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Joomla! 1.5 Beginner's Guide
Joomla! 1.5 Beginner's Guide
Joomla! 1.5 Beginner's Guide
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Joomla! 1.5 Beginner's Guide

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In Detail

Joomla! is one of the most popular open-source Content Management Systems, actively developed and supported by a world-wide user community. Although it's a fun and feature-rich tool, it can be challenging to get beyond the basics and build a site that meets your needs perfectly. Using this book you can create dynamic, interactive web sites that perfectly fit your needs.

This practical guide gives you a head start in using Joomla! 1.5, helping you to create professional and good-looking web sites, whether you want to create a full-featured company or club web site or build a personal blog site.

The Joomla! 1.5 Beginner's Guide helps beginners to get started quickly and to get beyond the basics to take full advantage of Joomla!'s powerful features. Real-life examples and tutorials will spark your imagination and show you what kind of professional, contemporary, feature-rich web sites any developer can achieve with Joomla!. It gives you a head start and explains what's good and useful about Joomla! features and what's not. The focus is on clear instructions and easy-to-understand tutorials, with minimum of jargon. This book provides clear definitions, thoroughly covering the concepts behind the software and creating a coherent picture of how the software works. This book is not about what Joomla! can do-it's about what you can do using Joomla!.

This clear, hands-on guide to building web sites helps you to get the most out of Joomla! 1.5's many powerful features.

Approach

Written with a fast-paced but friendly and engaging approach, this Packt Beginner's guide is designed to be placed alongside the computer as your guide and mentor to meet real-world web building challenges. Step-by-step tutorials are bolstered by explanations of the reasoning behind what you are doing. You will quickly pick up the necessary skills, tips, and tricks for building a successful Joomla! web site with practical examples that help you to learn by experiment and play.

Who this book is for

If you want to build and maintain your own web site, the Joomla! Beginner's Guide is perfect for you. It helps you build on the skills and knowledge you may already have on creating web sites-but even if you're new to this subject, you won't have any difficulty understanding the clear and friendly instructions and explanations. You learn how to build and maintain web sites without having to dive deep into HTML and CSS.

LanguageEnglish
Release dateFeb 18, 2010
ISBN9781847199911
Joomla! 1.5 Beginner's Guide
Author

Eric Tiggeler

Eric Tiggeler is the author of the Joomla! 3 Beginner's Guide and has written several Dutch guides on Joomla! and other content management systems, all of which got excellent reviews. Eric writes tutorials for several computer magazines and Joomla! community websites. Over the last ten years, Eric has developed numerous websites, big and small, many of them using Joomla! Eric is fascinated by the Web as a powerful and creative means of communication, and by revolutionary software such as Joomla!, which enables anyone to create beautiful and user-friendly websites. His passion is making complex things easy to understand.

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    Joomla! 1.5 Beginner's Guide - Eric Tiggeler

    Table of Contents

    Joomla! 1.5

    Credits

    About the Author

    About the Reviewers

    Preface

    What this book covers

    What you need for this book

    Who this book is for

    Conventions

    Time for action—heading

    What just happened?

    Pop quiz - heading

    Have a go hero—heading

    Reader feedback

    Customer support

    Errata

    Piracy

    Questions

    1. Introduction: A New and Easy Way to Build Websites

    Join the CMS revolution

    Why would you choose Joomla!?

    What kind of sites can you build with Joomla!?

    Learning to use Joomla!

    What you'll learn using this book

    About the example site

    Summary

    2. Installation: Getting Joomla! Up and Running

    What do you need to start?

    1. Hosting space

    2. FTP software

    3. A great browser (think Firefox)

    Installing Joomla! in four steps

    Time for action—step 1: Download the Joomla! files

    What just happened?

    Time for action—step 2: Place the files on the web server

    What just happened?

    Time for action—step 3: Create a database

    What just happened?

    Time for action—step 4: Run the Joomla! installation wizard

    What just happened?

    Got stuck? Get help!

    Pop quiz - test your knowledge of installing Joomla!

    Summary

    3. First Steps: Getting to Know Joomla!

    Making the switch: Building websites the Joomla! way

    Sorry, web pages have ceased to exist

    Why is this a good thing?

    A website built of blocks

    Introducing frontend and backend: The Joomla! interface

    Your workspace: The backend

    And what's that frontend thing, then?

