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.
The Joomla Administrator includes an HTML editor that allows you to format your article text, insert images, create links and more. This editor, called TinyMCE, is lightweight and easy to use but it does lack some useful features. Consider replacing this with the Joomla Content Editor (JCE) and enjoy a better experience with these features:
One of the biggest mistakes made by new web developers concerns resizing images. When you insert an image into an article, you can resize it, but this only changes the display size of the image. The actual file size remains the same. For example, let's say your original image is 3200 x 2400 pixels which results in a file size of 3MB. This would be far too big to display in an article, so when you insert it, you might resize the dimensions to 320 x 240 pixels. This will look better, but the file size of the image remains at 3MB and as such, it takes a very long time to download.
One Joomla article feature I'm using a lot at the moment is the Finish Publishing date. You'll find this in Administrator on each article editing page under Parameters (Article). However this feature is not available for modules. Get around this by using a fantastic free extension called MetaMod.
Last week, over two dozen US Government websites were defaced and many of them were powered by Joomla. Although the cause of the security breach is yet to be announced, there is every chance that Joomla itself is not to blame. But if government sites can be hacked - what hope have you got to secure your site? In this post, you will learn some steps to take and some extensions to consider.
The big buzz in the Joomla world last year was CCK which stands for Content Construction Kit. Joomla uses a simple storage system for articles; there is a title, description and several supporting fields such as author name and published date. However if you have a lot of data as you might find in a directory or a catalogue, you might find it messy to store your records in articles. And that's where a CCK comes in.
I hope you've been busy this week setting your website goals for 2010. It all starts with measuring your site's performance and I have previously mentioned Google Analytics which is fantastic. But some people prefer to have all the information right within their Joomla site, so let's take a look at how to achieve this using a free extension.
