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I am intending writing a User Manual and this is a first draft of the User Manual outline.  Please reply with suggestions, additions, deletions etc.  Replies by March 16th please.

If you would like to contribute to this project please send me a private message with details of how you would like to get involved, what time you have available for the next 3 months, skills and anything else you think is relevant.

I shall be away from April 4th - 17th.

Thank you for your support.

Outline


Chapter 1 - Welcome to Joomla
·   Objectives of the User Manual
·   How to use the User Manual
·   Brief description of what Joomla is and what a CMS is.

Chapter 2 – Getting Started
·   System Requirements
·   Installing Joomla
                    The Configuration file
.  Upgrading Joomla
·   Overview of the installed elements of a Joomla Web site
                   Templates
                   Components
                   Modules
                   Mambots
·   Quick Start Guide
                   Add a Section - See also Chapter 5
                   Add a Category - See also Chapter 5
                   Add a Content Item - See also Chapters 4 & 5
                   Add a Menu Item - See also Chapter 5

Chapter 3 - Joomla Users
·   Types of Users and access permissions
·   Registration
·   Recovering a lost password
·   Logging in and out
·   Account Details

Chapter 4 - Accessing functions from the Frontend
·   Managing content
                   Author
                   Editor
                   Publisher
·   Submitting Weblinks
·   Check-In My Items

Chapter 5 - Accessing functions from the Backend - Manager
·   Managing Media
·   Site Preview
·   Statistics
·   Managing Menus Items
                   Add a New Menu Item
                   Publishing and Unpublishing a Menu Item
                   Creating Sub-Menus
                   Organising the look of the Frontpage
·   Managing Content
                   Managing Sections
                   Managing Categories
                   Managing Items
·   Frontpage Manager
·   Archive Manager

Chapter 6 - Accessing functions from the Backend – Administrator
·   Trash Manager
·   Managing Users
·   Managing Menus
                   Creating New Menus
·   Managing Components
                   Banners
                   Contacts
                   Mass Mail
                   News Feeds
                   Polls
                   Syndicate
                   Web Links

·   Managing Modules
                  Banners
                  Main Menu
                  Who’s Online
                  User Menu
                  Other Menu
                  Login Form
                  Syndicate
                  Statistics
                  Template Chooser
                  Archive Sections
                  Wrapper
                  Polls
                  Random Image
                  Newsflash
                  Related Items
                  Latest News
                  Search
                  Popular
                  Top Menu
·   Managing Mambots
                   MOS Image
                   Legacy Mambot Includer
                   Code Support
                   SEF
                   MOS Rating
                   Email Cloaking
                   GeSHi
                   Load Module Positions
                   MOS Pagination
                   No WYSIWYG Editor
                   TinyMCE WYSIWYG Editor
                   MOS Image Editor Button
                   MOS Pagebreak Editor Button
                   Search Content
                   Search Weblinks
                   Search Contacts
                   Search Categories
                   Search Sections
                   Search Newsfeeds
·   Installing new Components, Modules and Mambots

Chapter 7 - Accessing functions from the Backend – Super Administrator

·   Global Configuration
·   Language Manager
·   Managing Templates
                   Site Templates
                   Administrator Templates
                   Module Positions
·   Messages
·   System Info
·   Global Checkin

Chapter 8 - Ongoing User Maintenance

.  System Backups

Appendix A - Further Reading

Appendix B - Third Party Extensions

Appendix C - Future Road Map

Appendix D - GNU/GPL Licence

The outline looks very complete and will benefit the community greatly

Just a few suggestions;

Installation - cover configuration.php file, database setup and perhaps a word or two about security
Upgrading - how does Joomla handle it (pathces versus full downloads)
Backups - perhaps a section on backups and migrating Joomla to another site, say from JSAS to a live site
Extensions - most popular extensions, sources of extensions
The future - Where Joomla is going and what is the potential impact on users

Not sure about this one but maybe some statement about Mambo/Joomla compatability, now and in the future. Mambo migration?

How to contribute!!!

Nice outline, though... Hm. I miss a general workflow. Put yourself in a boots of a complete novice. I read almost all doc's about Joomla and I didn't found a good explanation about workflow.

Cheers

D.

_________________
Moderator of Slovenian Forum

Ledzep is looking for someone (some people) to help him wite the user manual.

If you are available, please contact him.

Thanks!

_________________
Michelle Bisson, POPcliQ, http://www.popcliq.com
Joomla / OSM Trademarks Team Member

I volunteered in PM as requested but never received a reponse.

I'll let Ledzep know to contact you.

  If by chance he hasn't contacted you by the end of the weekend, please send me a pm.


Thanks for your interest!

_________________
Michelle Bisson, POPcliQ, http://www.popcliq.com
Joomla / OSM Trademarks Team Member

Sorry Scribe.  I sent Michelle your PM and I was expecting to liaise with her about this.  Again sorry

Hey, just one more thing while I'm thinking of it. Perhaps there should be a short section in the manual about reporting bugs and perhaps even something about debugging common problems.

I contacted Aris, in Greece, (speaking was impossible because of a bad connection) and Dave, from Arizona, (Good chat) today and they both have a copy of the Word doc I started.

Aris reviewed my document and has committed to 2 chapters (Chapters 5 & 6).

Dave will let me know tomorrow what he can do.  I am confident that they are both enthusiastic and look forward to working with them.

We are aiming for a new users guide to keep it simple yet relevant.  We also talked about the possibility of an Advanced User Manual to follow - more on this topic to come.

