After trying to decided what board to purchase vb vs. ipd as a user I have found that in vb it is very, very convenient how they have a drop down search box at the top of every page whether it is the main forum page or a topic/thread page. I am brand new to these boards but that is the one thing I noticed right away when comparing the two.

They both have options like - track, email, print, display options so the only thing ipd is missing is that nice little search box on TOP!

Is this customizable via mods? admin? or skins?

Jer, :-" thinking of purchasing the entire suite of ipb goodies like board, blog, gallery, chat, for new travel site for disabled travelers. I really like the integration of these products. I think vb is scrambling to "copy" but i need this stuff now.

Yes, this can be done with a mod, mostly anything can be done with a mod. I recommend IPB before I recommend vB every time.

You can do this just with skinning, no php editing necessary.