Installing hacks should be very easy. All you have to do is read what the user is telling you to do. ALot of people run into problems because they are not using a good text editor.
I use WinSyntax to edit all my files. When editing PHP files, you need to read the readme file for the hack. When they say find:
You must first be a
registered member to view any code.
Add under:
You must first be a
registered member to view any code.
Then you do exacly that. Find the first code in the file somewhere. First copy and paste the whole code you have to find. Make sure there are no spaces at the end of you clipboard. Sometimes you won't be able to find the correct code because you added a space after the code you copied.
If you can't find the code exacly, just try to find part of the code. When you find it, make sure there are no more instance of that code in the file. In most cases there will not be. Then you just copy and paste there code under, above, or replace.
Templates are the same way. Open the template they say. Find the code they want you to look for and go from there. A smart thing to do is create a directory on your computer called backup files and templates. And before you edit a file, copy and paste it in that directory so you have a backup just in case something goes wrong. Do the same for templates. Paste the template in a new TXT file with the file name as the template name. Hope this little rant helps and good luck.