Yesterday I did a skin from scratch for my forum Xtreme iTalk. It's running RC2... so when RC3 or Final comes out... what exactly do I do to ensure that it upgrades successfully while maintaining all the characteristics that the skin has.

Wait for Final to be released before creating a new skin? :unsure:

use the skin difference tools?

Yesterday I did a skin from scratch for my forum Xtreme iTalk. It's running RC2... so when RC3 or Final comes out... what exactly do I do to ensure that it upgrades successfully while maintaining all the characteristics that the skin has.

Keep track of all the changes you made, and when you upgrade to final, you just port over those changes.

If you don't let IPB revert your template bits, you may miss a few things that will cause you problems later.