Hard and Normal Mode

Ok, I have searched the forums high and low and could not find a definitive response. I understand one is hard, one is normal but, how do you activate them and where can you take on hard or normal mode areas? I have only been playing GW for about 3 days now and my A/E is level 15. Also, I started in Factions so with that said, can I get skills offered in Prophecies and Nightfall? If so, how do I use my sin/ele I have made to take on those camp missions and keep the skills I have earned in Factions? is this possible? I have not gotten Eye of the North yet but I probably will soon enough. Any help is appreciated.

Hardmode is available for almost any exploreable area in a campaign, if you comply to 2 requirements. You need to have finished the campaign on atleast one characater on the account (finish the last mission) and be lvl20 on the character you want to play in hardmode with.

Once you have these 2 met, there's a simple icon switch in your party panel that allows you to flip between normal and hardmode in any outpost/city/town.

Hope that helped

once you have unlocked a skill on a character you will always have the option to put it in your skillbar. You can see all the skills for your character by hitting k --this will be for your character as well as any hero currently in your party. You can get prophecies and nightfall skills by talking to skill trainers in the chapters---you will need to have those campaigns added to your account in order to travel to them AND get skills from them (as well as eye of the north). Once there you can buy skills from those trainers (and in prophecies there are a few easy quests that also will get you some skills for the CORE proffessions--warrior, ele, monk, ranger, mes, and necro).....you can see all about skills by following this link:
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Skills

Thank you two for the replies. One last questions. In regards to being able to obtain skills from other camps, I guess I am confused how I get out of Factions camp and go to proph or Nightfall? Is there a gate or portal or something? I have not completed Factions yet but I am trying to be pro-active and learn how to camp hop so I can get all the skills I can. Thanks again for the replies.

This has all the info you need: http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Campaign_travel

Awesome, thanks a ton everyone.