We will review progress next Saturday and adjust our schedules in the light of the week's work.

I would like to aim to publish middle May and will have a better handle on this next week.

I will be away from 04.04.06 - 04.17.06 but not incommunicado!

Update 03.20.06:

Dave will do Chapters 3 & 4.  Scheduled to be completed in about 2 weeks.

I will cover Chpaters 1, 2 & 7

Next update: 03.25.06

If anyone would like to help write the User Manual, please contact ledzep.

Thanks!

_________________
Michelle Bisson, POPcliQ, http://www.popcliq.com
Joomla / OSM Trademarks Team Member

I started this evening to migrate what I have done for the User Manual to http://65.98.16.122/~joomlahe/

You are invited to take a look and comment.

We still have a way to go but we hope to have a publishable document by Mid May

Hi

the URL for the User Manual is http://reseller4.ultrawhb.com/~joomlahe/

If translations are required I would be happy to co-ordinate any volunteers for the Manual if they contact me.

Thank you Dave for all your work, it has been hugely helpful.  I hope the book is very successful for you.  Let me know if you need any help - proofing etc.

The links above don't work. Is this doc online any where? Thanks.

This site has been taken down.....

hi,

im new to joomla, im just asking if where i can find the link or URL to User's Manual (Tutorial)...

thank you

_________________
Brad Baker - Follow me on Google+
http://www.rochen.com - Joomla! Hosting, the correct way.
http://www.joomlatutorials.com <-- Joomla Help
..somewhere in this hospital the anguished oink of a pig man cries out for help..

Just a quick note...awhile back I did a fairly comprehensive job of proof-reading and offering up typos, etc on Pages 1-42.  In looking at the .pdf, the same typos seem to be there...eg, Joomla!! instead of Joomla!

Here are links to that before someone doubles up on the effort:

p. 1-17 http://forum.joomla.org/index.php/topic,64607.0.html

p. 18-20 http://forum.joomla.org/index.php/topic ... html&nbsp;

p. 21-27 http://forum.joomla.org/index.php/topic,64062.0.html

p. 28-42 http://forum.joomla.org/index.php/topic,65072.0.html

t17169,

Ledzep who worked many many long hours getting the User Manual to this level of completeness is unavailable.  If you have time to help, please let me know.

Thanks!

_________________
Michelle Bisson, POPcliQ, http://www.popcliq.com
Joomla / OSM Trademarks Team Member

Currently i`m writing Joomla! manual in Malay. Perhaps after i`ve finished writing it, i`ll translate it to english dude

_________________
The Sky`s The Limit

That would be great!  Keep us posted!

Thanks!

_________________
Michelle Bisson, POPcliQ, http://www.popcliq.com
Joomla / OSM Trademarks Team Member

How about a section devoted to migrating the developed site from a local developer machine to a live server location.

It should include info re: tranferring files and any path changes that might be needed.

In addition, how to move the MySQL db file from the localhost machine to the server location.

Developing on a local machine is great...but...if the individual is not really saavy on file migrations, having some sort of instruction set to help the user would be a great addition.

Better yet, an internal Joomla! function that would be "Migrate to Server" and do it all automatically, having the user fill in the locations for ftp, etc.

_________________
http://www.200mphMedia.net
Author: Joomla 1.6 Picture Yourself Series book @ Amazon.com
Book also covers Version 1.7, 2.5, which had no notable/major user-side changes.

I would be glad to help proofread and suggest edits to the draft of the manual, checking for "U.S." English syntax and the like.

Email the manual draft (.doc format, not .pdf) to HB@200mphmedia.net

HERB

_________________
http://www.200mphMedia.net
Author: Joomla 1.6 Picture Yourself Series book @ Amazon.com
Book also covers Version 1.7, 2.5, which had no notable/major user-side changes.

Hello Herb,

I have contacted Ledzep as he is coordinating the User Manual team.  He or I will get back to you.

Thanks!

_________________
Michelle Bisson, POPcliQ, http://www.popcliq.com
Joomla / OSM Trademarks Team Member

Anyone know where we can download the manual that ledzep wrote. I know it was published for a while, so surely someone has it somewhere???

I am close to having the first draft completed and will co-ordinate with Michelle to have it available.  To get the work so far go to:

http://help.joomla.org/images/User_manu ... mbined.pdf

Thanks Ledzep!

_________________
Michelle Bisson, POPcliQ, http://www.popcliq.com
Joomla / OSM Trademarks Team Member

First thing would be to cash out the claim on the home page... namely, that Joomla! is easy to install.

I'm still trying to figure this out.  Even the installation forum doesn't cover basic concepts.... Like having a web server on a local machine to develop a site?  Stuff like that and issues surrounding that.

For instance, does the local web server need to be the same as what will be used remotely?  Or how does one install IIS if your computer asks for an SP2 disk you don't have?  But, prior to that, somebody needs to concentrate on basic conceptual explanation before flinging off technobabble.

Take a look at http://jsas.joomlasolutions.com/

for an excellent product that allows Joomla! development on a local machine

You might like to start here with the basics: http://help.joomla.org/component/option ... temid,253/

Installing IIS, you will probably find Google can help you there.

_________________
Brad Baker - Follow me on Google+
http://www.rochen.com - Joomla! Hosting, the correct way.
http://www.joomlatutorials.com <-- Joomla Help
..somewhere in this hospital the anguished oink of a pig man cries out for help..