidebarRight and then just drop that variable in at the end of the page and see my sidebar show up. However, that's not working, so again, if anyone can nudge me in the right direction that'd be great.

Thanks again.

--------------- Added [DATE]1260159337[/DATE] at [TIME]1260159337[/TIME] ---------------

Ok. I was able to edit the FORUMHOME template and basically break out that page in the same way I break out the non-forums portion of the site into divs controlled by css.

When I had created plugins for header and footer info becuase I did not have a sidebar I didn't put them in divs becuase I didn't need them to float.

Adding a floating sidebar meant the rest of the page got messed up. And the reason it was getting messed up is becuase I hadn't put the plugin header/footer into a div becuase I didn't originally need too.

So, it was as simple as wrapping the $header $sidebar $footer variables in <div></div> tags with a class applied.

Bam! Homegrown sidebar action! Woop woop!
-D

ps. right now the site is not using the template that I got the sidebar working in. I should have the new template take over sometime early this week if all goes according to plan.

Now I just need to figure out how to get everyone on to the new template without screwing anything up.