So you are thinking of converting a joomla template?

A new joomla template is usually intended to improve the look of the website. This is one of the main reasons why many webmasters want a new template. One of the easiest options is to get a ready made plain HTML template from an online templates seller and get it converted to a Joomla Template. Some of the advantages to getting a HTML template converted to Joomla are…

1. Save Money! Cost is reduced as HTML templates purchased are cheaper than to get a customized design. After the template purchase, all one needs to do is convert it to Joomla or get a proficient programmer to do the conversion.
2. Save time! Since the design work - which takes a lot of time - has already been done, this approach is generally favoured by those who want a quick redesign. Conversion to joomla is also quicker since the template design is usually in HTML format.
3. There are thousands of plain HTML templates available nowadays from several sources, free ones like OSWD, Open Source Templates, Open Web Design as well as commercial template sellers such as Template Monster, Templates Box and Boxed Art. All these account for a much higher number of templates than the number of ready made joomla templates one can buy from a template seller. More HTML templates = More choice. Thus getting a joomla template converted gives you a wider choice. Choice is a good thing.
4. When specifying a template for conversion, one has full control of how the end result is in terms of look and feel. This is sort of control can rarely be achieved when one buys a ready made joomla template. You are in a position to dictate the look and feel as well as the functionality at every stage of the development to ensure that the end result meets the required expectations. This is very important.
5. Stand out from the rest of the crowd. Buying an attractive template may save you time and money initally but in the end hundreds of thousands of websites out there are using the same template. With the same look and feel. So what separates your site from the rest of the pack?
6. Some webmasters convert an existing template or website design to a Joomla template to allow the website to be ported over to the Joomla CMS. If the website has a large audience that is already familiar with the site’s structure, layout and content navigation, it is recommended to keep intact the look and feel as well as navigation menu items. This is primarily done so that, returning visitors to the website do not have a difficult time locating the content and resources required. Also a website that has maintained a particular look tends to have enforced its own unique brand that that may have taken years to build and reinforce. Thus one should pay close attention to these factors when designing a template for an existing website with a significant user base… but remember any upgrade always opens up many options and room for improvement!
7. Why consider anything else? Joomla is an award winning cms with a flexible template presentation architecture. By having a template converted for Joomla you ensure you stay with the most cost effective, feature rich and up-to-date CMS available.

Source: http://www.mozami.net/blog/2006/08/7-reasons-for-joomla-template-conversionhtml

Personally, since both systems are easy to get up and running very quickly, i would recommend trying both out for yourself to see which one you are most comfortable using. Look out for a comment from Joomla’s core team member Wilco Jansen!

Link to the review on miracletutorials.com

Official Sites:

• Joomla.org (for downloads, documentation, and everything else)
• Wordpress.org (for downloads, documentation, and everything else)

Forums:

Both of these systems have an excellent community of helpful volunteers and competent developers that have made these two of the most exceptional and most widely used pieces of community driven software web software.

• Wordpress forums
• Joomla forums

Demos:

• Joomla has a demo of latest v1.5 available on their demo website.
• Register on wordpress.com and try out wordpress for yourself, or see the opensourcecms section below for a demo of wordpress.

Another handy site for the undecided webmaster-to-be would be Open Source CMS - which provides a short roundup of commonly available Open Source content management systems avaialble as well as a functional working demo of each - so you can experience each system before you invest your time and energy into choosing the right one for your website or blog.

Source: http://www.mozami.net/blog/2008/09/ultimate-review-on-wordpress-vs-joomla

Minimum System Requirements
http://help.joomla.org/content/view/1938/310/

Web & Database Server with PHP installed.
Web hosting company or on your Local Computer
See Local Web Server section for information.

Joomla 1.5.X
Copy of Joomla download a copy at   http://www.joomla.org/

A un-zip or un-tar software

• Windows http://www.7-zip.org/
• Apple http://my.smithmicro.com/win/stuffitexpander/index.html
• Web browser

Once you have all software needed you can unzip or untar you Joomla files to your Web directory .

This can be different for a lot of setups.
If you are using our local web server examples for starting locations.

Xampp > See Local Web Server Install
c:xampphtdocs

MAMP > See Local Web Server Install
HD:Applications:MAMP:htdocs:

Unzip or untar inside the directory this should make a folder with the Joomla version that’s only one level deep.
So if you click inside the Unzip or Untar folder you should see the *.php files and folders etc.

You can rename the folder whatever you like but it needs to be inside htdocs folder for Local example.

