Well at the time of writing, Joomla 1.5 is still in RC3, but it’s very nice and I have had very few problems with it. So here is a simple guide to using the backend, for the average Joe. Click an image for a bigger screenshot. If what I say doesn’t make sense, then chat to me on the contact page with the chat box, email or phone me. With time, I can explain it. Once you get to know your way around, it becomes quite easy to use. I always maintain that the best way to work your way around it is by practice-make an article and a menu link and then see it in the actual site at what it looks like. Just be careful not to touch certain things (see What not to touch).

Some quick links to different sections:

1. How to Login

2. What to do once logged in

3. Create an Article

4. Create a section and category

5. Create a Menu

6. Other Tips/Tricks

7. What not to touch

8. Appendix-All that uncatagorised stuff

How to login
The login procedure has not changed from 1.0, it is still www.yoursite.com/administrator. On the version below, which I have edited for a variety of reasons, but it still has all the same functions. There is now the option to choose a language, which was never integrated before. This Joomla is even more international!

Once you’ve logged in…

OK, so you’ve typed in your username and password (which you need to get from your webmaster) and logged in. If you’ve never used Joomla before, this is what it should look like (with my superimposed text):

As you can see, if you need to logout you can, or even preview the website, which opens in a new window/tab. The first thing I’m going to show you how to use is the articles. For those who are used to 1.0, articles replace all content, including static content. Now you can choose to make an article uncategorised (like static content in 1.0) or in a category. For new people what this means is that any page you make can either be part of a section that is split up into categories (so the only way to get to it is by going into the section, and then into the category and choose a page) or without a category i.e. just a single unconnected page. If you don’t understand, it should become clear soon. So to get on it click in the quick icons ‘Article Manager’. You should get this (just ignore the file names, they are irrelevant):

Creating an Article:
So as you can see, this is what you get when you go onto the article page. To make a new article, click new, as shown in the screenshot above. What you get is a new page, with a textbox and some other options. Have a look at it in this screenshot:

OK. So the first thing to do is give your new page a title. Whatever you want. The title alias helps Joomla decide what the web address in the bar it is. You don’t really need to give your article an alias, but you can if you want. There is an option to make your article not published, which means that it is saved, but doesn’t appear on the website. You can unpublish an article at any time if you want(default state is published). Frontpage is whether your article should display on the homepage of the website.The default is that it doesn’t appear on the frontpage.

Now…the section and category. Let’s say that you want just an article totally irrelevant to anything else. In that case choose uncategorised in the section drop down, as shown in the screenshot. If you want it in a section and category, then choose the section and category in both the drop downs. I will explain that a bit more when I explain how to add a section and category. Then just type your text in the box below. You can make it bold, add tables and all sorts. Try out all the buttons in the panel. The link button is to add a link(highlight the text you want linked first). Below the box are a few buttons. One says image. If you click this you have the option to add different images that are on the site, to your text. Click one of the images, or go into a folder to find one. Then click insert at the top. For this to work you need javascript (and IE6 doesn’t work with it. Get Firefox if you get any browser/display problems, it usually fixes them) One of them says Read more. If you click somewhere in the box and then click the read more button then you will get a red line (what this means is that if you put an item onto the frontpage, only the things before the red line will appear. There will then be a read more link, which will go to the full article. You don’t have to do this to put an article on the frontpage, but it takes up less space on it). Once you’ve finished your article, click save. (Apply saves it, but stays on the article. Save goes back to article manager).

You will see in the screenshot that I have labelled the ordering things. If you click the arrows, an article will move up or down, thus changing the order that it appears on the website when in a list. You can also type the number order in the boxes with 1 being first and then click the floppy disk icon next to the word ‘order’. You can also publish or unpublish an article by clicking the tick under the published column, and in the row of the article, to make it unpublished and the cross to publish it again. The same applies to the adjacent column for making an item go onto the front page. The rest of the stuff you don’t really need to know except that if all the articles aren’t appearing click the drop down menu next to display near the bottom of the page and click all. This will refresh the page with all the articles appearing. You can also filter the articles by clicking the drop down menus underneath the ‘new’ button and you can filter by section, category, author or state(published, unpublished etc.). To delete an article, right click the box next to it in article manager and then click trash at the top, near to new.

Something quite important, is that if any article appears with a lock next to it, go along the toolbar at the top to tools and click global checkin. That should solve it.

Adding Sections and Categories
Well, this is not hard, but if you don’t know about it then it can be confusing. The easiest way, I find, to do this is to click site on the toolbar, and then control panel. This will go back to the page before. Click section manager. You get this:

OK. So click new. To explain this, I need to give you some background. Here is my explanation:
If you aren’t making an uncategorised page (as I showed you earlier), then you have to make one with a section and category. Section is like a collective group, and beneath that are categories, which split up the section into further groups. Inside the categories are separate articles, that are relevant to the category, which is relevant to the section. A site can have as many sections or categories as you like. So, you’ve clicked new and a new page has come up which looks something like this:

