Evo
Don't get hung up on it!
All I was trying to do was to simplify the "how to join the hold or racetrack" cos I found those long series of pictures too much to fit into my tiny brain. That simple one worked for me, and satisfied the FAA IRE.
But anyway...
PARALLEL ENTRY
There are many representations of it, with varying levels of complication. The most artistic one has you pass the fix for a calculated distance, then fly one minute in the "wrong" direction and parallel to the inbound heading, then do a pirouette - something like 225 degrees left, then 45 degrees right - to get onto the inbound track.
I tried that a few times, but never ended up on the correct inbound heading. For the precision flyers, who can do all the wind calcs in their heads, it's great. Me, being a coarse pilot, my parallel entry looks more like a teardrop-shape but at least I end up roughly on the right inbound track.
DIRECT ENTRY
Yes, correct. Adjust your turn (and when it starts) to suit. Easy! The key reference point is abeam the holding fix on the outbound leg.
WIND CORRECTIONS
There's lots of theories. Again, I can't remember the mathematical tables, so I do the "three times inbound drift" thing on the outbound, and plus/minus one second per two knots of inbound tail/headwind component for the outbound time. Then see how that works and adjust next time around the hold.
I'm sure there are better formulae. But if the wind is 40 knots and gusting, it's all rather academic in a PA28.
In 18 years of IFR flying, I've never yet flown a hold "in anger", although I've done hundreds in practice and renewal tests. Radar vectors to ILS, now, those I have done for real aplenty.
I'm just spoiled by helpful ATC folks.