Take a look at the Help Portal HomePage.

1. This Portal uses the SCmsn1 Skin. It has the following areas defined where things can go.
2. There's space for your own Custom Logo Graphic (at the top)... maximum size is about 110 high by 468 wide.
3. There's a menu-bar where most of your controls are... Loging in, Logging Out, Searching, Getting around and changing your account info.
4. The Top Pane is invisible because there is nothing in it.
5. Then there are three Panes across the center. 
6. In the Left Pane there is a Module (with a blue container) that says Users... It has some membership info for this portal. This is the UsersOnline Module. It can be selected in the Control Panel.
7. In the Right Pane there is a Module (with an Orange container) that says Portal-List.. This is a Reports Module. This one is special since only the SuperUser can set up the SQL part of the content to pull information from the database.
8. In the Content Pane  (center) there is a Module without a container that says "Get Help HERE". This is a TEXT/HTML Module where you could put Text or Graphics or just about anything else including Flash.
9. In the Bottom Pane is a Forum Module in a different blue container without the curves. The Forum Module is going to take a few pages to explain because it has so many options. It can even have private messaging between users, and private groups of posts (Discussions). It can have Polls, Graphics, Flash... and Avatars (and that is only the begining.)

Everything about this page is customizable... Background, Skin, Panes, Containers, Modules and Module Content.