You can also put your files in sub folders of the “htdocs” dir an example: c:xampphtdocsclientsnameOfClientjver153
You can then access via the browser with Xammp default configuration http://localhost/clients/nameofclient/jver153/
There you would see the site wizard to install Joomla at first.

It does not matter the system you use as long as it makes sense to you.
Try not to use spaces or special characters to your folders names because web browsers convert spaces to “%20%20″ in the URL etc.

On a remote server with your web hosting company.

Cpanel:
Location would be “/home/yourusername/public_html/” the key here is “/public_html/” if Joomla is going to the main website then unzip or untar Joomla file inside “public_html/”.
When you open user browser to your http://yourDomainname.com the Joomla installer would show up.
If not then you could just make a folder with the name of the section

example: http://yourDomainname.com/MyJoomla

Plesk:
Location would be “/home/httpd/vhosts/YourDomain.com/httpdocs/” the key here is “/httpdocs/” if Joomla is going to the main website then unzip or untar Joomla file inside “httpdocs/”.
When you open user browser to your http://yourDomainname.com the Joomla installer would show up.
If not then you could just make a folder with the name of the section
example: http://yourDomainname.com/MyJoomla

These are the same tools that Media 65 uses to make custom templates and template conversions.
Start your own template design business. A small investment a large return!

Fast simple and easy!

After watching our Joomla Template Kit Training Videos.
This system will have you turning out Joomla templates like a factory.
With our extension your productivity will go up 110%.
We have made templates with this extension in 10 minutes flat.

Click here to see a Template Conversion Video in Ten minutes to prove it!

How?

There are a ton of reasons but I’ll start with a few.
J Xml Wizard Joomla uses an Xml file to install its templates.
Which is called templatedetails.xml this file holds a ton of information like the designers name, date,
version of the template and every file used in your design.
If you have twenty images well that’s twenty items that need to be written to the file.

Joomla template details file also uses what are called module positions which also need to
be written to this file. Our J XML Wizard takes care of all this in one shot and more.

Joomla J CSS designer

CSS is not easy for even seasoned pros so we have made a special tool that maps out Joomla’s
CSS in Dreamweaver so you can not only ID the Joomla CSS class but see which parts are affected.

This tool is super powerful because it lets you see most of Joomla’s core components and Modules are
sectioned off and categorized in and out of Dreamweaver.
Our CSS styles are commented and broken down to parts for easy debugging.
So now you can style your layout and your inside content right in Dreamweaver.

Template conversions to Joomla

That’s right we have a tool for that to.
Now just to have full disclosure some templates just don’t convert well to Joomla.
It’s not anyone’s fault. Some templates just do not hold dynamic data well.
We have a special J tool that takes an HTML page or PHP page and
copies all the code inside the body tag’s which is where your layout is located.

Then it erases all the code inside the file that you’re converting.
It adds special Joomla header code then adds back your layout to the file.
So now you have your template almost converted to Joomla format.
You make a template with our Joomla template wizard which makes
the basic template files for a Joomla template for you.

Copy your converted template layout file and media files.
That you just converted to a Joomla format to the template folder made with our Joomla template wizard.

Delete the index.php file made by our template wizard and rename your HTML template file to index.php.
Copy your images to our image folder add your CSS styles to our styles.
Run our images wizards to convert your template images to work with Joomla.

Add your Joomla module positions to your index.php page with our
J module positions include tool. Then run J XML wizard and upload the
template to your Joomla testing server. Guest what you’re basically done.

Lastly there are a ton of features with our Dreamweaver extension.
But I don’t want you to see all your gifts in one shot.
For advance template designers we have J conditions which let you add
conditions to show and hide part of your template based on conditions.
Plus you can add your own custom Joomla Module positions names
and styles with our extension and use them on other template projects.

Other wizards let you add Adobe Flash to your Joomla Templates and our
image wizards convert images to Joomla and back to Dreamweaver viewable format in one click.
Joomla Template Kit 3.X Manual and “How to videos” available online.

Product software License and upgrade policy!

Product license:
One time cost for Life time License of $99.99 USD
Joomla Template Kit license allows you to run the software on your computer indefinitely.
Along with this license, you will receive one year of free updates.
Beyond the first year, you will have to pay a nominal fee, Currently $35.00* USD, to obtain updates for an additional year.
This is not “Recurring Billing” you choose to upgrade or not.
You will “not” be billed automatically.

**Note: License all rights reserved we reserved to change the terms of the EULA*
Please note: This Product is download only! at this time.
The files are very large 100MB* to 480MB plus.
You will need a fast connection a DSL or Cable Modem a true connection 256 KB Plus or Do Not Order!
All Companies Mention Names, Trademarks, Copyright are owned by the mention parties.

