hi all. i do hope you guys can offer me some assistance.
I'm rather new to forum designing/skinning and have recently started to get into this.

I have limited knowledge of HTML but my CSS skills are lacking.

I'm trying to recreate something i have seen on another site.
here

as you can see. there is no seperate portal/forum. they seem to have merged the two. or drawn either the forum element into the portal. or the Portal news into the Forum.
I would very much like to recreate this kind of look but i'm stuck.

I thought maybe i could do it by removing all the portal 'boxes' apart from news and then making a custom portal box with the html for the forum index within it.
I realise this was a long shot and yep - it didnt work. lol.

I know that the problem is more a lack of knowledge in these things than anything else.
I've been looking around for usefull places to start and i'm willing to spend some time to learn but i would really like to get this aspect of my forum down.

I was wondering if anyone here could throw me a few pointers on how this effect was achieved.

the end result i'm after is having the News section (updated - just like the portal) above the forum.
Without having it seperate on the Portal or simply linked to via a button on the nav-bar.

and please, refrain from useless posts.
If your going to post here simply saying - oh thats only done with HTML/CSS. then by all means say that. but why not provide some usefull information also (like a resource link etc).
i understand this might be a bit tricky.
I'm just looking for a good place to start
any help would be appreciated.
Thanks for your time.

Well I don;t see your portal activated. Try activating it again from admin panel=>Modules=>Portal & Calendar=>Configuration Also try clicking on the "delete the portal " button from the bottom of that page and install your portal again.

sorry you seem to have missunderstood. the link i provided :-
this site
is not my forum or the one i'm working on.
I'm just trying to achieve the same effect they have.

As you can see on that site. there is a 'news' section (just like the one made via the portal). and right below it - the forum (as if you were viewing the forum and not the portal at all).

basically i am trying to get the news section, just as it appears within the portal - onto the forum main index page. like they have done.

any ideas on how they did this?

I dont see what your talking about except a forum named news

above the forum..

From top to bottom :-
banner for the site.
Nav-Bar /Link Images.
News ( currently showing the Winner of the picture contest

Then - the forum starts, just how it appears usually.
with various forums/topics set out.

The part i'm interested in is the Display Above the forum and below the site banner
-News ( currently showing the Winner of the picture contest

If it is indeed just a forum named news, then how is it placed above the main forum like that and how does it display the contents of the thread instead of just the icons etc.

thats just news, lol thats not a portal, you can changed and edit that by going to
Admin>General>Homepage than scroll down to homepage messages

LOL.
wow. ok now i feel very stupid.
(i did say i was new to this). ><

thanks a lot for clearing that up for me.
I'd not even noticed that option for the forum.

thanks.

i think i'll take this oppertunity to run away and hide before more peple come and laugh at me..
hahaha.