Joomla Web site Dev Update: Change the look of the site by swapping templates PDF Print E-mail
Technology - Website Development
Written by Renato Cruz Sogueco   
Tuesday, 18 November 2008 13:58

This is the third update from my original blogpost: Follow our Joomla Web site Development.

Installing a Joomla Web site could be the traditional Web designer's worst nightmare. The reason is you can drastically change the look of the site by swapping out one template with another with just a few clicks in the backend. Then tweak the template and/or CSS till you get an aesthetically satisfying result. This morning, I swapped out the default Joomla template seen below:

joomdefault.png

And replaced it with the following template from http://rockettheme.com, a Web site company that specializes in developing templates.

joomfirenzie.png

Web designers may cringe when I share SAF paid only the $65 subscription fee to download this template and have access to the more than 70+ they offer. Rockettheme is certainly not the only game in town. Another template Web site SAF subscribes is http://joomlaart.com, but you can access more by searching Google for "joomla templates."

This blog is based on the Rockettheme template Terran Tribune. If you're developing a Joomla Web site, pay close attention to the template version you download depending on the version of Joomla you are deploying, either 1.0 or 1.5. I'm finding the templates for 1.5 have many more options on the backend that are easy to change, while the 1.0 templates still require to change options by editing the html. Ugh. Anyways, yet another reason to use the 1.5 version of Joomla.

Also, installing a template saves you much in programming whiz-bang effects like cascading drop down menus, homepage animation, modular AJAX story boxes users can move around, etc. I'll be sharing more about implementing some of those features as we progress in tweaking this template which is called Firenzie btw, in case you didn't see the name in the second screen capture.

 




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Last Updated on Friday, 12 December 2008 13:16