Source: http://www.howtomambo.com/articles-products-the-joomla-template-kit-dreamweaver-joomla-template-kit-1.html

Navigation Joomla!

Template is able to carry parameters

In Joomla! 1.5 templates are able to have parameters just like modules. This new feature is extremely powerful as it allows developers to create super flexible and versatile templates. All parameters and operation related to template are located in new page Template Parameters.

Templates Parametres

• Here from toolbar we can all template operations such as editing HTML and CSS code, preview, save and apply.
• In field “Details” we see all information about the template.
• In Joomla! 1.5 templates are able to carry parameter like modules. By adding this feature we can now expect a lot more flexible and usable templates.
• Here in field “Menu Assignment” we can assign template to particular menu item. However there are 2 types templates you can’t do assignment: Administrator templates and Default Site template

Editable multiple template css

As we all remember in Joomla! 1.0 template could use multiple CSS files, but from Joomla! Administration we could edit only the default “template_css.css”. Now in Joomla! 1.5, we can edit all CSS files used by the template.

Template CSS

To edit desired CSS file, we just need to click radio button near it and click Edit button on the toolbar.

Bye “Mambot”, Hi “Plugin”

In Joomla! 1.5 we will not ever hear the word “Mambot”. Now it is called “Plugin” and managed in Plugin Manager.

Plugin Manager

• Filter plugins by their name
• Filter plugins by their state

No text area for intro text

Edit Article

• Article’s parameters are represented in dynamic sliding panels.
• In Joomla! 1.5, he text field “Intro text” was gone for good. Now there is only one text field for article text. We can still have intro text by using new button Read more? to separate intro and the main article text. All we need is setting cursor to separator location and hit magic Read more? button. Dashed red line will appear to indicate place of separation.

Unified Article Manager

First, the concept “Content Item” has been changed to “Article”. Second, all articles are now managed in one single place - Article Manager.

Article Manager

• In Joomla! 1.5 Archive Manager was gone for good, archived articles are now managed in Article Manager by 2 buttons Unarchive and Archive.
• General parameters related to article, such as making Title linkable, showing Read more link, etc. are now configurable by clicking button Preferences. In Joomla! 1.0 these parameters were located in Global Configuration tab Content.
• Now we have an option to filter articles by their states: Published, Unpublished or Archived.
• Archived articles are marked as [Archived] and have grey color.
• In article listing table we have new column Hits showing articles’ impressions. In Joomla! 1.0 this parameter was located in dedicated Page Impressions which was not very convenient to use.

Unified installer/Uninstaller

In Joomla! 1.5 the process of extension installation / uninstallation is occurred in one single place - Extension Manager.

Extensions Manager

• From top toolbar we can access to unified installer and uninstaller of each extension type.
• In Joomla! 1.5 we can install an extension from any location on the Internet by providing the URL of extension’s installation package.

All-new Menu Item management

In Joomla! 1.0 the process of creating new menu item and it’s further management was a real pain for beginners. Joomla! Development team kept that in mind and they did really good job fixing this issue. Now it’s very straight forward to create and manage menu items.

When creating new menu item we select it’s type from very clear tree of menu item types. In Joomla! 1.0 it was a jungle of options and it was really confused.

Menu Item - New

After creating new menu item, we have true full control on it. We can change it’s type, parameter, whatever we want. In Joomla! 1.0, if we selected wrong type, the only choice left is delete that item and create new one.

Menu Item - Edit

• Once menu item was created it’s type can still be changed by button Change Type.
• Each menu item has a lot of parameters making it flexible and versatile. For example in the screenshot above menu item link to an article has parameters defining how to display that article.
• In Joomla! 1.5, all menu items have options on how to open it. In Joomla! 1.0, only menu items link to content items have this option.

Separated Articles’ common settings

As we remember in Joomla! 1.0 global article parameters like: Show Title, Title Linkable, PDF Icon, Print Icon, etc. are located in Global Configuration, tab Content. Now in Joomla! 1.5, these settings were moved to Article Manager under button Preferences.

Article Setings

Popup frame with dim background looks very stylish and is user friendly.

Separated Trash manger for menus and articles

In Joomla! 1.5, the Trash Manager was split into 2 new Menu Trash Manager and Article Trash Manager. Their functionalities remained the same as in Joomla! 1.0.

Article Trash

Source: http://www.joomlashine.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5&Itemid=5

Joomla separates your websites content (images, text, multimedia) from the way it is presented (frontend). This is a key factor that allows one website to have many “faces”. If you need to re-skin your website, all you have to do is change the Joomla template … and voila! your website has a whole new look. This will not affect your content in any which way.

