On a Joomla website the Layout and Graphics are controlled by what is known as a "template". But you can't use just any website template. You must use a template that was specifically designed for use with Joomla (in our case Joomla 1.5).
There are Three basic components to a Joomla template. The index.php file, the css file, and the image files that are used by the template. Since this series of articles is intended for those who have no programming experience, I won't bore you with the technical specifics of these files as these are not required for you to install and use Joomla templates.
If you do a Google search on "Joomla 1.5 templates" you will find plently of both Free and commercial templates to choose from. Once you find a template that you want to use download it to your local computer. All of the files will be zipped up into one zip file. You don't even have to unzip this file before installing the template to your site. You will be installing the zip file directly to your site through the Joomla admin side of your site.
Now login to your Joomla admin by going to http://your.site/administrator and enter the username and password that you chose during your Joomla installation process.
Once you have logged in you will notice a top menu bar with the following options: Site, Menus, Content, Components, Extensions, Tools, and Help. Place your mouse over the "Extensions" menu option and a drop down menu with more options will appear. Click on the first option entitled "Install/Uninstall".
On the screen that comes up you will see a box that says "Upload Package File". Click on the "Browse" button in the box and a window will open up for you to browse to the template file that you had previously downloaded to your computer. Locate the zip file for your template and click the Open button. The popup window will close and the path to the file will be inserted into the install box. Now click on the "Upload File & Install" button.
After the file has been uploaded and Installed successfully, go back up to the top menu bar and put your mouse over the "Extensions" menu option once again, but this time click on the "Template Manager" option in the drop down menu.
On the screen that comes up you will see a list of all the templates currently installed within your Joomla site. Find the template that you just installed and click the radio button to the left of the template name. Now in the upper right hand corner of the screen, click on the Yellow Star button that says "Default".
Now go to the front end of your site http://your.site and you can new see that your new template has been applied.
Keep in mind that even after you have added the content to you site (which I will guide you through in the coming articles), changing the layout and graphics will be easy. You will simply change the template that the site is using.
Next Article in this series: PART V - Adding Content
Previous Article in this series: PART III - Getting Started
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Hello, Do you know when you will be posting PART V - Adding Content?
ReplyDeleteThank you,
Sorry, things have been a bit hectic lately. I have started working on a website where I will have these and more lessons in a more easy to understand format with illustrations.
ReplyDeleteI will post a link to that website when it is live.
Rico