Richard Pearce

There are a few methods available to add captions to images that appear in your Joomla articles. The easiest solution is to use a free extension called EasyImageCaption.

One challenge in understanding Joomla, particularly if you have built websites before using static HTML, is the separation of content and layout. You can display the same content in multiple ways and I demonstrate my preference in the full tutorial series. The following is an explanation of the layout options available for category/section/frontpage blog layout. You will find this helpful the next time you create a menu item, or you can edit the layout of your existing items.

Visitors to your Joomla powered site can search for content whether you like it or not. This will come as a surprise to most, but it usually isn't important, as long as you understand a couple of key points. Get this wrong and at best you might be embarrassed - at worst - you could lose your job!

Whether you like Facebook or not, it's hard to ignore its impact on the web. There are over 400 million Facebook users and the current growth rate is phenomenal. On average, each user has 130 friends. And, on average, each user creates 70 pieces of content each month. That's one enormous website and I'm embarrassed that I haven't done more with it. That's about to change soon, so head over to the Build a Joomla Website Fan Page and join in the conversation.

Here are three great extensions to help you spice up your Joomla powered blog:

Some time ago, I explained how to insert multiple articles quickly using an extension called Mass Content. Unfortunately the developer seems to have disappeared and the extension is no longer available. However, someone has been kind enough to include a copy in the Joomla forums so grab it while you can. You will need to register with the forum and login, in order to download it.

There are dozens of Joomla extensions that play MP3 files but I love Simple MP3 Bar as it is indeed simple and in many cases more than adequate. Of course MP3's are great for music but why not consider adding an audio introduction or audio instructions on your site? Your audience might appreciate hearing you rather than reading a lengthy explanation. The following instructions assume you already have an MP3 file, but if you don't, check out Audacity which is a free audio editor.

Joomla includes a site search feature, but the results are not always as relevant as you might expect. Here's a way to display better search results by replacing the standard search module with Google powered search.