To make life simple, joomla has host of features that allow you to install and change templates on the fly from the Joomla Administration panel. The joomla template installer allows you to upload your joomla template from your hard drive onto the website from the installer webpage using just a few clicks.

Once your template is installed, the template manager is used to activate which template is used on the front end. A template can be set as the default template for the website, in which case every page of the site has the same look and feel. To make things flexible, several templates can also be assigned to individual pages. This allows one to set a unique look for each page.

Source: http://www.mozami.net/blog/2006/08/joomla-cms-and-joomla-templates-faq

What is Joomla?

Joomla is a content management system (CMS) for the web.

SO what is a content management system?

A Web Content management system (CMS) is an application used to manage content in (text, images, sound, video… and all the other stuff that goes that goes into making … ) a website.

Most content management systems use a database to hold content, and a presentation layer displays the content to regular website visitors based on a set of templates. Management of the actual content is typically done through a web browser. This allows the webmaster / site owner to easily manage and keep their website up-to-date with the latest content - in most cases, without ever requiring any programming knowledge at all.

Why should i choose Joomla?

Besides being one of the the most active, functional and sought after CMSes out there, joomla has a host of appealing features that make it useful for just about any website. From a small personal blog to a corporate portal with all the bells and whistles, Joomla does it all. Take a look at some quick facts:

5 quick facts about Joomla: Joomla is

• Free. So you spend nothing.
• Open Source (GPL). So you can (or hire mozami.net to) modify it as you please.
• Easy to use. No complications, no hassles.
• Based on PHP. Which is also free. So no cost there. This makes it cross platform so it can run on Linux, FreeBSD, Windows, MacOSX server, Solaris and AIX.
• Based on MySQL. Which is also free. So even more savings! Joomlas site engines are completely database driven.

5 quick features about Joomla

• Page caching improves performance, web indexing, RSS feeds, printable page versions, newsflashes, blogs, forums, polls, calendars, website searching, and language internationalization.
• News, Products or services, About Us, Contact us etc sections fully editable and manageable from a web based interface.
• Fully customisable layouts including left, center and right menu boxes to create your own look and feel with a custom joomla template.
• Browser upload of images and multimedia to your own media library for use anywhere in the site
• Dynamic Forum/Poll/Voting booth for on-the-spot results.

Source: http://www.mozami.net/blog/2006/08/joomla-cms-and-joomla-templates-faq

Building on the CSS and the DOM there are many sections to the Joomla CMS.
We give you a foundation from which to start from.
Each section is broken down in as close to top down as possible.
See the sections menus on the left :

1. Free Guide To Joomla Css
2. General settings
3. Layout settings
4. Navigation section
5. Standard module table
6. Content - sections & categories
7. Form section
8. Tabbed editing

Joomla uses standard CSS you can use any styles you like.
Joomla contains core class’s that are used for module and component formatting
You may add to theses styles as you would any style sheet.

What is a Module?
Modules are containers blocks of data that are zoned and are included inside the template. They can hold any type of information. There are modules and module zones and blocks. A module in and of it self can be menu system a visitor poll etc.. a module zone is a place that you put the module like the left side of the page in a template. A Block is say the “top block” which is called a module position in Joomla can have many modules assigned to one block in a stacking order so the menu first and the poll is last so one block/position can store many modules.

Modules have a wrapper or I should say most have a wrapper.
A wrapper is a HTML code that could be a table it could be a DIV element and in one case no wrapper at all.

The wrapper can have special formatting applied to it but in most cases the that formatting is it part of the see “STANDARD MODULE TABLE” section. Also see extension help file for “Module Menu Styles” with shows the HTML code to the wrapper.

An example is the “.moduletable class”. Which in our style sheet is under
“STANDARD MODULE TABLE” this class is used by default in all of your core modules.
In DOM & CSS  you can give an HTML element formatting globally.
Lets say table element “table{Some formatting;}” in Joomla this works the same way.

In our example we use “table.moduletable{ Some formatting;}” this means the any table element in the module class will have
“{ Some formatting;}”. Now as we should all know tables are made up of more then a table tag they also have “<TH>”<TD> and so on. So lets say we what to add formatting to the <TH> tag for a Table Header.

This means that you can override any style in almost any element in Joomla.
But you have to added the code class suffix to the style sheet and applied to the elements pages, sections, modules, categories etc.. if not the stock core styles will be applied by default.

