This video gives a quick look at Joomla, what it is, how it works, and what kinds of websites you can build with it.

One question that is often asked is, how do I remove the words "Welcome to the Front Page."  This short video tutorial shows you how to change that.

The "look" of a Joomla website is basically determined by "templates."  This video looks at how to change the template your website uses, and how to upload and activate a new template.

Many web hosting services offer "one click" Joomla installers.  One of the most common installer is called "Fantastico" and it will install many different web applications, with Joomla being one of them.

If your webhost offers "Fantastico" you may find this video helpful as it gives a quick overview of the process.

I was recently involved in a discussion on the Joomla forum that involved matching a logo with the gradient color of the template heading.   The problem?  The logo had a solid black background, but the template had a nice grey gradient background.

This short tutorial shows how I modified the logo to give it a transparent background.

In this 2 part video series, we walk through the process of moving a Joomla site from one folder to another on the same server.  It is not uncommon to develop a site in a folder and then move it to the root of the domain when the site is done.  The process is surprisingly easy using an FTP program and 2 simple changes to  your Global Configuration.

XAMPP makes it possible to develop a Joomla site using your own computer as a small webserver, rather than developing your site on an online hosting service.  This video gives an overview of how to set up a new website on your own computer and starts the process by installing the Joomla files.

Once you have the Joomla files installed in a new folder, the next step is to use phpMyAdmin to create a new, empty database for your new site to use.  And, you also need to set up a "database user" account for that database that Joomla will use to talk to the database.  This video walks you through the process of setting up the database and the database user.  These are key skills that every Joomla site developer needs to know how to do.

Now that you have the Joomla files installed and an empty database setup to serve the site, and you've created a database user for your Joomla site to use, the next step is to start up the Joomla installer and configure Joomla to use the database. This video tutorial takes you through this process step-by-step.  The first time through this process can be tricky, but once you learn how to do it, it seems pretty easy!

The final step in the installation process is to remove the installation folder.  Joomla will refuse to run as long as that folder is present.  This video takes you through the final steps in installing Joomla on a localhost server.

Once you have Joomla installed, you're ready to start building your site.  This video looks at how to log in to the site administrative control panel and gives an overview of the options there.

Different parts of Joomla are managed by different "managers."  This video gives a high level overview of the different managers and what they do.

You're ready to start adding content to your site, so let's learn how to add an "article" - the basic building block of Joomla content.

Once you have written some content using the article manager, you are ready to create some menu items that will show that content.  This video shows you the process of setting up your menus.

Photos and graphics make your web pages more interesting to read and add real value to your content.  This tutorial show you how to add photos and graphics to Joomla articles.

This tutorial shows how to improve the appearance of your articles and gives an introduction to "article parameters."

This tutorial shows how to improve the appearance of your articles and gives an introduction to "article parameters."

Joomla makes it easy to manage the "contact us" part of your website, including built in "send an email to this contact" functions.  This video shows you how to set up your contact categories (you will need at least one) and individual contact items.

Once you have a contact category (or categories) set up, and you have added some contact records, you need to set up a menu item to show the contacts component.  This video walks you through the process of setting that up.

Once you have your contact category basic set-up done, you will want to improve the appearance of the category listing. This video shows you some tricks that you can use to make the contact list look much better.

Part of the fun of Joomla is trying different templates.  Since the template controls the basic "look and feel" of your website, they have a dramatic influence on how your site appears.  This video shows you how to change from one template to another.

Once you decide on a template, you often need to do some "customization" of the template.  Many of these customizations can be done by making changes to the template "settings" or "parameters." This video gives a very brief introduction to some of the most common template settings.

Joomla is built as an "open" system and new features can be added to your website through the use of "extensions." This video introduces the topics of extensions and shows you how to find and install an extension.

There are literally thousands of templates available for your Joomla site.  Some are junk.  Others are beautiful.  Some are free, others are purchased.   This video shows you how to install a new template onto your site.

With thousands of extensions available, Joomla can do almost anything.   This video shows you how to install an extension onto your site.

A very common customization on a Joomla site is adding a footer to each page.  This video shows  you how to create a custom footer to your site using the "custom HTML" module.  It's easy!

One key step in taking your Joomla site to the next level is learning how to use Joomla's SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and SEF (Search Engine Friendly) page urls (page addresses).  This video tutorial shows you how to turn on the core SEO in Joomla and get those nice, easy to ready page urls.

It is very important to keep your Joomla installation up-to-date with the latest version of Joomla.  You not only get the latest bug fixes, new features and enhancement, you get the latest security patches for your site.

But, keeping your Joomla core files up to date has been a bit of a hassle.   But "Joomla Update Manager" is a free extension that makes this a matter of just a few, quick clicks!  Every site needs to have this tool installed.  This video shows  you the process of installing it and using it to keep your site up-to-date and secure.