Yeah, it's tricky, to put it kindly. The default quickbar (F7) has a mind of it's own for the first 5 slots and the final 2. They are context dependent. So, for instnace, when you sheath your weapon, you'll discover that there are different skills available to you, such as the sneak skill. You'll also have a different set loaded up depending on if you have a bow, one-hander or two-hander at the ready. To make it even more confusing, all the skills you could use in a given context show up whether you have any points in the skill or not. The final two slots will change based on how much healing or mana the game thinks you might need to replenish. So, for instance, if you're at full health it might have a small pot in the health slot (9, i think), but if you're in a battle and losing lots of HPs, it might change to a med pot on the fly.
The other 3 quickbars (F8-F10) are yours to customize as you see fit.
The spell hotkey system is also funky. If you want to hotkey a spell that you aren't planning to carry in the amulet on the spell screen, you've got to trick the system by "equipping" the spell in the amulet, hotkeying it, and then unequipping it. I think this only works for the spell slots on the customizable hotbars as the default hotbar may only display what's in you amulet currently. Also, the downside to tricking the system is that any spell you have hotkeyed that isn't currently in the amulet looses any booster card bonuses and, I think, any stacking bonuses you had on it when you hotkeyed it.
Dizzy yet?