    The frontend: The website as the user sees it

    Time for action—tour the example site

    What just happened?

    Have a go hero—get familiar with the example site contents

    Taking control: Administering your site in the backend

    Time for action—log in to the backend

    What just happened?

    Taking a closer look at the Control Panel

    1. Menu bar

    2. Shortcut buttons

    3. Preview and Info Bar

    4. Information panels

    Understanding backend tools and controls

    Getting your feet wet: Start administering your site

    Three types of backend actions

    Content actions example: Let's create some content!

    Time for action—publish your first article

    What just happened?

    Extension actions example: Managing modules

    Time for action—rearranging page layout

    What just happened?

    Site actions example: Configuring basic site settings

    Time for action—set Joomla! preferences

    What just happened?

    Have a go hero—explore the configuration options

    Pop quiz - test your knowledge of the Joomla! way of web building

    Summary

    4. Web Building Basics: Creating a Site in an Hour

    What you will be making

    SRUP's the word

    Cleaning up: Removing the sample data

    Step 1: Hide the unnecessary stuff

    Time for action—hiding modules

    What just happened?

    Step 2: Remove sample content

    Time for action—deleting articles, categories, and sections

    What just happened?

    Have a go hero—clean up those menus

    Building your site is a three step process

    Step 1: Customize the layout

    Customize the color scheme

    Time for action—choosing a color variation

    What just happened?

    Time for action—preparing a new header file

    What just happened?

    Time for action—display the new header image file

    What just happened?

    CSS ... stylesheets? Come again?

    One last thing: Clean up a little whatchamacallit

    Time for action—remove the whatsis

    What just happened?

    Have a go hero—explore layout settings

    Step 2: Add content

    Create a foundation first: Make sections and categories

    Time for action—create a section and some categories

    What just happened?

    Add articles to the categories

    Time for action—create an article

    What just happened?

    Have a go hero—add your own images to articles

    Making content visible: Create a menu link

    Time for action—add a menu link

    What just happened?

    Have a go hero—create more articles

    Now that's the all-important power of menus

    Add some individual content pages: Uncategorized articles

    Time for action—add uncategorized articles

    What just happened?

    Have a go hero—clean up the Main Menu

    Put some content on the home page—at last!

    Add items to the home page

    Time for action—adding items to the home page

    What just happened?

    The Front Page is not the home page (or is it?)

    Step 3: Add extras through components and extensions

    Components and extensions, what's the difference?

    Add a contact form

    Time for action—create a contact

    What just happened?

    Time for action—create a Contact Form menu link

    What just happened?

    Add a Poll

    Time for action—create a Poll

    Time for action—display the Poll

    What just happened?

    Wrapping up: Change site settings

    Time for action—change site configuration

    What just happened?

    Pop quiz - test your basic Joomla! knowledge

    Summary

    5. Small Sites, Big Sites: Organizing your Content Effectively

    Building on the example site

    Grouping content: A crash course in site organization

    Designing a site map

    Time for action—create a future proof site map

    What just happened?

    Transferring your site map to Joomla!

    How do you turn a site map into a website?

    Creating content containers: Sections and categories

    Time for action—create a new section and a category

    What just happened?

    Have a go hero—add some articles

    Displaying sections and categories on your website

    Time for action—create a link to point to a section

    How are sections and categories displayed?

    Have a go hero—create some new sections and categories

    Add sections and categories

    Add links

    Remove an unneeded article

    Refining your site structure

    Time for action—move content from one category to another

    What just happened?

    Have a go hero—moving entire categories

    Renaming sections or categories

    Time for action—rename a section

    What just happened?

    Have a go hero—name and rename!

    Changing section and category settings

    Building a site without sections or categories

    What sites can you build with uncategorized content only?

    How do you go about building a small site?

    Have a go hero—organize a site!

    Pop quiz - test your site organization knowledge

    Summary

    6. Creating Killer Content: Adding and Editing Articles

    Articles, content pages, what's the difference?

    Creating and editing articles: Beyond the basics

    Making it look good: Formatting article text

    Time for action—add styling to article text

    What just happened?

    Have a go hero—change the formatting

    Adding images to articles

    Time for action—upload images

    What just happened?

    Time for action—inserting and aligning images

    What just happened?

    Have a go hero—adjust the image settings

    Changing the way the article displays

    One lump or two? Split the article in an intro text and main text

    Time for action—creating an intro text

    What just happened?

