Joomla!® Bible

Chapter 20. Customizing Joomla! Templates

IN THIS CHAPTER

• Discovering how the templates work

• Exploring the default templates

• Knowing the parts of a template

• Introducing the Template Manager

• Customizing templates

• Controlling the appearance of menus

• Working with module chrome

• Overriding pagination formatting

• Creating a new template

• Working with the admin template

One of the joys of working with the Joomla! system is the ease with which you can create an attractive web site. Unlike many other content management systems that lock you into a standardized, cookie-cutter approach to site design, Joomla! has great flexibility. You can create virtually any look and feel you want. Moreover, the widespread popularity of Joomla! has resulted in a large number of pre-existing templates being available in the market, often for little or no cost.

This chapter takes you through the basics of understanding how Joomla! templates work and then digs in more deeply to explain how you can customize an existing template or how you can even go further and build your own from scratch.

Discovering How the Templates Work

The Joomla! template files are responsible for what is seen on the screen by your visitors. When a visitor to your Web site clicks on a link, it sets off a process that culminates in the production of a web page inside their browser. The final step in that process is the rendering of the page inside the template. Though some elements, for example, modules and components, have their own templates that control ...