Fill in the title, alias (if you want), decide whether you want it published and if you want add a picture and a description(but you don’t have to). Then click save. It will take you back to the section manager, where can order, publish or delete any sections you have made. Make as many sections as you like. Now you need to make some categories to go in the section you have made. Click site in the toolbar, and then control panel. Then Click Category manager. (An alternative way of doing it is to click content on the toolbar and then category manager. Its easiest from the control panel if you have just logged on. You will find the easiest way for you.) Click new, and then fill in the details like you did in the section manager. Except this time, below ‘Published’ you have to choose which section you want your category to go in. Click the arrow (its a drop down menu) and choose one. Once you’ve done all that, click save. Once that is done, it will redirect you back to the category manager. Make as many categories as you like. You can always come back later and do that. Now, let’s say you’ve changed your mind and want that article from before that you had made uncategorised, to be in one of your sections, in a category. Go to article manager (either content>article manger or go back to the control panel and click article manager). Click the article you want to change and it will open. In the drop down menus for section and categories, choose your section, then category. Then click save. The article will then be in the section and category you chose.

Menu items-how to make those articles and sections appear in the menus on the pages.
The assumption I am making is that all menus are set up for you by the webmaster. If they aren’t and you are doing it all yourself, drop me an email and I’ll give you a hand. If you aren’t sure what a menu item is, its the big set of links together on every page, and they link to the important pages on the website i.e. home, the sections and things like contacts and search (search will be set up by the webmaster. I’ll show you how to use contacts soon-in components)

If it has been done by the webmaster, here’s what you need to do. Along the toolbar, click menus, and then it should say ‘Menu Manager’, then ‘Menu Trash’. Then there is a divide and a list of menus. Click the one you want (sometimes topmenu, sometimes mainmenu. It depends on how the webmaster has set it up-ask him/her or me). Here is a screenshot of how it should look, but with different menu names(I just chose those ones because the names make sense to me):

So I’m now assuming that you have chosen one and if you weren’t sure which one to choose you have asked your webmaster. It will then go onto a page with all the menu items for that menu. Click ‘new’ and it will open a new page for making an item, which looks like this:

It is quite complicated what to do next. But here we go…

If you want to make a link to an article or section, click articles. It will then expand. To make an article on its own, click article layout. To link to a section, click section layout. The blog options display in a blog format. To make a link to a website not part of Joomla i.e. google.com then you need to click external link. A wrapper just puts another webpage inside your page. Once you have chosen which type of link you want to make, click that and a new page will appear.

For articles: On the new page, you need to fill in the title and alias as usual. On the right under Paramters-Basic, next to Select Article, click select. A javascript window will popup. Click the article that you want (its basically just article manager, but a bit different). If this isn’t clear, try it out. Once done just click save and you’re done. It will take you back to the menu page. To order the links, do it in the same way as the articles

For sections or categories: Fill in title and alias, then on the right under Paremeters-Basic next to section/category choose the specified category in the drop down menu. Then just click save. You will be redirected to the menu.

Have a go at trying the other types-there’s no harm. Its always good to try it BEFORE the website goes live so that your paying customers don’t see it-it doesn’t look too good.

Other tips/Tricks

• In Parameters, you make different things appear or change a variety of settings. The webmaster will have set up defaults for everything. Parameters are there on the right when creating a menu item or a new article. [To change the defaults for articles, next to the option to create a new article there is a button saying Paramters. A Javascript window will come up, where you can change the settings. Your webmaster will usually have set these up for you as he/she sees fit for your website]
• To edit the Frontpage and various articles, go to content in the toolbar and click Frontpage manager
• Creating polls. Along the top, click components>Polls. Then click new, and make a new one (type in a title, then fill in the different options on the right. Then click save). Then go to Extensions>Module Manager. Click new, then select Poll in the right column and then click next.Type your title in and on the right next to Poll, select your poll from the drop down. At the bottom of the page, you have the option of choosing which pages you want the poll to appear on. Then click save.
• As regards to different components that you may have installed on your Joomla installation, because there are so many different ones available, you will have to go access the support on that website. If there is a large amount of people that want me to write a tutorial on a certain component, then I will. Otherwise, check out the support of the component.

What Not To Touch

• Under Site, DO NOT touch global configuration unless you really know what you are doing. It could make your site go down. This is not a good idea.

Appendix

• I can not stress enough the importance of practising. The best way to learn what a section is is by trying it out and seeing what happens. If you aren’t sure what a wrapper is, make one and then you will know! Joomla is built for the user: it makes it really easy for you to try things. Trying=learning.
• If you feel that I could have explained anything better, or a screenshot would be useful in a certain place, drop me an email and I will try to get that done ASAP. If I have missed something off that would be useful i.e. using the archive, again drop me an email. I will be more than happy to help you out.
• Some of the more observant of you may have noticed that this website uses wordpress [the other tab in some of the screenshots :p]. This is very true. Although Joomla is very good at many things, and it is very powerful, I find that wordpress suited my needs for this website. You can have a blog with Joomla, but wordpress was ideal-it is SO easy to manage and it is so simple. I didn’t want an over-complicated website for Splendidesign, I just wanted a simple sight, and that’s what I’ve got. It’s all about your needs, and sometimes Joomla just doesn’t fit them
• But most importantly, good luck!!

This information may be reproduced with an acknowledgement to Splendidesign and a link. Any attempt to take this information as your own will have legal consequences.