    Creating multi-page articles

    Time for action—using page breaks to split up an article

    What just happened?

    Use it wisely

    Tweaking the details: Changing article settings

    Parameters (Article)

    Parameters (Advanced)

    Metadata Information

    Archiving articles

    Time for action—creating a news archive

    What just happened?

    Pop quiz - test your site article expertise

    Summary

    7. Welcoming Your Visitors: Creating Attractive Home Pages and Overview Pages

    Why do you need overview pages, anyway?

    Creating the perfect home: Mastering home page layout

    Changing the way your home page is arranged

    Time for action—rearrange the layout of articles on the home page

    What just happened?

    Have a go hero—tweak the home page settings to your liking

    Adding items to the Front Page

    Controlling the order of Front Page items manually

    Setting criteria to automatically order Front Page items

    Time for action—show the most recent items first

    What just happened?

    Have a go hero—try out the Front Page settings

    Parameters (Basic)

    Parameters (Advanced)

    Parameters (Component)

    Parameters (System)

    The alternative way: Creating a single article home page

    Time for action—creating a different home page

    What just happened?

    Have a go hero—undo!

    Creating section and category overview pages

    Blog Layout or List Layout?

    The first type of overview page: Creating Blog Layouts

    Time for action—create a facebook using the Blog Layout

    What just happened?

    Have a go hero—add a category description

    Showing full articles on a category overview page

    Have a go hero—experiment with Blog Layout settings

    The second type of overview page: Lists

    Creating Section Lists

    Time for action—change a Blog Layout to a List Layout

    What just happened?

    Have a go hero—undo!

    Customizing lists: Exploring Section List Layout parameters

    Parameters (Basic)

    Parameters (Advanced)

    Parameters (Component)

    Parameters (System)

    Using Category Lists

    Parameters (Basic)

    Parameters (Advanced)

    Pop quiz - test your knowledge of home pages and overview pages

    Summary

    8. Helping Your Visitors Find What They Want: Managing Menus

    How many menus can you have?

    Creating user-friendly navigation: Cleaning up the Main Menu

    Option 1: Change the order of menu items

    Time for action—change menu item order

    What just happened?

    Option 2: Add a separate new menu

    Time for action—step 1: Create a new, empty menu

    What just happened?

    Time for action—step 2: Move hyperlinks to the new menu

    What just happened?

    Time for action—step 3: Tell Joomla! where to display the menu

    What just happened?

    Tweaking the menu styling

    Time for action—tweak the menu position and orientation

    What just happened?

    Option 3: Creating submenu items

    Time for action—create a secondary menu item

    What just happened?

    Creating split submenus

    Have a go hero—arrange menus any way you like

    Exploring menu module settings

    Details

    Menu Assignment

    Module Parameters

    Advanced Parameters

    Other Parameters

    Have a go hero—try out available menu settings

    Creating menu links

    Have a go hero—try out some Menu Item Types

    Why do you have to create menu links manually, anyway?

    Creating plain text links

    Time for action—creating text links

    What just happened?

    Pop quiz - test your menu knowledge

    Summary

    9. Opening Up the Site: Enabling Users to Contribute and Interact

    Creating user accounts for team members

    What different types of user accounts can you create?

    1. Registered users

    2. Frontend content contributors

    3. Backend content contributors and administrators

    Time for action—giving a user frontend authoring permissions

    What just happened?

    Enabling team members to log in to the frontend

    Time for action—create a Login Form

    What just happened?

    Time for action—logging in as a frontend content contributor

    What just happened?

    Have a go hero—create a frontend User Menu

    Reviewing and publishing team content submissions

    Time for action—reviewing submitted content

    What just happened?

    Have a go hero—explore different User Group permissions

    Find out what editors and publishers can do

    Find out what backend users can do

    Allowing visitors to register

    How do you enable users to create an account?

    Displaying a link to a Login Form

    Time for action—register yourself and log in

    What just happened?

    Hiding content for non-registered users

    Time for action—hiding content for non-registered users

    What just happened?

    Have a go hero—change access level settings

    Getting your visitors to 'register to read more'

    Time for action—partially hiding content from non-registered users

    What just happened?

    Enabling users to rate articles or write comments

    Pop quiz - test your knowledge of Joomla! user management

    Summary

    10. Getting the Most out of Your Site: Extending Joomla!

    Extensions in all shapes and sizes

    Where do you get them from?

