Hi! I was wondering what most designers are doing with their templates. I have read everywhere the best bet is to use hooks when designing so the core files are intact. Are the designers doing this as well or just designing and not worrying about using the hooks? Just being curious 
Thanks!
Depends on whether you want to upgrade in the future and how much you want that upgrade to impact your custom work. If you want independence, use hooks. If you donât (and want to spend hours reviewing conflicts from an upgrade) then donât.
[quote name=âtbirnsethâ]Depends on whether you want to upgrade in the future and how much you want that upgrade to impact your custom work. If you want independence, use hooks. If you donât (and want to spend hours reviewing conflicts from an upgrade) then donât.[/QUOTE]
Thatâs what I thought. I purchased 2 templates from 2 designers to get an idea of what they were doing and they were not using the hooks. So i wondered if that was the common thing they are doing.
But after seeing your article (which was extremely helpful by the way, and thank you for it) I was just confused on why they wouldnât be using them and thought I might be missing something.
It usually takes longer to develop using hooks and there are not always hooks defined for what someone wants to do.
But if I were going to sell you a skin, would you want me to sell you a bunch of hook files or a complete skin you can drop-in?
It think thatâs why you will find âdesignersâ developing as a new skin change even if they may have only changed the css.
Itâs all about marketingâŚ
Like TB said, though, there are limitations to the hooks system.
I would say that if you are doing real heavy customizations, the hooks system will not work for you.
Unless you build custom hooks but not sure how efficient that is.