Joomla is a content management system (CMS). A CMS is software that basically enables you to access and control the content displayed on websites. They have gained great importance since they enable even non-programmers to set up and manage websites, which have become a must have for businesses and blogs. Joomla is free and open source, meaning that you can download and install it at no cost.
Joomla, whose name was derived from the Swahili word ‘jumla’, which means ‘all together’, had its first release in 2005. It has since grown into one of the leading CMSs in the world with a multitude of world class websites running on the system. So many different websites run on Joomla for example, corporate websites, government websites and ecommerce websites. Joomla has some amazing features including high end text editor with a rich media manager which you, as the web designer, use to easily add images, audio and video to your site to make it more media rich. This media manager is fully integrated into the Joomla editor so that you can easily add media files to your web content.
Next, is language management. With this nifty feature, you create your website in a variety of languages. You can also define the language to be used for your control panel. This accommodates a huge number of users from all corners of the world who speak different languages.
Joomla also offers a great menu management. You can easily set up menu hierarchies and styles. What is awesome about this is that you can create menus that are fully independent of the website content. You can add different menus for different segments of the website. In addition, you can style up your menus by implementing dropdown menus and flyouts, among other menu styles, to enhance the navigation experience for your website.
With Joomla, you have the power to generate the best look for your website with customizable themes. You are not fixed to one theme for the entire site. You can use different themes for different segments of the site. Joomla also gives you the ability to override existing themes so that you can add some of your personality and enhance the overall visual experience.
Joomla’s content management capabilities are some of the very best. With its WYSIWYG editor, adding content to your websites has been simplified by a large scale, you do not have to be a web guru for you to effectively add content. With Joomla’s content manager, you can organize your content and even archive it. You can also find out more about what your visitors are thinking through polls and ratings.
When building a website, Joomla should be one of the very first CMSs to come to mind. It is very easy to use and it gives you the capability to personalize and customize. At times, you may not be satisfied by a specific template or theme and because of this, you may want to develop your own theme from scratch. There are many template development programs on the market and one of the very best is TemplateToaster. You can create your own custom Joomla themes from scratch with its amazing drag and drop interface. You thus do not need to know HTML or CSS or even PHP. What is great about it is that it has an unlimited free trial. So why don’t you try it out and see just what you can do. Learn more about TemplateToaster.
