I've been trying to add a global navigation bar to my forums and I'm a bit confused and trying to avoid code conflicts. First, is it best to add the code to the header template or the header and footer boxes in the general html control panel?

This also brings up a few more concerns for me. I plan on adding banners with Google adsense and maybe some site stat plug-ins in the future. Is it best to code my own html with index/pages and embed the forum into the pages or is it best to just edit the templates in the control panel?