<p>I cant seem to find much info on haskells layout features, as I understand it is something like pythons formatting requirements except that is optional. How can I choose not to use this option correctly? Would it be a good idea to start without it so that I get a solid feel for the language itself?</p>

See
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Programming:Haskell_indentation
and
http://www.haskell.org/onlinereport/lexemes.html#sect2.7
(both contain examples).
Pros:
less typing
less to read, nicer-looking (if you're comfortable with it)
Cons:
you might get it wrong, especially if you're not familiar with it. Braces make things crystal clear if you're not sure.