I'm not 100% sure what you are aiming for Joel or Steve but one way to get admin/public designs is to change content conditionally:

<% If DotNetNuke.Security.PortalSecurity.IsInRoles(PortalSettings.AdministratorRoleName) %>
      <div id="wrapper" class="admin">
<% else %>
      <div id="wrapper" class="public">
<% End If %>

Then use the awesome power of CSS and JS to change the design.

Credit: John Mitchell

I have a similar question.

What is the best way to make sure that the DNN-Blue skin is always used when the host or admin is logged in??

Right now what happens for me is that the home page gets the custom skin, then moving to other pages while logged in as host/admin, I get either the DNN-Blue OR the custom skin.

Should my custom skin be only in the Portals/0 folder and not in the Portals/default folder??

Thank you, tom

Thanks for the input Jeff.  My personal preference is to design a little better so that if using a horizontal menu, it scales properly and I make sure anyone using it knows it's scalability limits.  You can break anything and often people try to push too much into a single area in a skin, but designing a more fluid skin allows for the two administrative menu items to fit in fairly well, without major problems.

I use left menus most of the time and break the menu structure into two areas.  The admin items then appearing in the left menu and don't see any issue there at all.  I will think about what affect images might have, but if those are the only reasons for an admin skin, i'll probably keep skipping that.

I do appreciate the input though.

Clay