Joomla User Manual

Content Management¶

Joomla! is a Content management system at heart and has excellent features to make organising and managing content simple. The inbuilt WYSIWYG editor allows users to edit content without any knowledge of code. There are many possible ways to display the site content with different layouts and pre-installed modules to show the most popular articles, latest items, related articles and more.

Adding an image is as easy as dragging and dropping it from your computer directly into the content editor. This works anywhere that you are using the default TinyMCE WYSIWYG editor. And if you want to add a module into an article, Joomla! makes it really easy with a button in the editor toolbar. You don’t need to learn any syntax or remember the module details as the user interface does it for you.

Accessibility Checker¶

Every visitor unable to view your page is potentially a lost customer. Joomla! allows authors to create great accessible content with a plugin to visually highlight common accessibility and usability issues.

Keyboard Shortcuts¶

There are 9 keyboard shortcuts built into the administrator side of your site such as J + F to jump into the search field or J + S to save. Press J + X to get a list of them all. The keystrokes are all sequential, making it more accessible than hitting them simultaneously.

Syntax Highlight¶

Sometimes the editor WYSIWYG view is not enough and you have to switch to the HTML code view. In Joomla! all the code is syntax highlighted in the source code view within the built-in TinyMCE editor. This will make it so much easier to read all of your HTML tags and CSS classes. Markup is clearly displayed. Additionally, you can search and replace directly in the HTML code view.

Frontend Editing¶

Editing content should be easy and fast. You are reading through your site's content and see a change you need to make. No need to login to the Backend any more for simple edits of content and modules. Simply login to the Frontend, click and edit there.

Content Versioning¶

You will never again lose a previous important version of your article and other changes on your site. You are now able to track exactly who made what changes, when, and, if a version note was entered, why the item got edited. Then if needed you can revert to any previous version.

Workflows¶

The Publishing Workflow component is used by a team of users with different responsibilities to move an article from one stage of the publication process to the next. For example: one user group may compose blog posts but not publish them; a second user group approves blog posts and publishes them. The workflow may involve more steps. If only one user does everything then a workflow is not needed.

Categories¶

When you are managing content, organisation is a key requirement. Being able to create categories with nesting and no limits on depth is a great plus in helping manage large websites.

Tags¶

When categorisation is not enough to structure content, it's time to look at a flat organisation structure which is best served by tagging. What's more, tagging in Joomla! also supports nesting, so limits are just not there! Start tagging.

Smart Search¶

With the built-in Smart Search, website visitors will be able to quickly and easily find the appropriate site information. And even more, thanks to the statistics you can analyze your visitors needs and streamline your content even better to serve them. You have the ability to use the included smart indexing, advanced search options, auto suggest searches - making Joomla! search the best in class right out of the box.

Media Management¶

The Media component is used to upload, organize and manage media files and folders. It has configurable MIME settings to handle a wide range of media types. The Media component is integrated into the Article Editor to allow access to images and all other media files for easy usage and enhancement of written content.

Multilingual¶

Joomla! is the most popular and widely supported open source multilingual CMS platform in the world, offering more than 64 languages. Webmasters and content creators can create websites to be presented in multiple languages, without ever needing to step outside of the options available in the Joomla! core software. This is a big step forward and represents a set of capabilities that can make websites much more accessible, reaching out to a much larger audience.

Menu Management¶

The Menu system allows creation of as many menus and menu items as needed. You can structure your menu hierarchy (and nested menu items) completely independently of your content structure. Put one menu in multiple places and in any style you want; use rollovers, dropdown, fly outs and just about any other navigation system you can think of. Also automatic breadcrumbs are generated to help users navigate your site.

User Management¶

Out of the box, Joomla! has nine user groups with various types of permissions on what users assigned to a specific group are allowed to access, edit, publish and administer using Access Control Lists (ACL). The Joomla! ACL is extremely powerful and can be configured to suit any needs you might have.

Joomla! has a registration system that allows users to configure personal options, such as password, name, email address, default editor and so on.

