Joomla How To's

How to have a white background when creating a new article

2011-01-11T11:32:00.000-08:00

Go to Components > JCE > Configuration

Under the Formatting section, in the Editor Content Class, select "Hi Contrast" This will remove your background color so you can see the text.

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****Keep in mind, you must be using the JCE component!

In the "Submit Article" portion, what if text color isn't right? (For Joomla Administrator's ONLY!)

2010-08-07T18:46:00.001-07:00

One issue that seems to happen with many Joomla templates is that the text within the "Submit an Article" section blend in with the background, like this:

(This image was taken AFTER I fixed the issue)

To change the color to something that will stand out from the background, simply edit the template's CSS. (template.css)

Once in, find "td.key"

Behind that, change the color to whatever you want. Once saved, your "Submit Article" portion of the website should be easier to use.

How to change the color on a Category List Header

2009-10-25T22:58:00.000-07:00

The color of a list layout is created by Artisteer automatically, but Artisteer does not allow you to change the color within the software.

The only way you can change the color of a list is to put the template into the website, and edit the CSS (NOT HTML.) Once into the CSS (template.css) search for TD.sectiontableheader

Under the section table header, you will find a color for the background-color. Change that color to what you want. Then change the color of the text, which is behind just "color"

How to Submit an Article from a Word Document

2009-08-31T11:53:00.000-07:00

First login to the site.
Once you have succesfully logged in, click on the link labelled "Add Article."
In the box provided, you may either type in the content. If you want to copy and paste from Microsoft Word, first go to your Word document, highlight everything, and press Ctrl-C (on a Mac, press Apple-C)
Go back to the website, and click on the button with the Word Logo (should be on the left side of the tools, just below the the help button.
A box will open. Press Ctrl-V (on a Mac, press Apple-V)
Click the Insert Button
Give your article a title in the box provided just above the tools.
Scroll down to the Publishing section. Select the appropriate section and category.
Decide when you are going to start and finish publishing
If you have nothing else to add, scroll back to the top and click Save.

How to create an Article in the Back-End.

2009-08-05T16:10:00.000-07:00

BEFORE YOU CREATE AN ARTICLE, YOU MUST FIRST HAVE A MODULE AND MENU ITEM SET UP. To see how you create a Module, follow this link. To see how to create a Menu, follow this link.

Go to Content>Article Manager (if you are in the control panel of the Back-End, simply click on Add New Article.)
A new screen should appear. Give it a name in the Title box.
Decide whether or not it will be published
Decide whether or not it will be shown on the front page of your site
Select which Section, and which Category your article will be shown in.
On the right side of the screen, decide who the author is (this usually defaults to your name since you are logged in.)
Decide the access level (which users can see the article)
Pick a Start Publishing Date. This defaults to the time and date of when you create the article. You can change it to a different time in the future, allowing you to create the article and it not publish until the time you decide. (Please remember that the time for this is military time.)
Pick a date for Finish Publishing. If you do not want the article to stop publishing until you manually turn it off, then leave this blank.
Under Parameters, change the settings to what you prefer. If you are wondering what each setting does, simply put your mouse over it for a second and it will explain.
Enter in the content you want on your site.

Once everything is complete, click the Save or Apply button on the top right. It will immediately be seen on your site, under the previously determined menu item.

How to add menu items in a module

2009-08-04T10:53:00.000-07:00

BEFORE YOU ADD A MENU, YOU MUST FIRST HAVE A MODULE SET UP. If you need a module set up, then please read the post labelled "How to create a Menu Module."

Setting up a menu item is very simple, but does require a few different steps.

You first must set up your categories. So go to Content>Category Manager.
Click New, enter the Title of the menu item you want, select which Section it will be in, and what the access level will be.
Once you have saved that, go to Menus>and select the menu that this will be under. (Do not click on Menu Manager.)
Click New>Articles>and decide what kind of layout you want to have. READ BELOW TO SEE AN EXPLANATION OF THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF ARTICLE LAYOUTS, AND WHY YOU WOULD USE THEM.
After you have selected the type of layout, put in the Title of the menu, what the parent item will be (which is most likely "Top") and select the category for which the link will be associated to.
Once you save it, that is it. You will now see that menu item within the module. Now if you create an article that associates with the section and category, it will show up once clicking on that menu item.

EXPLANATION ON DIFFERENT TYPES OF ARTICLE LAYOUTS

Typically, you will want to use selection labelled "Category Blog Layout." This will then take all the articles within a chosen category, and show the full article. If say for instance you have multiple articles in the same category that you do not want to show all at once, you can select "Category List Layout" and that will litterally give you the list of those articles, and if sombody wants to read an article, they simply click on it. To see an example of a "Category Blog Layout" follow this link. To see an example of a "Category List Layout" follow this link.

How to create a Menu Module

2009-08-04T10:41:00.001-07:00

You must first rememeber what a module is. They are the boxes you find either on the left or right side of the site. If you want a menu with various links inside it, then you must create that menu first. Follow these steps to create the module.

Create the section by going to Content>Section Manager
Click New, and label your section. (For example, all sites need a Main Menu.)
Now you create the menu. Go to Menus>Menu Manager
Click New, and label the menu you want to create.
Now you create the module that associates with that menu.
Go to Extenstion>Module Manager.
Click New>Menu>Next>Give it a title, and on the right, select the Menu Name
You also want to pay attention to the Position drop down. It defaults to left, but if you want the module to show on the right side of your site, then change it to such. You can also decide what the access level is. If you have it set to Public, then anybody who comes to the site will see the module and everything in it. If you have it set to registered, then it will only show up when somebody is a general registered user on the front-end of the site. If you have it set to special, then only those who are registered and have access to the back-end of the site will see the module. Those who are only registered for the front-end will NOT be able to see the module if it is set to Special.

Once you have finished those steps, the module will be visible. To add menu items within the module, then please read the posting labelled "How to add menu items in a module."