We are pleased to announce Joomla Training. We spend quite a bit of time coaching and instructing our clients on how to use Joomla and have found that sometimes, people just need a little one-on-one time to learn a specific procedure or task.

With our training for Joomla, Paul will spend time with you on the task that you need help with. No more searching through manuals trying to find out that one or two things. With the use of screen-sharing software and the telephone, he will either demonstrate the task or coach you as you do it.

For more information, check out the Joomla Training page.

There are a few tools that I find very useful when working on websites. Recently I've had several people asking me about them and it seems that they are quite useful even if you're just viewing a site, so I though I would share them here...

These are all Firefox add-ons, so if you are a die-hard Internet Explorer user, you'll need to install Firefox to use these tools.

1. Firebug - I use this tool more than any other, hands down. This tool allows you to see what is going on behind the scenes of a website.
   https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1843
2. Page Speed - Published by Google, this Firebug add-on helps optimize a webpage for speed. http://code.google.com/speed/page-speed/
3. PDFIt - As thee name implies, this cool Firefox add-on lets you save a webpage in PDF format It is awesome for creating a portfolio, sending a shot of a website to someone or otherwise creating a static document of a website.
   https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/7528
4. ScreenGrab - This is probably the second most-used add-on that I use. This allows you to save the webpage to either jpg or png, or copy it to the clipboard. It allows you to save either the whole page, visible section or selected area. I use this a lot to copy and paste website screenshots to an email.
   https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1146

If you are looking to work with SEO, another useful add-on is SEO Quake.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3036

One of the greatest benefits of Joomla is the ability to change your website's content without actually knowing HTML. This is done through the Article Manager in the administrator, or backend, of Joomla. While not exactly equal, you can relate an article to a webpage. Using a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor, you can create, edit and format your website's content. However, things aren't always what they seem and there are some tricks to using the article editor.

Copying from a Word Processor

A very common method of creating content is to use a word processor such Microsoft Word or OpenOffice Writer to create the content and then copy & paste it to the Joomla article. Frankly, that's how I do it. However, you have to be careful with it. Both of those programs recognize that you are copying to an HTML editor and include a bunch of proprietary, useless code.

Many times you will find yourself working with a Joomla template that you didn't design. Even if the template was custom design for you, you may not know where all the module positions are. You may also be trying to find out how to edit a module, but can't figure out where it is.

Fortunately, the folks at Joomla thought of this, so there is a way to find out. To find out what and where your module positions are, add this to the end of your website address:

?tp=1

This is an endless challenge to the Joomla administrator – how do I insert code into an article? There are many add-on editors that can be used and there are many “specific” plugins you can install for each particular instance, but I’ve found this works regardless of your editor. Furthermore, unlike the “no editor” option, even if someone else goes in to edit that article, the code doesn’t change.

This method involves two  Joomla extensions:

1. Easy Script Module
2. Modules Anywhere plugin

Install both of these through the Joomla interface. You’ll need to go to the “Plugins” menu and enable the Modules Anywhere plugin (you can also see the different syntax options). Then, navigate to the module manager and select the new “Easy Script” module. Rename it to something appropriate, such as Google Map.  You’ll also need to enable the module (publish). For position, select “none”. Then, paste your script in the field on the right. Click on “Save”. After you return to the Module Manager screen, note the id number of the module you just edited (located on the right).

Web hosting is a critical part of a website. However, not all webhosts are created equal. Too many people pick a webhost because of a pretty interface or because they recognize the brand name instead of determining whether or not a host can actually support their website’s capabilities. Even worse, many designers choose their reseller account based on these same flashy interfaces rather than the quality for their customers.

When it comes to Joomla, most webhosts can support Joomla. The actual requirements for Joomla are pretty minimal. However, just because a webhost supports Joomla does not mean that they support it well. In my experience, this doesn’t usually show up until someone wants to modify their Joomla site or add a custom component or otherwise do something special to their site.

In my experience, the more “flash” and pretty interfaces a webhost has, the less likely they are to have the technical capabilities. That is just an observation, but one that has been consistent.
There are two webhosts that I talk about quite a bit: GoDaddy and HostGator.

Welcome to our website. We have setup this site to be a representation of ourselves and our business, while providing an information base for the community.

We are web developers, designers and troubleshooters. Our work fluctuates with our client’s needs. We work largely with Joomla and are fluent with (X)HTML and CSS and knowledgeable with PHP and MySQL.

This site was built on the Joomla platform, version 1.5.  It is hosted with Hostgator, who I highly recommend. We have used a number of Joomla extensions in this site, including SOBI, myBlog, Xmap, hwdVideoShare, JoomlaPack and a number of plugins and modules. In the future, I hope to have demos and examples.