What is Component?
A component is like a small application onto itself it displayed in Joomla.
There are core components and third party components. Core components share style sheets class’s for the most part. Which can be found in the CONTENT - SECTIONS & CATEGORIES section of our sheet. As with any CSS style class you can build on any element level so could override a global style by applying a local style to the class element.

For example you may have UL - Unordered list that is a general rule for all UL’s
on your page. Which would apply to a components styles by default. But this UL can be overridden by using “.blog UL{}” this would take over the style of the UL’s for this component class only all other would have the global UL formatting.

Third party components some use the cores styles some don’t you have to look at the documentation for the third party component.

We cover the core component class’s in the CONTENT - SECTIONS & CATEGORIES of the style sheet.

What we give you is a stander CSS style sheet the gives you a foundation for
to build on as you can see we can’t add every element because we don’t know what your designing.
So we give some samples to build on yourself.

Reference and Examples.
Any Standard Joomla Class can have:
| Optional HTML Element | CMS-CORE-CLASS | Optional HTML Element | .suffix or -suffix

All legal

.blog{}
table.blog{}
.blog th{}

Module Class Suffix
.moduletable.blueheader th{link to image;}

Component with Suffix
.blog.greytable{}
. componentheading-movingGif{}

Now a good question would be what are the core class?
It hard not give you a very long list.

“.moduletable” your going to use more the any core class see
STANDARD MODULE TABLE section.

Also under the CONTENT - SECTIONS & CATEGORIES look for the top class in order
.blog that would Identify a core class.

Another is “.mainlevel” this controls the formatting for the menu system. It also has a “.sublevel” for sublevel menus of the “.mainmenu” when you like to add new menu to Joomla and give that menu formatting other then “.mainlevel” use a class suffix. “.mainlevel.topnav{}” works just like the module example.
I would like to cover more of the menu but it’s a chapter itself on working the menu not the formatting more the menu system this should be enough to cover it as CSS goes. See NAVIGATION SECTION

Here is the base template_css.css file that comes with the extension.
We show you an image cutout of which part of Joomla is affected by what code sections.

Source: http://www.m65.net/articles-joomla!-knowledgebase-free-guide-to-joomla-css-51.html

In this chapter, we’ll go through the steps of creating a Joomla template. Specifically, we will create a template that uses Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) to produce a layout without use of tables. This is a desirable goal because it means that the template code is easier to validate to World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) standards. It also tends to load faster, be easier to maintain, and perform better in search engines. These issues are discussed in detail later in the chapter.

In This Chapter

• What is a Joomla template? What functions are performed by a Joomla template, and what is the difference when a template has no content versus when content is added into the Content Management System (CMS).
• How does the localhost design process differ to that of a static (X)HTML web page?
• What are the implications of tableless designs in Joomla and the relationship between W3C standards, usability, and accessibility?
• What files make up a Joomla template, and what functions do they perform?
• How do you create a source-ordered 3-column layout using CSS rather than tables?
• What are the basic CSS styles that should be used with Joomla, and what are the default styles that are used by the Joomla core?
• How do you place and style modules, and what are some new techniques for rounded corners?
• What would be a simple strategy to produce lean CSS menus that mimic the effect of those developed with JavaScript?
• How do you control when columns are shown and hide them when no content is present?
• What are the proper steps to create a real Joomla 1.5 template?

What Is a Joomla Template?

A Joomla template is a series of files within the Joomla CMS that control the presentation of the content. The Joomla template is not a website; it’s also not considered a complete website design. The template is the basic foundation design for viewing your Joomla website. To produce the effect of a “complete” website, the template works hand in hand with the content stored in the Joomla databases. An example of this can be seen in Figure 9.1.

Figure 9.1 Template with and without content

Figure 9.1, part A, shows the template in use with sample content. Part B shows the template as it might look with a raw Joomla installation with little or no content. The template is styled so that when your content is inserted, it will inherit the stylesheet defined in the template such as link styles, menus, navigation, text size, and colors to name a few.

Notice that the images associated with the content (the photos of the people) are not part of the template but the header is.

Using a template for a CMS, as Joomla does, has a number of advantages and disadvantages:

• There is a complete separation of content and presentation, especially when CSS is used for layout (as opposed to having tables in the index.php file). This is one of the main criteria for a site that meets modern web standards.
• A new template, and hence a completely new look to a website, can be applied instantly. This can even have different locations/positioning of content as well as colors and graphics.
• If different layouts are called for within one website, it can be difficult to achieve.

Although different templates can be applied to different pages, this built-in functionality is not reliable. Much better is to use conditional PHP and create a layout that dynamically adjusts the number of columns based on what content is published.