ok, i am quite good with with phpbb, firstly the most important thing you need to know is, any phpbb {COMMANDS} work as soon as the word with {} are placed {L_LOGIN} for example is a link for the login file placing the login script where you want it
the second is that normal
html works, so adding your own menu is entirly possible and quite easy. ( you can also import
php scripts the normal way )
the third thing is that the files you need to edit are the .tpl's
and the last thing is the
css, if you know
css, it is not difficult to replace the backgrounds, colours, headers etc
the OVERALL_HEADER.tpl is the header, the OVERALL_FOOTER.tpl is the footer - the rest is look and see, then adjust as appropiate
if you add something to the overall_header to display to one side, it will display on the left, - if you add something to the overall_footer that you want to display down the side it will appear on the right
this is basically all you need to know
any more specific questions go to
http://www.phpbb.com