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.

Joomla has a thriving Community of people ready and willing to help when you hit a problem.

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…
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Modules positions are places on your webpage, set up by your template’s index.php and listed in the related .xml file, that can contain modules such as a menu module or a poll module. You can have more than one module in each position dependent on space available. An example of this would be the left column which might have several menu modules, a login module and more.

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Make your own typography cloud – add words, use your rss feed from your website or your blog or even use your del.icio.us tags… Here is a cloud made with this blog’s RSS Feed:

Just a bit of fun and design courtesy of Wordle who say:

“Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends.”

LVS Online is a distance-learning web site dedicated to providing students with an affordable and fun way to learn.

Quote from LVS Online:

“Our online classes are perfect for senior learners, homeschoolers, or those seeking a stress-relieving hobby or even a career change. You will not need any special hardware or software to participate. There are no scheduled class times – you decide when you would like to work online, day or the middle of the night, no matter what time zone. Your instructor is there to review your work, answer questions or concerns and, if you would like, you can chat with other students on our class discussion board. The very best part of online learning is that you do not have to leave your home to enjoy a course developed and taught by a professional in their field!”
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Perhaps you are a non-coder, you installed Joomla! on your server using Fantastico with all the default Joomla content, your site works and you are a happy bunny! So why do you need this active Joomla Community? Sooner or later you will hit a problem, you will need more functionality and you will want to make your site look different from the crowd.

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…because I unpacked the box, turned it on and could intuitively use it! My first computer back in the early 90s – an Apple Performa. No fuss, no nonsense – it just worked.

Having previously played with BBC basic (didn’t we all?) and used lumbering early word processors – IBM golfballs, IBM variable spacing typewriters and learning to type on a manual typewriter – it was brilliant, it was freedom!

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With a newly chosen Gravatar, I celebrate their company and friendship. Always there at my feet as I am concentrating intensely on a current project but with inbuilt time clocks that keep my sometimes irregulated life in order.
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Without these Developers Joomla! wouldn’t exist! …and I include the great Joomla! Community in these greetings too.

2009 is the time for me to ‘give back’ and I can reveal that from March 2009, LVS Online will offer a new course – Joomla! Fast Track. LVS Online – where learning is fun!