Learn How to Design and Manage Joomla Websites

As I mentioned in the first part of this article series, there are both merits and demerits to using free Joomla templates. However, you have to look at your current website needs and wants and approach the issue of getting free versus commercial Joomla templates accordingly.

Now, if you decide you want to (or temporarily have to) use free Joomla templates, here is a simple 3-step process for getting it up and running on your website in minutes.

1.       Download: The first thing you have to do is to download the template onto your computer. This usually involves visiting the website where the templates are and clicking on a download link or filling in your email address in a form to have the download link sent to you. Either way, you have to download the template onto your computer.

2.       Upload: Once you have it on your computer, the next step is to upload the template onto your Joomla website. You can do this in one of two ways:

a.       Login to your Joomla website hosting account’s “Control Panel”, click on the “File Manager”, go to the directory where you have the Joomla templates installed and upload the new template to the same directory.

b.      Login to the backend (Admin area) of your Joomla website (the /administrator directory of the site), open the “Extensions” tab and click on the “Upload and Install” link to select and upload the new template from your computer to your Joomla website.

3.       Activate: Once you have successfully completed the template installation, the next thing to do is to select the new template as the default template (so that your whole Joomla site) now takes the theme of the newly installed template. Please, note that without activating your template, your website’s look does not change.

To activate the template, login to your Joomla site’s backend and click on the “Template Manager” tab. This should display a list of all the templates that you have installed on the website. Now, select the one you want and click the “default” link to activate it as the new template for the site. If you open your site in a new window, you will notice that it has changed to reflect the template you just selected as the default one for the site.

And, you are done! J

Either way, your new Joomla template should be up on the site in a minute or less, depending on how much bandwidth your internet connection has.

Now that you know how to install Joomla templates, you can go ahead and watch how to edit Joomla templates, customize Joomla websites and more when you download the OVER 4 HOURS of Joomla Video Tutorial package available onhttp://www.JoomlaWebsitesUnleashed.com now.

Recommend this article...

All Joomla templates are not created equal. But some are free to use nevertheless. In this article, I will show you a simple 3-step process for getting and installing free Joomla templates on any of your websites.

But first, let’s take a look at the pros and cons of using free Joomla templates.

Let’s be positive and start with the pros (advantages) first, shall we?

• Free: As the name implies, they are free. You don’t have to spend a dime, nickel or even a penny to get one. If you can find it, you can download and install it. “C’est gratuit!”, as the French would say.

• Simple: This one is like a double-edged sword; it can cut you or cut for you. Simple speaking, the free templates usually don’t have as many features as the commercial Joomla templates. This means that you will find it easier to customize (as there are usually very few options for customizing it anyway), but it also means that your website may not get the right look and feel that you may have envisioned for it “back in the days.”

Now, let’s take a look at some of the red flags for using free Joomla templates:

• Limited Customization Options: As mentioned above, you don’t have as many options to modify and customize the template as you would have if you were working with a commercial or custom-made template. Thus, there may be limited color themes, layouts, SEO options, etc that you can work with. This is a problem especially when you are planning to make your website appear more unique than the Joneses’ own.

• Ad-Supported: Most free Joomla templates are, in one way or another, supported by one or more ads from the template designer. This may be a bit of an issue if you want to be ad-free or look professional. But that’s the cost of using it. Nothing is entirely free online, so if you can’t pay for it yourself, the template maker has to find a way of making money off your website visitors by displaying ads (relevant or irrelevant to your site’s theme and content) to your visitors in the hopes that they will click over and buy something or give away some personal information that he can resell or market to, etc.

• Forced Links Placement: Almost all template designers will require you to leave a live link back to their website on every page of your Joomla website. Some will even have the links appear right next to your site’s menu links. Depending on what you are trying to achieve and the message you are planning to convey with your website, this may not sit well with you. But it is usually required as part of the “Terms of Use” of the template, so removing the links may be illegal as no sort of “compensation” has been made to the designer for the use of his template.

You can read the second part of this article to learn how to install and activate your  Joomla Templates here or grab the 4 hours of Joomla Video Tutorial package that show you how to do it live by visiting http://www.JoomlaWebsitesUnleashed.com

Recommend this article...

In this article, I will show you how to edit Joomla templates in 3 simple ways. You can choose to customize the themes in any one or a combination of these.

But before we go ahead, let me just say that every Joomla template will come with its own ways of customizing it. But every one of them, whether free or commercial templates, will have at least the first two options of editing them.

Without much ado, let’s plunge into the details, shall we?

1.       HTML: The Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) is the standard language used to create web pages on the Internet. It stipulates and controls how the web pages are displayed and related (linked) to one another, among others.

If you are comfortable with HTML (you can learn it in a day or less; it’s like abbreviations of English words and makes senses easily unlike programming languages like C++, etc), you can open up the set of HTML files that comes with the Joomla template and fiddle with them-to add, edit or delete sections and features that you want to.

