Joomla! Forum - community, help and support

Here's what I claimed

Create an attractive tri-fold brochure using OpenOffice Writer that shows
how Joomla! is used by Personal Sites and Blogs all around the world.

Good source for finding appropriate systems is a Google Search or using the
http://JoomlaPlace.org examples.


Skills Needed

* Good communication skills.
* Creativity.
* Good Public Relations Skills.
* Good Open Office Writer and communication skills.

Difficulty

Basic.

Work Product

Attractive tri-fold that could be used by Personal Sites and Blogs to learn
and show others how Joomla! can be used for that purpose. Use Joomla! logo
and color scheme http://www.joomla.org/content/view/259/70/ .

Licensing

Documentation written for this task must be made available under the
Joomla! Electronic Documentation License.

Extra Credit (Optional)

Interview site owners and include their comments on Joomla!.

Time Limit

2 weeks

I was planning on making a nice looking brochure in photoshop, is that ok as long as I keep all the dimensions exactly the same? OO Writer doesn't really allow for creative freedom.

Documentation written for this task must be made available under the
Joomla! Electronic Documentation License.

Do I have to do anything get give it under the documentation, or is that assumed when I hand over the files?

Thanks, I'm looking forward to coming up with a very nice result.

Claimed: Dec 08 Due: Dec 22

Google Task

[me=AmyStephen]Changed subject slightly for sorting all threads to match against Google resource  [/me]

rmiller wrote: I was planning on making a nice looking brochure in photoshop, is that ok as long as I keep all the dimensions exactly the same? OO Writer doesn't really allow for creative freedom.

Alas, we can't accept Photoshop files as it would put the content into a proprietary format that would be difficult for us to maintain.  I agree OO Writer is not ideal for this task; have you tried Scribus instead?

rmiller wrote:

Documentation written for this task must be made available under the
Joomla! Electronic Documentation License.

Do I have to do anything get give it under the documentation, or is that assumed when I hand over the files?

Ideally, just add a note in (very) small print somewhere that says "This document is made available under the Joomla! Electronic Documentation License".  Or words to that effect.  That's all you need to do.

rmiller wrote: Thanks, I'm looking forward to coming up with a very nice result.

Excellent!  And we're looking forward to seeing it! 

Have fun!
Chris.

Welcome! There are a number of tri-fold tasks in the contest. Take some time to read through the threads and see the excellent comments that you might also find helpful.

Also, please read ! GHOP Contestants Please Read: Task Process Start to Finish for important contest info.

Thanks for participating and let us know if we can help!
Amy

After trying to make it look good in scribus and OO Writer and failing miserably, I think I'm going to have to do it in photoshop. If I just send the final over as a png, you should easily be able to change the text, because I'm planning on doing quite a bit of solid colors. Also I'm pretty sure gimp can read psd, so that shouldn't be a problem.

At any rate, hopefully you wouldn't have to change anything.

Also, just curious, but how would this brochure be distributed?

Scribus is a great free-ware publisher program. And thanks for the email Ross. Looking forward to the final product.

I got it started. It's still pretty rough. I'll try to spice it up and add the rest of the content in when I'm not so tired.

If you have any feedback, I'd love to hear it.

Excellent start!

I love how you have used Joomla!'s colors and some nice shapes and blending. There is good balance and excellent use of "white" space.

Lose the indentations, I think.
Is Chris St.Amand/nergis.net your mom or dad? lol! 

In all seriousness, find a few good looking blog sites built using Joomla!. Check out JoomlaPlace.org - and bring those images in. But, not web addresses and names of commercial businesses. Joomla! cannot do that for one, and not others. It's, in a sense, "advertising" and that will never work.

Thanks for getting right on this!
Amy

Nah it's just a random site a found. I was having a hard time finding a blog built on Joomla! with a good design for some reason, so I just used that.

I'll check out joomlaplace though.

So I'm just supposed to talk about how certain sites use Joomla!, and potentially get quotations without mentioning the URL or going into specifics? Sorry, I'm just having a hard time envisioning what you have in mind.

