Joomla! 3 Beginner's Guide Second Edition -- Table of Contents -- Joomla! 3 Beginner's Guide Second Edition -- Credits -- About the Author -- About the Reviewers -- www.PacktPub.com -- Support files, eBooks, discount offers, and more -- Why subscribe? -- Free access for Packt account holders -- 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. 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! -- The approach of this book -- What's the current version of Joomla!? -- About the example site -- Summary -- 2. Getting Joomla! Up and Running -- What do you need to start? -- Hosting space -- FTP software -- More than one browser -- Installing Joomla! on a web server -- Time for action - downloading the Joomla! files -- What just happened? -- Time for action - placing the files on the web server -- What just happened? -- Time for action - creating a database -- What just happened? -- Time for action - running the Joomla! installation wizard -- What just happened? -- What are post-installation messages? -- Installing Joomla! on your own computer -- Downloading and installing a web server software -- Time for action - installing XAMPP -- What just happened? -- Creating a database -- Time for action - creating a MySQL database -- What just happened? -- Downloading and installing Joomla! -- Time for action - downloading Joomla! and running the installation wizard -- What just happened? -- What if it the installation doesn't work? -- Upgrading from previous versions of Joomla! -- Updating Joomla! 1.5 to 3.x.

Updating Joomla! 2.5 to 3.x -- Got stuck? Get help! -- Pop quiz - test your knowledge of installing Joomla -- Summary -- 3. First Steps - Getting to Know Joomla! -- Building websites the Joomla! way -- Sorry, web pages have ceased to exist -- The benefits of the CMS approach to websites -- A website built of blocks -- Introducing the frontend and backend - the Joomla! interface -- Your workspace - the backend -- What's the frontend? -- Exploring the frontend - the website as the user sees it -- Time for action - touring the example site -- What just happened? -- Exploring the example content -- Have go hero - get familiar with the other example sites -- Administering your site in the backend -- Time for action - logging in to the backend -- What just happened? -- Taking a closer look at Control Panel -- The top menu -- The shortcut list (quick icons) -- The information panels -- The preview and info bar -- Adjusting Control Panel to your needs -- Understanding the backend tools and controls -- What if you can't click on the top menu items? -- Getting your feet wet - start administering your site -- The three types of backend tasks -- A content management example - let's create some content! -- Time for action - publishing your first article -- What just happened? -- An extension management example - adding a module -- Time for action - adding a module to the site -- What just happened? -- A site management example - configuring basic site settings -- Time for action - setting Joomla! preferences -- What just happened? -- Have a go hero - explore the configuration options -- Pop quiz - test your knowledge of Joomla basics -- Summary -- 4. Web Building Basics - Creating a Site in an Hour -- What you will be making -- Meet your client -- Removing the sample data -- Step one - removing the sample content.

Time for action - deleting articles and categories -- Step two - deleting menus and other modules -- Time for action - deleting menus -- What just happened? -- Have a go hero - clean out the list of modules -- Building your new site in three steps -- Step one - customizing the layout -- Time for action - creating a copy of the current template -- What just happened? -- Time for action - preparing a new logo image -- Time for action - tweaking the design details -- What just happened? -- CSS style sheets? Come again? -- Have a go hero - exploring layout settings -- Step two - adding content -- Creating a foundation first - creating categories -- Time for action - creating a news category -- What just happened? -- Creating articles and using the images and links fields -- Time for action - creating an article -- What just happened? -- Have a go hero - add more images to articles -- Making content visible on the site - creating a menu link -- Time for action - adding a menu link -- What just happened? -- That's the all-important power of menus -- Have a go hero - create more categories and articles -- Creating menu links to the new content -- Adding individual content pages - uncategorized articles -- Time for action - adding uncategorized articles -- What just happened? -- Have a go hero - rearrange the main menu using drag-and-drop -- Putting content on the home page - at last! -- Adding items to the home page -- Time for action - assigning articles to the home page -- What just happened? -- Step three - adding extras through extensions -- Components and extensions - what's the difference? -- Adding a contact form -- Time for action - creating a contact -- What just happened? -- Time for action - creating a Contact Form menu link -- What just happened? -- Adding a special message block -- Time for action - creating a message block.

What just happened? -- Wrapping up - changing site settings -- Time for action - changing the 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 on site organization -- Designing a site map -- Time for action - creating a future-proof site map -- What just happened? -- Using tags as an additional means of organizing content -- Transferring your site map to Joomla! -- How do you turn a site map into a website? -- Creating categories and subcategories -- Time for action - creating a category and subcategories -- What just happened? -- In what case do you need more subcategory levels? -- Have a go hero - rearrange existing categories -- Adding content to new categories -- Displaying main categories and subcategories on your site -- Time for action - creating a link to point to a main category -- Have a go hero - exploring the possibilities of category pages -- Refining your site structure -- Time for action - moving content from one category to another -- What just happened? -- Have a go hero - moving entire categories -- Renaming categories -- Time for action - renaming a category -- What just happened? -- Have a go hero - name and rename -- Changing the category settings -- Using tags to label and organize content -- Adding tags to the example site -- Time for action - creating a tag -- What just happened? -- Have a go hero - improve the tagged items page -- Creating and managing tags using the Tags component -- Using tags as an alternative to categories -- Building a site without using categories or tags -- 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 and content pages - what's the difference? -- Creating and editing articles - beyond the basics -- Making your words look good - formatting article text -- Time for action - adding styles to the article text -- What just happened? -- Have a go hero - change the formatting -- Extending the text editor -- Adding images to articles -- Time for action - uploading images -- What just happened? -- Time for action - inserting and aligning images -- What just happened? -- Changing the way the article is displayed -- Splitting the article into intro text and main text -- Time for action - creating intro text -- What just happened? -- Creating multipage articles -- Time for action - using page breaks to split up an article -- What just happened? -- Have a go hero - use sliders and tabs -- Displaying images and links with articles -- Time for action - adding images and links to an article -- What just happened? -- Have a go hero - tweak the article layout -- Restoring a previous version of an article -- What just happened? -- Have a go hero - explore version control options -- Tweaking the details - changing article settings -- The Publishing tab -- The Images and links tab -- The Options tab -- The Configure Edit Screen tab -- The Permissions tab -- Setting general preferences for all articles -- The Articles tab -- The Editing Layout tab -- The Category tab -- The Categories, Blog/Featured Layouts, List Layouts, and Shared Options tabs -- The Integration tab -- The Permissions tab -- Archiving articles -- Time for action - creating a News archive -- What just happened? -- Pop quiz - test your article expertise -- Summary -- 7. Welcoming Your Visitors - Creating Attractive Home Pages and Overview Pages -- Why do you need overview pages anyway? -- Mastering the home page layout.

Changing the way the home page is arranged.