Joomla! 1.5: Beginner's Guide

Tim Krause said
If you're new to Joomla!, this is one of the best titles out there in terms of helping you get started with your first Joomla! site. Tiggeler does a nice job covering all of the basics: everything from downloading and installing Joomla on a server, configuring it, and confirming the installation to working with and then removing the sample data that Joomla provides.

Tiggeler does a nice job carefully moving back and forth between creating content, and giving it structure in the middle chapters of the book. In doing so, it's important to note that this book isn't about theory, it's about doing. Every section includes a "Time for action" that walks site owners through doing what was explained on their own Joomla site. For more adventerous site owners, there's also a "Have a go hero" activity that is less directed, and provides additional challenges.

In any Joomla! book, there are a couple of must-haves for me, and Tiggeler does a nice job discussing them. They include: search engine optimization, Web metrics and site security. He also walks users through installing and tweaking template design. For those who don't know code, it's easy enough to just work through the process of installing the template.

What sums this title up best for me is Chapter 4: Web Building Basics: Creating a Site in an Hour. I was suspicious at first, but am confident that with Tiggeler's guidance, it's quite possible to build your first basic Joomla! Web site in about an hour. That's an excellent premise, and the book delivers on it well.