    Enhancing your site using core extensions

    Time for action—adding a Newsflash to the home page

    What just happened?

    Have a go hero—change the Newsflash settings

    Creating a custom HTML block

    Time for action—add a short content block

    What just happened?

    What other extensions are part of the Joomla! core?

    Enhancing your site using third-party extensions

    Trying out an alternative News flash

    Time for action—downloading and installing an extension

    Time for action—putting the extension to work

    What just happened?

    Have a go hero—experiment with News Show settings

    Showing images in a gallery

    Time for action—create an image gallery

    What just happened?

    Do you want more from your photo gallery?

    Using extensions to enhance your work space

    Time for action—replace Joomla!'s default text editor

    What just happened?

    So much more to explore

    Pop quiz - test your knowledge of Joomla! extensions

    Summary

    11. Creating an Attractive Design: Working with Templates

    This is what templates do

    This is why templates are so much fun

    Where can you find templates?

    Changing the default template

    Time for action—activating a different template

    What just happened?

    Have a go hero—adjust the template settings

    Downloading and installing a new template

    Time for action—step 1: Downloading and activating a new template

    What just happened?

    Time for action—step 2: Getting the Main Menu module to display

    What just happened?

    Have a go hero—fill those module positions!

    Find out which positions are available

    Assign content to empty positions

    Customizing a template: Tweaking CSS styles

    Understanding the very basics of CSS

    Tweaking template CSS, part one: Changing site colors

    Time for action—adjusting the template colors

    What just happened?

    Tweaking template CSS, part two: Adding a graphic logo file

    Creating an image file

    Time for action—replace the header text with an image

    What just happened?

    Have a go hero—tweak the layout to your taste

    Diving deeper into Joomla! CSS tweaking

    Time for action—editing CSS on the fly using Firebug

    What just happened?

    Expanding your CSS toolkit

    Expanding your CSS knowledge

    Editing the template HTML

    Time for action—removing the fixed footer text

    What just happened?

    Backing up and restoring a customized template

    Creating your own template

    Template building resources

    Pop quiz - test your knowledge of Joomla! templates

    Summary

    12. Attracting Search Engine Traffic: Tips and Techniques

    Why do you need to accommodate for search engines?

    Optimize your articles

    1. The article title: Make it meaningful

    2. The article structure: Use clear formatting

    3. The article body text: Use relevant keywords

    4. The images: Explain what they're about

    Update articles regularly

    Add meaningful metadata

    Time for action—personalize the site metadata

    What just happened?

    Have a go hero—find metadata to fit your site

    Entering metadata for individual articles

    Time for action—add metadata information for an article

    What just happened?

    Have a go hero—explore the art and science of metadata

    Don't forget to choose the perfect site name

    Use search engine friendly URLS

    Time for action—enable search engine friendly URLs

    What just happened?

    Have a go hero—make your URLs even prettier

    Add extra links to your content

    Time for action—turn article titles into hyperlinks

    What just happened?

    Creating an automatically generated list of hyperlinks

    Time for action—add a list of links to popular articles

    What just happened?

    Have a go hero—add link lists

    Using a site map

    Time for action—adding a site map component

    What just happened?

    Have a go hero—tweak that site map

    Make it easier to discover new content: Using RSS

    Time for action—enable RSS feeds

    What just happened?

    Have a go hero—provide a newsletter service

    Getting to know more about your site traffic

    More SEO resources

    Pop quiz - test your knowledge of Joomla! search engine optimization

    Summary

    A. Keeping the Site Secure

    Tip 1: Upgrade regularly

    Tip 2: Change the default Administrator Username

    Tip 3: Choose a strong password

    Tip 4: Protect files and directories

    Choosing file permissions

    Tip 5: Use extensions to secure your site

    Tip 6: Have a backup ready

    Creating a Backup with JoomlaPack

    Restoring a backup

    Tip 7: Stay informed!

    B. Pop quiz - Answers

    Chapter 2

    Installation: Getting Joomla! Up and Running

    Chapter 3

    First Steps: Getting to Know Joomla!

