Joomla! For Dummies

The days of 25-page static websites are over. The 5,000 page interactive, community-driven web site is now the industry standard. This means that content management systems (CMS) are rapidly becoming necessary in today's dynamic Web environment. Programmers may choose confront this challenge by creating sites in ASP.Net and PHP & MySQL, but that takes days of work, and creating a CMS in PHP & MySQL or ASP.Net is not for the faint of heart. What's a Web designer to do? The answer is simple (and free): Joomla! Joomla! For Dummies is the perfect way to get up to speed fast, choose the correct modules, components, and plug-ins; and create an interactive, content management Web site in hours rather than days. The book starts out by explaining the conceptual underpinnings of Joomla! and overviewing the process of getting a Joomla! site up and running. By Chapter 3, readers can set up a family blog in Joomla! that includes comments from readers, pictures, RSS feeds, and more! But the book doesn't stop there. Part II goes into detail about planning and setting up your Joomla! website, whatever readers may want to accomplish, including working with Joomla! modules, components, plug-ins, and extensions, and privileges. This gets your database set up to manage the site's content. In Part III, readers discover how to organize the site's content to enrich surfers' experiences with the site. Part IV provides the knowhow to make the Web site shine through the use of layouts, templates, and XHTML and CSS. The part concludes with a chapter full of tips for optimizing Joomla! sites for optimal search engine visibility. Series features: Joomla! For Dummies is written with the Dummies style and quality that readers turn to time and again. The modular format and thoughtful organization allows readers to skip around rather than read straight through, and expert tips and tricks are highlighted throughout to help readers sidestep common pitfalls and get the most out of their Joomla! experience.