New Joomla! Users Tips & Tricks

I bet they haven’t! Joomla! Admin backend remembers what you last did whilst you are working with it. So, for example, if you were editing an article in one of your specific sections or categories and chose to look for it by using a filter, when you go back to Article Manager it can look as though all the others have disappeared. Just put the filters back to ’select section’ and ’select category’ and you will see them.

The same can happen if you look for plugins and modules in their managers. You might have looked for all modules in the left position, you might have looked for all ‘content’ plugins – just remove the filters and the others will reappear.

Filters are a great way to find what you want quickly – but remembering that you used a filter can save those panic moments when you think everything else has been lost for ever.

But time and time again you will see ‘panic’ requests for help with post titles like ‘Help’, ‘Please answer today’ and post content such as ‘can’t make xxx work can anyone help’.

By posting like that you are doing two things – first you are losing the support of busy developers who might just have an answer if they knew what the question was and second, perhaps more importantly, it will be hard for people with the same question to be able to search and find the answer to their problem which you have already had an answer to.

So before you rush to print, think about what you are asking…

Have you searched the forums to see if the question has been answered before? Search both the forums and with Google. Most questions have been asked by someone else! There isn’t much new under the sun…

What do you have a problem with? Is it part of Joomla or is it a problem ‘third party’ extension (component, module, plug-in etc). Consider asking about third party extensions on their own forums, they often have them. Check in the Joomla JED (Joomla Extensions Directory) for the link.

Is your title relevant to your question? Make it count! A question such as ‘Component XXX – installation error’ will get looked at far more than ‘Help’.

Is your question posted in the correct place? Check out the Joomla Forum, look at the child boards and choose the one relevant to your question. Make sure you choose the board relevant to your Joomla – are you using Joomla 1x or 1.5x for example. [Ed. note to Joomla Fast Track Students - you are using the current version of 1.5x which is 1.5.10]

Have you given a Developer enough information to answer your question? True Developers are ‘Engineers’ – they work in a clear, logical way and generally aren’t concerned with emotions! They want a clear description of the problem – when it happens, what happens, how can they reproduce it.

Let them know your ‘environment’:
What system is your site hosted on – eg Linux, Windows,?
Is your site ‘live’ or are you working on your desktop using a local server? – if it’s live, give them the link!
What system are you using – Windows XP SP?, Win2k SP?, Windows Vista? Ubuntu? Mac?
What browser are you using and what version? Firefox 3x? IE7x? Safari? etc
What Joomla Version?
What is the version of the extension you have a problem with?

Include any error messages you have received.

Finally, don’t just ask a question and disappear! Subscribe to your question, go back and check the answers and if you find the solution yourself elsewhere, post the answer to the board and mark it as ’solved’.

Always thank anyone who helps you solve your problem and, whilst you are on the boards, check to see if there are any questions you can answer – that’s how a good Community works!

First, get the image properties of the gradient you need to change. It’s easy in Firefox – right-click on the image and choose ‘view Background Image’. When the image opens, right-click again on the image and choose properties. In properties it will give you the dimensions (width always first, height second). Write them down… At this stage, also make a note of the filename of the image as it will be easier for you to use the same filename for your new image – noting whether it is a.png or a .jpg.

For this example, I made 100px x 100px images using the dark gray at the top of this blog (#191a1a) and the light gray at the bottom (#c0c0c0) adding the red (#990000) and white (#ffffff) for the 4 color. This time I chose to make .jpg files.

Of course you can make gradients in your favorite graphics program but this is the easy way – try this online Gradient Tool!

To use, simply replace the original gradient image with your new one in your template images folder.

It’s not just Lorem Ipsum, it is content that demonstrates how Joomla! works. You can explore how they have styled the content, what features the default template has eg content layouts and example pages and how the navigation works. Learning by example.

If you choose not to install the content you will be faced with something like this:

Fresh Joomla! install

This is how the Joomla Fast Track students will begin, but they will be guided stage by stage and end up with a working site – on your own, as a first time Joomla! user, it is much more difficult.

Check out the list by clicking here to go to Alledia

A couple of examples (don’t forget to change the background color to match the background where the image will appear on your site):

Rounded Corners Size 5

Rounded Corners Size 9

Easy and free – try it for yourself:
roundpic.com

Good template designers usually provide a screenshot with the module/user positions marked by name eg: top, banner, user 4, footer, left, right etc. If there is no module assigned to these positions, they ‘collapse’ and take up no ‘browser real estate’. So if you have a banner position but no banners, you won’t see anything in that position on your page.

In the old Joomla 1x it was easy to see the positions, they were available in Admin and you could view your page with the positions outlined. In Joomla 1.5x we can view the positions by adding ?tp=1 to your url. Here is the Joomla demo page exposed!
http://demo.joomla.org/1.5/?tp=1