    Chapter 4

    Web Building Basics: Creating a Site in an Hour

    Chapter 5

    Small Sites, Big Sites: Organizing your Content Effectively

    Chapter 6

    Creating Killer Content: Adding and Editing Articles

    Chapter 7

    Welcoming Your Visitors: Creating Attractive Home Pages and Overview Pages

    Chapter 8

    Helping Your Visitors Find What They Want: Managing Menus

    Chapter 9

    Opening Up the Site: Enabling Users to Contribute and Interact

    Chapter 10

    Getting the Most out of Your Site: Extending Joomla!

    Chapter 11

    Creating an Attractive Design: Working with Templates

    Chapter 12

    Attracting Search Engine Traffic: Tips and Techniques

    Index

    Joomla! 1.5

    Eric Tiggeler


    Joomla! 1.5

    Beginner's Guide

    Copyright © 2010 Packt Publishing

    All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.

    Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author nor Packt Publishing and its dealers and distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this book.

    Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.

    First published: February 2010

    Production Reference: 2230210

    Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.

    32 Lincoln Road

    Olton

    Birmingham, B27 6PA, UK.

    ISBN 978-1-847199-90-4

    www.packtpub.com

    Cover Image by Vinayak Chittar (<vinayak.chittar@gmail.com>)

    Credits

    Author

    Eric Tiggeler

    Reviewers

    Jose Argudo

    Jennifer Marriott

    Acquisition Editor

    David Barnes

    Development Editor

    Rakesh Shejwal

    Technical Editor

    Hithesh Uchil

    Indexer

    Monica Ajmera Mehta

    Editorial Team Leader

    Akshara Aware

    Project Team Leader

    Lata Basantani

    Project Coordinator

    Poorvi Nair

    Proofreader

    Jeff Orloff

    Graphics

    Geetanjali Sawant

    Production Coordinator

    Melwyn D'sa

    Cover Work

    Melwyn D'sa

    About the Author

    Eric Tiggeler is an experienced writer of tutorials on Joomla! He writes how-tos for computer magazines and for the Dutch Joomla! community website. He has published a Dutch Joomla! manual, which got excellent reviews. Over the last ten years, Eric has developed numerous websites, big and small—many of them using Joomla!.

    Eric is fascinated by the Web as a powerful and creative means of communication, and by revolutionary software such as Joomla!, enabling anybody to create beautiful and user-friendly websites without requiring any technical knowledge.

    On a daily basis, Eric works as a consultant and copywriter at a communication consultancy company affiliated with the Free University of Amsterdam. Over the last few years, he has written more than ten Dutch books on writing and communication. His passion is making complex things easy to understand.

    Eric Tiggeler is married and has two daughters. He lives and works in Hilversum, the Netherlands. On the Web, you'll find him on www.schrijfgids.nl (in Dutch) and www.joomm.net (in English).

    Turning an idea into a book is by no means something you do all by yourself. I would like to thank the Packt team—David, Rakesh, Poorvi, and Hithesh—for their encouraging commitment to this project. Thanks also to both reviewers Jose Argudo and Jennifer Marriott for their helpful comments and detailed feedback.

    I especially want to thank the three beautiful women in my life who managed to put up with my hours of invisibility during the writing of this book. Big truckloads of thanks go to my personal proofreader whose harsh, but honest You've lost me heres helped me to keep this book clear, down to earth, and focused on what real people want to know.

    About the Reviewers

    Jose Argudo is a web developer from Valencia, Spain. After finishing his studies he started working for a web design company. Then, six years later, he decided to freelance.

    Now that some years have passed as a freelancer, he thinks it's the best decision he has ever taken because that let him work with the tools he likes, such as Joomla!, CodeIgniter, CakePHP, jQuery, and other known open source technologies.

    His desire to learn and share his knowledge has led him to be a regular reviewer of books from Packt, like Joomla! With Flash, Joomla! 1.5 SEO, Magento Theme Design, and Symfony 1.3 web application development.

    Recently, he has even published his own book, CodeIgniter 1.7, which you can also find at Packt's site. If you work with PHP, take a look at it!

    If you want to know more about him, you can check his site www.joseargudo.com.

    To my girlfriend and to my brother, I wish them the best.

    Jennifer Marriott is a Canadian musician and a web designer/developer now located in Oklahoma, USA. She has studied Broadcasting and Communications, has been involved in Information Technology since the mid-1990s, and has been a long-time contributor and community member of the Joomla! Project.

    Jennifer, along with her business partner Wendy Robinson, runs Marpo Multimedia—a boutique multimedia/web development company.

