Joomla! is a free option for professional web design (CMS) that's designed for anyone. With just a few simple steps, Joomla! allows small businesses to compete online.

Joomla! is a content management system (CMS) that is simple enough for anyone to use, yet powerful enough for almost any situation. It's extensible for both business and personal purposes; there are free templates and commercial ones; and there are modules available for almost anything under the sun.

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<h2>Loading and Logging in to Joomla! CMS</h2>

The easiest way to use Joomla! is inside the browser interface. It can be downloaded <a href="https://downloads.joomla.org/">here</a> and used on a PC as regular software, but it's much easier to use it inside the browser. Most hosting sites provide Joomla! as an add-on, either through "Add-on Software" or through Fantastico. During installation, the user will be prompted for a subdirectory name and password. The install only takes a few minutes, sometimes just seconds, and it's done.

Once installation is finished, the user logs in at http://domain.com/subdirectory/administrator. The login is simple, and once in, new users should follow a few steps to make an organized website. CMS software is designed to take certain functionality out of the user's hands, automating certain functions, and if the site isn't organized well, it won't work as well as it can.

1. Create Sections for the site.
2. Create Categories within the sections.
3. Write Articles for each category.
4. Choose Templates that fit the site's purpose.
5. Explore Modules and Plugins.

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<h2>Setting Up a Joomla! Site</h2>

The first important step when beginning to set up a Joomla! site is understanding what CMS means. Content Management Systems do exactly that, manage the content, automating many aspects of the site. New articles automatically move front and center on the website's "frontpage." The hassle of updating HTML each time an article or news item is added is gone; Joomla! takes care of it.

Joomla! also keeps items organized through its Section->Category->Article heirarchy. Articles are kept up-to-date and in order. Finding articles either through the backend (control panel) or in the site itself is easy because of the automatic organization.

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<h2>Personalizing a Website With Templates and Extensions</h2>

Personalizing a Joomla! website is easy and fun, since thousands of extensions are available here. Free templates are available at many websites. One of the best parts of extending Joomla is that modules, plugins, and templates are all installed the same way, through a simple interface that requires browsing to the downloaded file and clicking "Install." Users can also install by using the URL of the file, making a download unnecessary.

Commercial templates are much more customizable and offer more features, easy flash galleries and easily edited banners. Free templates often come with mandatory banners and hard-to-change designs, even with a good understanding of CSS and HTML.

Adding Modules and extensions really turn a basic site into a professional creation. Depending on the template, modules can be placed all over the page, in the right column, the left column, the breadcrumb, the header, the footer, and more. There are modules for RSS feeds, for login/security, for payment and sales, for social networking, everything.

Competing with other CMS and website creation software like WordPress and Xoop, Joomla! stands out because of its customability and its variety. Amidst a lot of quality software available, it's obvious that some are designed well and others are not. Joomla! is CMS done right.

<br /><hr/><em>Posted on <a href="https://utopian.io/utopian-io/@alv/basic-tutorial-for-making-web-pages-with-joomla-the-open-source-content-management-system-for-everyone">Utopian.io -  Rewarding Open Source Contributors</a></em><hr/>