Joomla! For Dummies 1st edition by Holzner, Steve, Conner, Nancy (2009) Paperback

by Steven Holzner

Joomla! makes it easy, and this book makes it easier yet! See how to link articles on your site with drop-down menus, invite visitors to rate content, enable a full-site search,allow your guests to sign up for e-mail lists/and much more, all with portable Joomla! modules. Instead of struggling with code, you can concentrate on content. Here's how!

Genres: Business

Paperback

First published January 8, 2009

Reviews

[Tamara · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can't help it. As much as I try, Joomla! is just not my favorite CMS. The organization of the elements is extremely confusing to me, even after struggling through this book.

Notes

CMS are like word processors for the web.

CMS adds CSS (from website templates you've chosen) and creates actual HTML that is delivered to the browser.

To set up: you need to choose a host, such as GoDaddy or HostGator. Set up a MySQL database to connect to.

Multiple modules can point to the same menu.

In browsing through Module Manager's contents, you'll notice a few menu items such as About Joomla! and This Site. But don't you manage menus by using Menu Manager? Why do these menus appear in Module Manager? Modules are responsible for handling the display of menus, so when you want to edit the settings of a menu as a whole, you turn to Module Manager. When you want to work with only the structure and items contained in a menu, you work with Menu Manager.

Questions This Book Didn't Answer for Me

Can you change the organization of the buttons on the WYSYWIG editor?
Is there a default article template that can be edited? (i.e. Why do all of my pages default to center align?)
Do the templates define where menu items are located?
Is there an easier way to reorder articles besides clicking the UP or DOWN errors a hundred times?

[Eugene Cordell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Don't be fooled by the title, this book will help you understand Joomla properly. As a novice to Joomla, I found that working with the steps they've provided insightful...eventhough the example was on GoDaddy. I'd like for programmers to get into this, as it is in demand to know!

If you know how to function Joomla already, then move on to the advanced stuff. Otherwise, this is all you really need to create a proper CMS.

[Chet · Rating 4 out of 5]

As other Dummies books, gives a nice overview of the subject matter (Joomla) making no presumptions of previous knowledge of the subject. It is a quick way to get up to speed on the subject. The "dummies" are the ones who do not read these books. :-)

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this book and the one I read are two different books even though the search using ISBN came up with this one. The one I read was titled "Joomla! for Dummies 2nd Edition", and was by "Seamus Bellamy" only.

The book itself is well worth the read if you want to learn about this software.

[Kimberly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Never really finished it. Because of the project I was working on, I was able to figure out most of Joomla with a coworker by trial and error instead.

[Chrysa · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a quite helpfull book for a quick look at Joomla!

[Russ Little · Rating 3 out of 5]

My 3-star rating is as much for Joomla as the book. The combination just didn't get me where I wanted to be. But, as with most of the Dummies titles, the writing is clear and accessible.

[Rebeca · Rating 2 out of 5]

Joomla! must be an invention from hell. I gave up trying to learn it discouraged by this manual.