    Jennifer is currently busy with her own book and two new music projects to be released in 2010.

    I would really like to thank the Joomla! Project and the entire Joomla! Community for such a great software!

    Preface

    Joomla! is one of the most popular open-source Content Management Systems, actively developed and supported by a world-wide user community. It's a free, fun, and feature-rich tool for anyone who wants to create dynamic, interactive websites. Even beginners can deploy Joomla! to build professional websites, although it can be challenging to get beyond the basics and build the site that completely meets your needs. This book will help you to start building websites with Joomla! quickly and get the most out of its advanced features.

    What this book covers

    In Chapter 1: Introduction: A New and Easy Way to Build Websites, you'll learn why you want to use Joomla! to create an advanced, cool-looking site that's easy to expand, customize, and maintain.

    In Chapter 2: Installation: Getting Joomla! Up and Running, you'll learn how to install Joomla! on your own computer or on a web server, and how to create a sample site.

    In Chapter 3: First Steps: Getting to Know Joomla!, you'll get familiar with the basic concepts of Joomla!, the Joomla! interface, and the principles of a website constructed out of 'building blocks'.

    In Chapter 4: Web Building Basics: Creating a Site in an Hour, you'll face a real-life challenge of using Joomla! to build a basic but expandable website fast. You'll customize Joomla!'s default sample site to fit your needs, adding content, menu links, and change the site's look and feel.

    In Chapter 5: Small Sites, Big Sites: Organizing your Content Effectively, you'll make it easy to add and find information on your site by designing a clear, expandable, and manageable structure for your content.

    In Chapter 6: Creating Killer Content: Adding and Editing Articles, you'll learn to create content pages that are attractive and easy to read, and you'll learn about different ways to tweak the page layout.

    In Chapter 7: Welcoming Your Visitors: Creating Attractive Home Pages and Overview Pages, you'll create a home page and overview pages to entice visitors to actually read all your valuable content.

    In Chapter 8: Helping Your Visitors Find What They Want: Managing Menus, you'll learn how you can help the visitor to find what they want easily by designing clear and easy navigation through menus.

    In Chapter 9: Opening Up the Site: Enabling Users to Contribute and Interact, you'll learn how to enable users to log in and allow them to create content and manage the website.

    In Chapter 10: Getting the Most out of Your Site: Extending Joomla!, you'll learn how to extend Joomla!'s capabilities using all sorts of extensions—using an image gallery to attractively display pictures, automatically showing article teasers on the home page, or enhancing your workspace by installing an easier content editor.

    In Chapter 11: Creating an Attractive Design: Working with Templates, you'll see how templates will give your site a fresh look and feel, and make it easy to create an individual look, different from a typical Joomla! site. You'll also learn to install and customize templates.

    In Chapter 12: Attracting Search Engine Traffic: Tips and Techniques, you'll see how to increase your site's visibility for search engines by applying Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques, such as creating friendly URLs.

    In Appendix A: Keeping the Site Secure, learn some simple, common sense steps you can take to keep your site safe from hackers or data loss.

    What you need for this book

    To follow the tutorials and exercises in this book, you'll need a computer with Internet access. It's recommended to have a web hosting account so that you can install Joomla! online.

    Who this book is for

    The Joomla! Beginner's Guide is aimed at anyone who wants to build and maintain a great website and get the most out of Joomla!. It helps you build on the skills and knowledge you may already have of creating websites—but if you're new to this subject, you won't have any difficulty understanding the instructions. Of course, we'll touch upon basic terms and concepts (such as HTML and CSS), but if you're not familiar with these, you'll also find references to some Web resources.

    Conventions

    In this book, you will find several headings appearing frequently.

    To give clear instructions of how to complete a procedure or task, we use:

    Time for action—heading

    Action 1

    Action 2

    Action 3

    Instructions often need some extra explanation so that they make sense, so they are followed with:

    What just happened?

    This heading explains the working of tasks or instructions that you have just completed.

    You will also find some other learning aids in the book, including:

    Pop quiz - heading

    These are short multiple choice questions intended to help you test your own understanding.

    Have a go hero—heading

    These set practical challenges and give you ideas for experimenting with what you have learned.

    You will also find a number of styles of text that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles and an explanation of their meaning.

    Code words in text are shown as follows: "Change the width and height values to reflect the size of the new image. To shift the image a little

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