Joomla! Discussion Forums

I attach a screenshot, need simple help on placing an article & not
showing 'home' on the front page.

Please help.

Thanks.

To put anything on one of the sides like where you want to you article, it must be a module.
Go to your Module manager from Extensions menu, choose a new one and assign it to your Right position.
If it's an article you have already created that you want to show, you could use the NewsFlash module - make sure your article is in a category of it's own and set the module to point to this category. That way it'll always point to one of the articles in that category and as you only have one artile there, it'll always load that one. If you ever want to change it, you can add the new article to the category and unpublish the current one.
Alternatively, you could use CustomHTML - if you are not going to be changing the module much then you can code it in HTML and it will display here.

For the "Home" option - is this part of the breadcrumbs? if so, you could use the module for that. If not, then you can code it into the template - see http://forum.joomla.org/viewtopic.php?f=304&t=428965

The easiest way to do drop-down menu's is to use a module (again!) have a look at the available extensions at http://extensions.joomla.org/extensions/structure-a-navigation/menu-systems/drop-a-tab-menus

Hope this helps.

Note you can use the Breadcrumbs module and choose to hide the "Home" link: Extensions > Module Manager > Breadcrumbs > Parameters > Module Parameters > Show Home > No. You can also use this guide to add a drop-down menu http://docs.joomla.org/Creating_a_CSS_Drop_down_Menu.

Thanks a lot!
How do I make the width of the menu small or big ? I may want the left menu small
and right menu bigger, how do I do that.

Thanks again.

You will have to edit one of your template's css files (usually template.css). Look for a "left_column" class or id and alter the "width" property. This may break your template's structure so you may have to alter the content area and/or the right column as well. You may also be able to modify the width of the left column by altering that of the content area (usually styled in a class or id named "component", "content_pane" or simply "content").

Got it. thanks.

I'd had like to show on the right or left menu, some information from the web, how do I do it?
I may get some custom code (not an ad though), please advise.

Is it possible to collapse menu (instead of having it expanded), or is it a must to install
drop-down module.

Thanks.

That is not enough information, please be more descriptive. Depending on the nature of the information though, you can create a Custom HTML module and publish it in the left or right column

I don't quite understand this either. Drop-down menus created via the links I posted are collapsed by default and will only be expended when the mouse pointer is hovered over the parent menu item. You don't have to install a module, you can simply add the suckerfish code as instructed.

I am having hard time modifying the templates, so I rather make one from the scratch. I found a layout that explains where's what !!

Is there any step by step guide or documentation that can explain how to make a template
(something close to the layout pic attached).

Please advise.

Thanks.

The Joomla Template Tutorial here on Joomla.org is probably the best starting place.

I purchased a copy of Joomla! 1.5 Template Design from Packt publishing and found it very good.
Joomla! 1.5 Template Design (Link to it on Amazon.co.uk)
I have also looked at Artisteer (I'm sure you have seen plenty of adverts for it whenever you do a Joomla Template google search. It's OK but can be a bit limited - you can only really modify it's basic template although this is good enough for most basic sites.

Can you write the html/css code to create the layout you have given? If so, don't bother with either the book or artisteer - you are most of the way there. Just check out the tutorial.

Yes, I have looked at Artisteer, its pretty much basic, but its good.
I will look again since I want to begin with a basic site first.

I can't write html/css code, that's the reason I am looking around how
to begin with a basic site.

Thanks.