Features / Usability

You're actually asking several questions. Let me try to help:

Features
To enable specific features (such as wiki or blog) to your Tiki, you must:

1. Enable the feature on the Feature Admin page.
2. Then configure that specific feature on the feature's Configuration page. For example, after enabling the Wiki feature, you would configure it on the Wiki Configuration page.

Modules
The little boxes of "content" (such as the Shoutbox) that appear on your Tiki are called modules. To add modules to your Tiki:

1. Assign a specific module by using the Module Admin page. You can also specify that certain modules appear for only specific security groups.
2. Enable the associated feature (if required) for your module. For example, to use the mod-articles module, you must enable the Articles feature.

Appearance
The "appearance" (that is, look and feel) of your Tiki is controlled by themes. Tiki ships with ~20 base themes. You may want to look at themes.tikiwiki.org for more info. Basically:

1. Assign a "base" theme for your Tiki on the General Admin page.
2. Specify which parts of Tiki appear (top, bottom, left, right) on your site (or for specific features) on the Features Admin page.
3. Use the Site Identity feature to future customize your Tiki.

Finally, you can create your own theme by making custom TPL template files.

HTH,

-Rick