Joomla!® Start to Finish: How to Plan, Execute, and Maintain Your Web Site

Chapter 13. Custom Templates

WHAT'S IN THIS CHAPTER?

• Prerequisites for building a template

• Creating a template from scratch

• Troubleshooting and debugging the template

After spending some time with Joomla and building a few sites, you might think about building your own template. After all, you can get exactly what the client wants for a design, plus a unique look for the site. Many people object to commercial templates on the grounds that "every site looks the same." Sites built with custom templates, however, look completely unique.

This chapter covers the background you need to build your own custom template, step-by-step instructions about how to build that template, and plenty of pointers about troubleshooting and debugging your template.

PREREQUISITES FOR CREATING CUSTOM TEMPLATES

Prior to this chapter, everything I've covered so far could be learned and completed by someone without a solid background in web design and development. However, to get the most out of this chapter and the next, you will need to know the following:

• HTML. HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) is the bedrock of the Web. All web pages, in their final format viewed in the web browser, consist of some HTML. HTML is a markup language, meaning you're identifying paragraphs, headings, lists, links, and more in a document. HTML is not responsible for the display of the page. That's left to...

• CSS. CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) is responsible for everything pretty: pretty colors, fonts, spacing, layouts, and much more. There ...