Power in Simplicity

Have you ever wanted to design and publish your own Web site with the ease of point and click, but never understood how to achieve this?

Well, don't fear! Joomla! is just the ticket for you!

Joomla! takes the worry out of creating Web pages without having to understand how to program. 

If you know how to use a standard word processor, like Microsoft Word or Open Office Writer, then you can manage a Web site using Joomla! 

Simple... Quick... And easy!

What is Joomla!? 

Joomla! is one of the finest, multi-award winning, Open Source Projects available today.

Joomla! makes it easy to communicate and publish on the web.

Joomla! is a web Content Management System (CMS) software that anyone can use for free to easily manage a Web site.  It is simple enough for small Web sites, yet powerful enough for large-scale commercial Web sites. These are some of the advantages to using Joomla!:

• It is easy to set up and use.
• It has a simple and unique Administration Control Panel to manage Web site content.
• It is flexible enough to create custom Web site designs using the template system.
• It is easy to add content and images.
• It is designed with simplicity and flexibility for everyone. From the non-technical Webmaster to the advanced Programmer, it is designed to make it simple to add content.
  

What Joomla! is not

Joomla! is not a self-contained web-hosting server package with everything you need to run your own web server. Joomla! does require some understanding of, or a lot of experimentation with:

• typically an Apache web server (although others can be used),
• PHP a scripting language,
  
• MySQL a database package and,
• a number of other modules and extensions to each of these that require configuring.

In addition, if you want to publish your web sites to the World Wide Web, you will need either:

• a managed/virtual server host who will provide (probably) a service that will include the above requirements. Together with a domain name(s) as necessary.
  

• a dedicated root server either within your own location with an appropriate broadband or above link, fixed IP (ideally) and domain name(s).

        or  

• a remote dedicated  root server with all the requirements mentioned in the previous point.

• a localhost installation of Apache , MySQL , PHP (AMP) either by installing each program separately and configuring them manually or using a pre-configured package such as - on a Windows OS (WAMP ), a Unix based OS, including Linux (LAMP) or MAC OS (MAMP ).

There are, additionally, other software packages for installing a web server on a local machine that should NOT be used for public web sites.

• One of the more popular - and it is multi-platform - is XAMPP ,
  
• There is also a package with Joomla! already attached to it in the Joomla! Stand Alone Server (JSAS).

What is Open Source?

Open Source is a catch-all term, describing several parts of the Free Software license movement. Here are some organizations that have contributed to defining Open Source licenses:

• The Free Software Foundation: http://www.fsf.org/
• The GNU Project (GNU's Not Unix): http://www.gnu.org/
• The Open Source Initiative: http://www.opensource.org/
  

What can I use Joomla! for?

Joomla! can be used for many different types of Web sites, such as:

• Portals
• Commercial Web sites
• Intranet / Extranet
• Non-profit Web sites
• Personal Web sites
• Integrated Flash Web sites
  

The key feature is the ability to allow any authorized user to add and edit content directly on the Web. Multiple people can manage content within a Joomla! Web site.

They do not need to know any programming languages, such as HTML, to update their site because an 'online WYSIWYG editor' (What You See Is What You Get) is included for formatting the text and inserting images.

There is no need to upload your documents with hard to understand FTP (File Transfer Protocol) programs. Just Save and Publish your content and your Web page is online for everyone to see!

Joomla! can be used for the following applications:

• Updating 'Home' and 'News' Web pages, with news, articles and images·
• Creating your own dynamically created content menus like 'Products > Hardware >DVD Recorders, Products > Hardware > CD Recorders'
• Uploading MS Word, MS Excel, and Adobe Acrobat PDF documents for online viewing
• Managing header, footer, or side Banners (advertisement etc.)
• Creating Polls
• Managing Web links
• Managing FAQ's (Frequently Asked Questions)
• Managing News Flashes
• Managing multimedia Flash, .jpg, .gif, .bmp, and .png images
• Managing News Feeds, from different news source Web sites
• Managing Contact and e-mail form pages
• Managing Users with special access levels
• Managing Archive pages
• Managing 3rd party developer's Components, Modules and Templates. For example: E-commerce, forums, image galleries, calendar and agenda components, help desk, etc.
• 
  

What is Joomla!'s License?

Joomla! is released under the GNU General Public License (GNU GPL). The GNU GPL provides for a person or persons to distribute Joomla! for a fee, for example the cost of burning Joomla! to a CD and distributing the CD's, but not actually charging for the software itself.

Joomla! is free to share and modify, however, changing Joomla! does not give you permission to change the license, or to sell Joomla!. To do so would be in direct violation of the GPL.

•  GNU General Public License or  GNU GPL License Guidelines.

So with regard to Joomla!, the GPL, and copyright:

You MAY distribute Joomla! and charge for that service. You MAY change Joomla!, add design and content to it, and you MAY charge for that. You MAY NOT alter the license and you MUST NOT alter the copyright. You do not have to show a 'Powered by Joomla!' graphic, as it not a copyright notice, but no one will complain if you do.

In other words, you MUST NOT pretend that Joomla! is yours, and you MUST NOT charge people for Joomla!.

Use Joomla! to empower yourself and your clients by taking away the 'Black Magic' that surrounds putting content on the Internet. Charge for the value you add and not for the hard work that the Joomla! Development Team and the Joomla! community have put into it.

Who holds the Copyright for Joomla!?

Open Source Matters holds the copyright for the Joomla! product and name.

About this Manual 

This manual is intended as a guide of the use and functionality of the Administrator Back-end of Joomla! and the results that can be achieved in the Public Front-end site of the installation.

The assumption is made that you have a fully installed and functioning Joomla! system. If this is not the case then see the Installation section of this Help site or the Joomla! 1.0.11. User Manual . There are also many third-party guides and tutorials available that cover the topic of installation. 

NOTE: If you have suggestions/corrections for this chapter, please visit the Suggestions, Modifications, and Corrections forum. 

Thank you!

The Documentation Team