No - you should use examples of how people specifically use blogs created out of Joomla!.  It should not be about the person, though, or the name of their company, but rather the functionality provided by the site.

JoomlaPlace.org has some examples to start with. See what you think.

Amy

Actually I have no relation to Ross. He emailed me out of the blue to ask if I wouldn't mind being mentioned in a tri-fold brochure. I said I would be delighted (in so many words). It's nergES not nergIS, btw. To be frank, I really don't care either way (if my sites included or not). My blog, isn't the main focus of my site, nor do I want it to be.

It's a beautiful blog and should appear as an image as an example along with others.

In it's current form, talking about your design services - rather than Joomla!'s blogging capabilities, it seems like an advertisement for your web business. Now, some approximate 2 million J! websites in existence. Regardless of the actual count, it's a pretty big market. Can you imagine the response if Joomla! handed out this brochure in this current form? What questions do you think might be asked?  :P

I hope that makes sense, but if it doesn't I really do not know what else to say. 
Amy

Thanks for the compliment 

I completely understand what your getting at. However, I didn't write anything below the quote. But I agree it should pinpoint quickly and strikingly Jooomla's ability to be used as a bloggers content management resource. That it's as easy to setup as it's main blog type competitor Wordpress.

I can't change my site to address this brochures or the communities needs. Simply my site is my freelance web development site, doing it all by my lonesome.

At the moment it might just be that Ross chose the wrong approach for the brochure. And it should be such that the sites he shows are for personal websites that aren't affiliated with or used by professionals in the field.

We're working it!  I gave him feedback. It sounds like you don't disagree with what I had to say. Now, if you look through the other entries, you will see the GHOP contest is an iterative, community involved process. We are heading in the right direction - everything is on-track - we are good.

I'm not certain how you found this thread, but I am glad you are here and I think your feedback to be valuable.

In the blog brochure - focusing on how people can use Joomla! as a blogger is the goal. Your site is a beautiful example. Including the image and the images of others, some quotes about using J! as a blogger are great.

If your quote were more about that focus, rather than about how Joomla! is useful to your customers, it would be more appropriate. So, the quote should address how can Joomla! be used or useful as a blogger - from the perspective of a blogger. Let's get to that. 

Now, let's allow this contest to continue. I do not want you to worry. You were not and should not be the focus of this entry. If you want to continue this discussion, please email me at [email protected], so that we can now focus on the student's entry in the GHOP.

Thanks for understanding,
Amy

To summarize:

I have no objection to an image of this site used in this brochure. Even if it's a business blog, it's a blog built with Joomla!. That's perfect - That's cool. This is a particularly beautiful blog and one I would certainly consider featuring.

Now that you see what the student's project is all about, I recommend you (kickarse) consider offering another quote more suitable to a blogging brochure for a free software community, that would be appreciated.

I'll talk w the judges about considering guidelines across the board for sharing website addresses and names. It might be we go with first names to be on the safe side.

Please consider these ideas, if you have objections, posting here is the likely best approach. Let's just conclude it ASAP so that we don't disrupt the student's work.

Thanks!
Amy

Excellent!

To be more poignant ...

"I tried to use and configure other blogging management software but found that Joomla! integrates perfectly with other content within my site. It's easy to setup, easy to manage and easy to blog."

How's that!?

Ok I fixed the nerges stuff up and tweaked the design a bit. I'll show you how it looks now as well as the other 3 panels look in a day or two, but I just need some advice.

What are some features of J! pertaining to personal sites and blogs that I should mention.

I've already mentioned how it easy to use, but can easily add advanced features. Are there any other things that J! is focused on, or perhaps features that are unique to it that would be worth mentioning? I've tried doing some research, but havn't come up with anything good.

One idea would be to start with the JoomlaCode.org site and check out some of those sites. There are a number of personal sites and blog sites on there. Also, you can look through the site showcase and see what people are able to do with Joomla!. Check out the extensions library - see what types of extensions are available (don't mention names, just types, like galleries, and newsletters, and guestbooks, etc.). That'll give you new ideas for research!

