Hooks!?!?! Im so confused, HELP!

[Cloud]

Hi,

im trying to create a custom theme for my site and wanted to have a look at the html for the homepage.
Using Firebug (the Firefox tool) i can see the HTML and the CSS of the homepage. I manages to figure out that the HTML is stored in the 2 files called header.tpl and footer.tpl. But when i go to these files all i can see is something like &HOOK;_TOP.

My question is, how can i see what is stored in the Hook called TOP?!?

Common sense tells you that HOOK_TOP is the header, and from looking at the homepage i can see what modules are contained in the header. So when i look at the coding for that module, i can see in the coding that the module i assigned to HOOK_TOP, is that the only way of finding out what hooks contain what?
What if i didnt want that module to be part of HOOK_TOP, do i just delete that peice of code or replace it with another Hook?

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

[haagendazs]

hi! im pretty new to this too

the {$HOOK_SOMETHING} lines just indicate the group of modules

if you go to the Back Office -> Modules -> Positions, you'll see a list of modules and where they belong. for example, "Right Column Blocks" refers to {$HOOK_RIGHT}, "Homepage Content" refers to {$HOOK_HOME}, and "Top of Pages" refers to {$HOOK_TOP}, i believe. to remove modules from "$HOOK_TOP", for example, click the red X next to the module. if you want to add, go to the top of the Positions page and hit "Transplant a module" and u can choose which "HOOK" to add a module to

if you want your homepage to be customized, you can try using the css. for example, since the homepage's body has an id of index, just do:
#index #left_column, #index #right_column {display:none;} if you want to get rid of the columns only for the homepage
of course then you'll have to expand the center column to fit the whole page:
#index #center_column {width:100%;} ...i think that should do it

then whatever you want to put in the customized homepage, stick it into "index.tpl". you can also comment out the {$HOOK_HOME} like so <!--{$HOOK_HOME}--> or just delete it if you dont want any modules in the homepage... or manually "X" the modules from the Positions page. then just add whatever html you'd like in the index.tpl file for a fully customized homepage!

hope this helps