Authentication is an important part of user management and Joomla! supports multiple protocols, including LDAP, OpenID, and even Gmail. This allows users to use their existing account information to streamline the registration process. All of this can be added to with extensions, giving complete control over what users can access and how they authenticate to your site.

Administrators may quickly and efficiently communicate with users one-on-one through private messaging or all site users via the mass mailing system.

Multi Factor Authentication¶

Joomla! was the first major CMS to implement two-factor authentication. It now has multi-factor authentication allowing users to choose one or more authentication methods in addition to the traditional username and password method. A single-use code received on your cell phone or a Yubikey are just two of the methods available to make your site extra hack-proof.

WebAuthn¶

WebAuthn is available for passwordless login using a hardware or software device.

Template Management¶

Templates in Joomla! are more than a framework for managing your designs but a powerful tool suite for making your site look exactly the way you want. You have complete control of your presentation since you can either use a single template for the entire site or a separate template for each site section or menu item.

With a highly advanced override system, designers get an awesome amount of power over how pages and elements of pages are presented without touching any of the core code! Practically any HTML generated by Joomla! can be customized for your project.

Child Templates allow you to make changes to a template that will not be overwritten if there is a template update. The changes are made in a partial clone of the original template.

Responsive with Bootstrap¶

Joomla! is Mobile Ready and allows you to build more than just websites but online applications that can respond to virtually any device. Joomla! core templates are built with Bootstrap making it responsive out of the box. Which means you have a toolset to work with which makes creating templates even easier!

Beautiful Fonts for that Extra Edge¶

Designers know the power of fonts for expressing ideas and design strategies. With Joomla! you do not need to get constrained by standard web fonts. The Joomla! core itself opens a whole new world of expression because it allows you the freedom to use Google fonts to make that new design dream come true!

Banner Management¶

With the banner manager you have the possibility to easily add advertising and monetize your website. The tool allows you to create clients and campaigns, to add as many banners as you need, even custom codes, to set impression numbers, track the clicks and much more...

Contact Management¶

Not enough with just one contact form on your site? The contacts component allows you to add several contacts, departments and categories, and extend the basic contact information with miscellaneous information and an image. Easily set up a contact form for each contact you create and allow access to the public or just to some registered users, or create a listing of these contacts.

Syndication and News Feed Management¶

Make sure your visitors stay updated on the new content you're adding, even when they come only once in a while. With Syndication you create a feed that users subscribe to in their favourite RSS reader and so they receive the updates. With news feed management, you can integrate RSS feeds into your site. Gather all posts from some of the largest news sites and show them on your site for example.

Administrator Help¶

Most administrator pages have a Help button at the top right. It opens a pop-up window containing information on all of the options on that page. Some pages also have an Inline Help button that toggles on/off explanatory text beneath selected fields in administrator data entry forms. There is a page of Help links, including one to all Help pages and many to online resources, such as Joomla! Documentation and User Forums.

Easy Updates¶

Joomla! has a One Click Version Update feature to make updating super easy for users of any skill level. The built-in updater has an automated checker which notifies you if anything needs updating; this includes notifications of the core software and Joomla! extensions that use this feature. The email update notification plugin checks for the availability of new Joomla! versions and sends the Super Users on the site an email notification.

Powerful Extensibility¶

The Joomla! core is just the beginning, the real power is in the way you can customize Joomla. More than 8000 Extensions are available to extend your website and broaden its functionality. Visit the Joomla Extensions Directory (JED) to see thousands of ways to enhance Joomla! to suit your needs.

Well Supported¶

Our worldwide, enthusiastic community is filled with individuals, and teams of world class developers and business consultants who actively help at no cost in the forums. There are thousands of professional Joomla! service providers throughout the world who can help build, maintain and market your Joomla! projects.

System Features¶

Speedy page loads are possible with page caching, granular-level module caching, and GZIP page compression.

If your system administrator needs to troubleshoot an issue, debugging and error reporting options are invaluable.

Task Scheduler¶

Tasks you do time and time again or future tasks that must not be forgotten can be automated with the Task Scheduler.