This is perhaps one of the easiest way to edit Joomla templates even if you are not familiar with the intricate technicalities of designing and developing Joomla websites (or any type of sites).

2.       CSS: Cascading style sheets (CSS) are a set of codes/tags that stipulates how your web pages are formatted and displayed. These include headings, text and background colors, etc. Since a template usually has all of it web pages having certain uniform formatting, like same text colors or font types, these are saved in CSS files that can be “called” whenever a new page is added to the site so that you don’t have to edit all these details individually and manually. Every Joomla template also comes with a set of CSS files. You can edit the Joomla template by opening these files (depending on which aspects of the look and feel of the template you want to modify) and edit them accordingly.

3.       Inbuilt Template Customizer: A lot of the premium and commercial Joomla templates come with a built-in template customizer that lets you point and click your way to edit the Joomla template. If your template comes with this feature, this might be the easiest way to customize them without having to even fiddle with the accompanying HTML and CSS files.  If you can edit and format a word processor document, you should be able to customize your Joomla templates using the built-in customizer without any trouble.

In any of these three cases, you can access the customizable files by logging in to the admin area of your site by going to the /administrator directory, clicking on the “Extensions” tab and opening the “Template Manager” section. You then select the template that you want, click the “Edit” button at the top right corner or the page (depending on the version of the Joomla CMS that you have installed) and just follow the clear and instinctively-designed editing area to select and edit the Joomla templates to match your style of look, feel or even ego! Hey, it’s your website, your template and you can edit it in whatever depth or length you want.

For over 4 hours of Joomla Video Tutorial package covering on all aspects of designing and customizing Joomla websites-from installation to completion-download your copy from http://www.JoomlaWebsitesUnleashed.com to start developing Joomla websites quickly, easily and effectively! J And, let me know if you have questions or suggestions after watching the videos. See you there!

Recommend this article...

One of the things that makes it worthwhile to design and develop websites using the Joomla CMS is the endless supply of high quality Joomla templates (free, commercial and even custom made) that are available to you to both use and tweak to your heart’s content. You can then use these to make your site look and feel as unique, fresh and interactive as you want it without costing you an arm and a leg in the process.

Here, I will show you a simple 3-step process to getting and installing Joomla templates on your website. I call it the “PDI Formula.” Don’t worry, it has nothing to do with complicated mathematical or philosophical algorithms or “geek talk.”

If you are ready, here are the steps:

1.       Procure: This is where you go out there and get the best Joomla templates that you can get for your website. There are technically 3 types of Joomla templates that are available out there, going by the cost of getting them. In a nutshell, these are:

a.       Free Joomla Templates: These are the ones that are out there that every man and his dog can download and use on their sites. They come with “strings attached.” They are either ad-supported, recquire live links to the template designer’s website or a combination of both.

b.      Commercial Joomla Templates: These are for sale and have none of the strings associated with free Joomla templates attached. You can buy commercial Joomla templates one at a time, in packages or through monthly subscriptions to Joomla Template Clubs. The commercial ones also have more template customization options than the free ones and usually are look and feel far more professional than the free ones for obvious reasons: you paid money for these ones.

c.       Custom-Designed Joomla Templates: This is when you approach a template designer, give them information about the specification, graphics, color themes and other details and have them create a Joomla template just for you. These premium Joomla templates usually costs a little higher than the commercial templates as they are tailored to your particular needs and custom-made for your delight and ego, so to say.

2.       Download: The second step in setting up your Joomla template is to download it to your computer. Whether you are working with free, commercial or custom-made templates, you will have to do this to start the actual process of uploading and installing the template on your Joomla website.

3.       Upload and Install: Once you have the template on your computer, the next step is to upload it to your website. You can do this manually by logging onto your website hosting account’s “Control Panel” (from where you usually manage files, emails, check websites stats, etc. You get the point. J ) You will then go the “File Manager” section, navigate to the directory where you installed Joomla, click on the folder where the Joomla templates are stored and upload the new template to the same directory.

The easier, simpler and more preferable way to install your new template is to login to the admin area (“backend”) of your Joomla website (the /administrator directory, from where you manage all aspects of your site) and upload it from there. You can do this by opening the “Extensions” tab and clicking on the “Upload and Install” link after selecting the template from your computer. It should be uploaded and installed in a minute (usually in a few seconds after you click on that link).

And, voila! You have just uploaded and installed a new Joomla template on your website. The next thing you may want to do now would be to edit the template to suit yourself and your needs! J

You can learn how to edit Joomla templates and other aspects of Joomla website design and development by watching the over 4 hours of comprehensive Joomla Video Tutorials available from http://www.JoomlaWebsitesUnleashed.com . J

Recommend this article...