HTH,
Amy

rmiller -

Are you still interested in this task? It's been exactly a week since we heard from you! You started so strong - so quickly - you claimed the task on the 8th - and that very day, you delivered a fabulous three page design.  That was half of the task - don't give up!

Did you get a chance to look at the other four blogs on JoomlaPlace? Those are awesome! Plus, there are a ton of beautiful personal website - children's sites, family sites and women's issues. And, that's just on JoomlaPlace.

I'm certain there are many, many thousands of personal and blog Joomla! web sites on the Internet!

With this strong start, you have the beginnings of a great brochure. If you are too busy, I understand. If we don't hear from you in a few more days, we'll open the task for someone else. But, given your obvious skill, I hope you return - I'd love to see what you can come up with!

Hope you are well,
Amy

Just to throw out another blog idea. Here is a site that I actually built: http://www.jerryacton.com. The fellow who had me build the site has a 'nature blog' (under Nature Diary). Its a pretty technologically advanced site totally based on Joomla!

Thanks, Chad, that's another nice one!

Plenty to fill another page!
Amy

I have senior finals this week, so sorry about that.

I tweaked the design a bit. I'll do a bit more work on the actual content, but my main focus is just the other 3 panels now. I have one nice site and quote, but I could use two more. I'll get in contact with jerryaction, drmmr763, and try to get a quote, because that would fit really well.

So glad you did not leave us! 

How about a picture of his website, instead? "Is your web guy a Web Guru?" with nerges web guru above still reads like an ad - not like a blog or a personal website. That is such a cool looking site! Maybe take a snap of it and place it over the "business card looking object."

Can't wait to see the next page!

Amy

rmiller, if you want a quote from Jerry, I can get one for you. PM me about it and we'll talk about what you want from him.

Reminder on tomorrow's due date.

Thanks!
Amy

Ah I forgot about the due date. Here's my entry. Thanks for waiting.

http://img86.imageshack.us/img86/7959/brochureko7.png -- Page 1
http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/2520 ... re2aw3.png -- Page 2

Source Files
http://www.rsfgalleries.com/brochure.psd
http://www.rsfgalleries.com/brochure2.psd

I noticed a few things that you might consider changing:

On the first page, you have: http://www.joomla.org

I think I saw somewhere on another brochure or document that it was better to just have 'Joomla.org' instead. Amy? What do you think about this?

On the second page, the panel to the right, there are two "Joomla!s" you didn't bold. All the other ones on the brochure are in bold, so you might wanna do those two just to be consistent.

--

Now I have a question, more about the file types than the content itself. You provided PSD's that only have a 72 DPI resolution. 72DPI is good for web related stuff. But 150 is minimum for printing on a home printer, and 300 is necessary for a real printer get a bunch of these off on a printer. Does anyone else have anything to add on this? Or, does it matter in this case?

Is it possible to export from photoshop to a pdf with selectable text?  I think selectable text is preferred.

Joomla!'s has tons of extensions that you can integrate into your site

Drop the " 's ".

"Podcasts" should be "Podcast"

Change "with ease" to "easily"


Very professional!

Agree with Chad and Max.

the features you want,
without the frustration
that you don't (want).

Whether you are building
your first site or you at an
experience webmaster

no comma before and - but one after more
staying informed about new
version of Joomla!, and
more much more.

Joomla.org (as Chad said)

The new two images could be larger - there is room and it is impossible to see the sites.

Thanks for your effort, it is turning out nice!
Amy


PS - this will be an Oo .odt file when you submit?

http://www.rsfgalleries.com/finish.pdf
http://www.rsfgalleries.com/brochure.odt

There's an extra blank page on the .odt. I just couldn't figure out how to remove it without messing up the design, the pdf has it correctly though.

Here's also all the images and files zipped up in case you need to do some modifying later.
http://www.rsfgalleries.com/joomlabrochure.zip

Let me know if anything else needs to be fixed.

Merry Christmas 

Whether you are building
your first site or you at an
experience webmaster

This doesn't sound right to me. Shouldn't it be:

Whether you are building your first site, or you're (you are) an experienced webmaster