Joomla! 3 Beginner's Guide -- Table of Contents -- Joomla! 3 Beginner's Guide -- 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. 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 -- What's the current version of Joomla? -- About the example site -- Summary -- 2. Installation: Getting Joomla Up and Running -- What do you need to start? -- Hosting space -- FTP software -- More than one browser -- Upgrading from previous versions of Joomla -- Updating Joomla 1.5 to 3.x -- Updating Joomla 2.5 to 3.x -- Installing Joomla in four steps -- 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? -- 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 -- The benefits of the CMS approach to websites -- A website built of blocks -- Introducing frontend and backend - the Joomla interface -- Your workspace - the backend -- And what's the frontend?.

Exploring the frontend - the website as the user sees it -- Time for action - tour the example site -- What just happened? -- Exploring the example content -- Have a go hero - get familiar with the other example sites -- Taking control - administering your site in the backend -- Time for action - logging in to the backend -- What just happened? -- Taking a closer look at the Control Panel -- Top menu (1) -- The Submenu and System menus (2) -- Information panels (3) -- Shortcut list (4) -- Preview and Info Bar (5) -- Understanding backend tools and controls -- Getting your feet wet - start administering your site -- Three types of backend tasks -- Content management example - let's create some content! -- Time for action - publishing your first article -- What just happened? -- Extension management example - adding a module -- Time for action - adding a module to the site -- What just happened? -- 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 -- Cleaning up - removing the sample data -- Step 1: Removing sample content -- Time for action - deleting articles and categories -- Step 2: Deleting menus and other modules -- Time for action - deleting menus -- What just happened? -- Have a go hero - cleaning out the list of modules -- Building your new site in three steps -- Step 1: 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 stylesheets? Come again?.

Have a go hero - explore layout settings -- Step 2: Adding content -- Creating a foundation first: Making 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? -- Now 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 3: adding extras through extensions -- Components and Extensions, what's the difference? -- Add a contact form -- Time for action - creating a contact -- What just happened? -- Time for action - creating a Contact Form menu link -- What just happened? -- Have a go hero - clean up the Top Menu -- 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 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 categories and subcategories -- Time for action - create 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 - create a link to point to a main category -- Have a go hero - explore the possibilities of category pages -- 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 categories -- Time for action - rename a category -- What just happened? -- Have a go hero - name and rename! -- Changing category settings -- Building a site without using categories -- 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 - add styling to article text -- What just happened? -- Have a go hero - change the formatting -- Adding images to articles -- Time for action - uploading images -- What just happened? -- Time for action - inserting and aligning images -- What just happened? -- Have a go hero - adjusting the image settings -- Changing the way the article displays -- One lump or two? Split the article into an intro text and main text -- Time for action - creating an 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 -- Tweaking the details: changing article settings -- The Publishing Options tab -- The Article Options tab -- The Configure Edit screen tab -- The Metadata Options tab -- The Article 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? -- Creating the perfect home - mastering home page layout -- Changing the way the home page is arranged -- Time for action - rearranging the layout of articles on the home page -- What just happened? -- Have a go hero - tweak home page layout options -- Adding items to the home page -- Controlling the order of home page items manually -- Setting a criteria to automatically order home page items -- Time for action - show the most recent items first -- What just happened? -- The Featured Articles Menu Item Type - an overview of all options -- Layout Options -- Article Options -- Integration Options -- Link Type Options -- Page Display Options -- Metadata Options -- Module Assignment for this Menu Item tab -- Creating more than one page containing featured articles -- Another type of home page: using a single article -- Time for action - creating a different home page -- What just happened? -- Have a go hero - undo! -- Creating category overview pages.

Two main choices: Blog Layout and List Layout.