Suffice it to say, my experience with Joomla didn't go so well. Only after very slowly watching the tutorial, then pausing it every minute or two when I needed to make a change to my own site, was I able to make sense of this content-management system. And I use a CMS (not Joomla, thank God) every day at work!
Anyway, I don't want to be obnoxiously negative about this, so I'll try to point out some of Joomla's strengths:
• As a tablet/smartphone addict, I've become a big fan of responsive design. Joomla's Protostar template does a pretty good job of adapting to different display types. Check out these screen captures below:
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Figure 2. This is how the site appears
on my Nexus 7 tablet.
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• Extensions, extensions, extensions. If you're having a hard time with Joomla, you may want to try installing some add-ons. I used JCE Editor and eXtplorer.
If you'd like to see my finished site, you can check it out here. It includes a customized banner, colors and fonts; three articles; two menus; a "latest articles" list; a search function; and an archive.
But yeah – I won't be using this CMS again. Sayonara, Joomla! Don't let the door hit you on the way out!
Very helpful. It looks like you started at the same place I did so I feel a lot better about my chances now. And now I know I'm not the only one documenting my progress through screen captures. Great job!
ReplyDeleteAww, you were sweet and gave Joomla some nice reviews. I agree about using extensions though. Given more time, I think that if the right sort of extensions were all plugged in, it might be a great thing to use. I just feel that something like Joomla shouldn't NEED extensions.
ReplyDeleteHello Michelle,
ReplyDeleteI definitely wish the tutorial was broken down into smaller segments, perhaps grouped by subject matter. The two hour running time made me want to avoid it and start with Joomla in an intuitive manner. After failing quickly at that, I tried the tutorial in the same manner you did. A tutorial that went individually over categories, articles, layouts, etc. would have been great for starting out. However, having it all in one long video does provide a perspective of how it all fits together and a look at the website from start to finish.
-Justin
Actually, there is a tutorial broken up into smaller parts on cloudaccess' YouTube account. Check it out here. It's helpful but also baffling! (I mean, why do you have to delete so much stuff just to get started?!)
DeleteI reached the 50 minute mark of the tutorial. By that time, I had figured out what I wanted to do with my website but I had lost patience with the pace. I looked at some of the shorter Joomla tutorials divided into separate categories. I finally did a Google search and printed out Joomla instructions for creating a weblinks menu just to avoid having to wade through the tutorials.
ReplyDelete