Please don\u2019t be intimidated by Joomla!.\u00a0 Please<\/i>.\u00a0 Give it a try, do some research; take your time to learn something new.\u00a0 I know you can do it.\u00a0 I believe in you.\u00a0 What you\u2019ll end up discovering is something awesome.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t be like me.\u00a0 Don\u2019t live in regret.<\/p>\n

I, too, was convinced that I could never learn to use Joomla!.\u00a0 But, then again, I was intimidated by all content management systems (CMS) before I started really trying to learn them.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t think it was something I could figure out much less something I could excel at and even become a resource from which others could learn.\u00a0 Then, a friend of mine, Christi, taught me WordPress.\u00a0 (Christi\u2019s currently the Technical Team Lead in our Design Department, so she\u2019s an awesome source from which to learn.)<\/p>\n

It was a snowball effect from there.\u00a0 I built a lot of sites with WordPress and loved it.\u00a0 But, I wanted to learn more, so I ventured into some of the other free software we offer through Softaculous.\u00a0 I was still intimidated by Joomla! though.\u00a0 Everything I read about it made it something I wanted to learn, but it is so different from other CMS software I had been working with, I was convinced it was beyond me.\u00a0 The truth of the matter is, of course, that I didn\u2019t put in the time and effort to learn something new.<\/p>\n

But, a few months ago, I decided to install Joomla! on two of my personal blogs and give it a try.\u00a0 From that moment on, I was challenged to change my perspective.\u00a0 But, more importantly, I discovered something:\u00a0 Joomla! is actually very easy to use.\u00a0 It also comes with a lot options that aren\u2019t available in other CMS software.<\/p>\n

I think the most confusing part of Joomla! for most people is the lingo.\u00a0 It\u2019s different from other sources, but the meaning behind the words is the same.\u00a0 Once you have a firm grasp of what everything means, it all starts to click into place.\u00a0 So, in order to help get you started in using Joomla!, we are going to explain what Articles are and how they are used in Joomla!. This will help demystify the software and afford you a bit more comfort when reading up on what Joomla! is and how to use it.\u00a0 So, study up, there will be a quiz at the end. (Probably. But, probably not.)<\/p>\n

Articles = Web pages.\u00a0 <\/b><\/p>\n

Don\u2019t be confused because it says \u201carticles\u201d.\u00a0 The truth of the matter is that articles are both static pages and individual posts or listed posts (if you are going for a blog).\u00a0 They are all referred to as Articles in Joomla!<\/p>\n

When using Articles as static pages, you first need to create an article.\u00a0 This tells Joomla! that you are going to have a page based on that title.\u00a0 I always start my Joomla! designs by brainstorming on paper (Yep, pen and paper.\u00a0 Call me old fashioned, but it really helps me see what I\u2019m doing) the pages I would like to see on the site.\u00a0 Joomla! is easiest when you have an idea of the content you will want on your website.\u00a0 While you can of course make changes and update the information, it is best to have an idea of where you want the site to go before starting to build the site.<\/p>\n

If your intention is to have the article act as a static page, you will need to take one more step when creating the article.\u00a0 You will need to go into the \u201cArticle Options\u201d (either while you are creating the article, or by clicking on the article title in \u201cArticle Manager\u201d.\u00a0 Everything that is set to \u201cUse Global\u201d should be changed to \u201cHide\u201d or \u201cNo\u201d.\u00a0 This will prevent odd information, like the article title, creation date, and author from showing up on the pages you create.\u00a0 While this is perfect for a blog page, it can be confusing on a static page.<\/p>\n

My suggestion is to create blank Articles for the pages you want to see on your site.\u00a0 So, for example, if you want a page on your site titled \u201cReviews\u201d you would first create an article (Content \u2013 Article Manager \u2013 Add New Article) make the title \u201cReviews\u201d and then leave the content area blank.\u00a0 You can then add this to the menu (Menus \u2013 Main Menu \u2013 Add New Menu Item) and select \u201cSingle Article\u201d (Menu Item Type \u2013 Articles \u2013 Single Article) for the Menu Item Type.\u00a0 This will allow you to select the article you just created and will generate the blank webpage on your site.\u00a0 You can then add modules to customize the appearance of the page.<\/p>\n

If you are looking for a blog look, you can go through the same process of adding the page to the menu, but instead of selecting \u201cSingle Article\u201d you have a few options to have a page of posts.\u00a0 You can select featured articles, which will pull up articles that you label as \u201cfeatured\u201d.\u00a0 This, however, may be a problem if you are using an image rotator or another module that pulls from the featured articles.\u00a0 Then everything you want in your blog would also be pulled by that module.\u00a0 A better option would be to select \u201cCategory List\u201d which will pull from a selected category.\u00a0 If you are only having one blog page, you can create a category called \u201cBlog\u201d or something to that effect and use the \u201cBlog\u201d category when selecting which category that page should pull from.\u00a0\u00a0 Choosing \u201cCategory List\u201d will also allow you to have multiple blog pages by selecting a different category for each page.\u00a0 You will just need to create a category for each of those topics.\u00a0 (Content \u2013 Category Manager \u2013 Add New Category).<\/p>\n

So, remember, when working with Joomla! an article is a web page.\u00a0 You can set up any article in any manner through the use of the menu options and modules.\u00a0 This will help get you started in the world of Joomla!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Please don\u2019t be intimidated by Joomla!.\u00a0 Please.\u00a0 Give it a try, do some research; take your time to learn something new.\u00a0 I know you can do it.\u00a0 I believe in you.\u00a0 What you\u2019ll end up discovering is something awesome. Don\u2019t be like me.\u00a0 Don\u2019t live in regret. I, too, was convinced that I could never learn to use Joomla!.\u00a0 But, then again, I was intimidated […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1134,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[28],"class_list":["post-1097","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-software","tag-joomla"],"yoast_head":"\n