How do I split the guest welcome message from the forums?

[Floris]

By default the welcome message that guests see when they browse the forum is "sticky" to the forum (it is inside the same table). I get asked once in a while how to split this and add some space in between this message and the forum. Here's how:

Admin Control Panel > Styles & Templates > Style Manager > dropdown: Edit Templates > select the Forum Home Templates Group and expand it > select the template 'FORUMHOME' and click on customize button to open it.

Find this code:

[size=1]<!-- main -->
<table class="tborder" cellpadding="$stylevar[cellpadding]" cellspacing="$stylevar[cellspacing]" border="0" width="100%" align="center">
<thead>
    <if condition="$show['guest']">
    <!-- guest welcome message -->
    <tr>
        <td class="tcat" colspan="<if condition="$vboptions['showmoderatorcolumn']">6<else />5</if>"><phrase 1="$vboptions[bbtitle]">$vbphrase[welcome_to_the_x]</phrase></td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td class="alt1" colspan="<if condition="$vboptions['showmoderatorcolumn']">6<else />5</if>">
            <phrase 1="faq.php$session[sessionurl_q]" 2="register.php$session[sessionurl_q]">$vbphrase[first_visit_message]</phrase>
        </td>
    </tr>
    <!-- / guest welcome message -->
    </if>[/size]

And replace it with this code:

[size=1]<!-- main -->
<if condition="$show['guest']">
    <table class="tborder" cellpadding="$stylevar[cellpadding]" cellspacing="$stylevar[cellspacing]" border="0" width="100%" align="center">
    <!-- guest welcome message -->
    <tr>
        <td class="tcat" colspan="<if condition="$vboptions['showmoderatorcolumn']">6<else />5</if>"><phrase 1="$vboptions[bbtitle]">$vbphrase[welcome_to_the_x]</phrase></td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td class="alt1" colspan="<if condition="$vboptions['showmoderatorcolumn']">6<else />5</if>">
            <phrase 1="faq.php$session[sessionurl_q]" 2="register.php$session[sessionurl_q]">$vbphrase[first_visit_message]</phrase>
        </td>
    </tr>
    <!-- / guest welcome message -->
</table><br />
</if>
<table class="tborder" cellpadding="$stylevar[cellpadding]" cellspacing="$stylevar[cellspacing]" border="0" width="100%" align="center">
<thead>[/size]

And save the template. You're done!