Side nav or top nav template?

[ChoccieMuffin]

Hello, gurus.

I am developing a new project and I can't figure out the most sensible approach to take. This is what I need:

Front page from Soledad template - this is a top nav template and the stakeholders like the way that page hangs together.
Topic pages like Cardiff - this is a side nav template, where topics all have the full TOC as a side menu.

So do I start with Soledad and try to add a side menu to my regular topics (they want the side menu to replace the relationship table-type menu it currently has),
OR
Do I start with Cardiff and try to make a front page that looks like Soledad?

To add complication to my decision-making, Soledad has two stylesheets (one for main page and one for everything else) but Cardiff just has one stylesheet with all the front page stuff included.

In either case I'd appreciate some pointers in how to achieve what I want - I know it CAN be done, I just don't quite know how!

Advice much appreciated - over to you, thank you very much.

[Nita Beck]

I think I'd start with Soledad because, in my experience, it's easier to implement a Side Nav skin than it is to construct a home page. So, if you like the Soledad home page, start there. Then you can add a Side Nav skin and hook that up to the HTML5 target. OR -- and here's what I'd do -- I'd create a second project based on Cardiff and then, in the Soledad-based project, I'd do a one-time import from the Cardiff-based project, electing to pull in its Side Nav skin and any files linked to it. But I wouldn't want its stylesheet, for example. Does that make sense?

[ChoccieMuffin]

I think I'd start with Soledad because, in my experience, it's easier to implement a Side Nav skin than it is to construct a home page. So, if you like the Soledad home page, start there. Then you can add a Side Nav skin and hook that up to the HTML5 target. OR -- and here's what I'd do -- I'd create a second project based on Cardiff and then, in the Soledad-based project, I'd do a one-time import from the Cardiff-based project, electing to pull in its Side Nav skin and any files linked to it. But I wouldn't want its stylesheet, for example. Does that make sense?

Thanks Nita, I hoped you'd jump in on this one as I know you know the smart way to do this kind of thing.

I'll give your suggestion a go - I had already done some work on the side-nav skin in a version of Cardiff a couple of years ago that got shelved, so I think I'll have a bit of a play with that idea and see what happens. I'll let you know how I get on, because I'm pretty sure I'll have questions.

Thanks again!