Joomla is an open source CMS system (CMS stands for
Content Management System). I'm currently using Joomla to develop a number of themed web sites. There is a Christmas site, a recipe site and a travel site. Joomla has adapted nicely to each of these themes.
Generally CMS systems are extremely pricey
and somewhat complex to use. I've found Joomla to be quite easy to use
and now a month into using it I am really starting to appreciate it. If
you don't feel like using a simple page development tool and binding
pages together by hand, then you should look at a CMS system. From what
I've found, Joomla seems to be moving forward the quickest. I am
currently using version 1.0.11 which is the latest of the 1.0 line.
Never use 1.0 software, that's what people will tell you and for
the most part, that's true. However in the case of Joomla we must
remember (or perhaps it's my job to educate you) that Joomla's roots
(at least the 1.0 version) are in another CMS system Mambo. In fact, if
you are familiar with Mambo, Joomla will be second nature (and the
other way around).
Joomla is organized in menus, sections, catagories and items. It
fits together kind of like this (general, remember this isn't a book,
it's an article). A menu can link to a section, category or item in a
number of ways (table, list, etc). A section can link to a category. A
category can link to a number of items. So, if you need to organize
your website by menu's or tabs, this is ideal. Of course there is much
more to joomla than that, but that is the first thing you'll end up