With numerous CMS programs available, it’s interesting to note that Joomla alone has been embraced by such a wide spectrum of individuals, corporations, nonprofit organizations, boutique businesses, and public organizations.

One reason for Joomla’s wide adoption is its ease of use. If you have any experience with web site construction or CMS design, you can use Joomla once and understand why people and businesses have adopted it in such large numbers.

Joomla’s ease of use is matched only by its built-in professional features. In addition to Joomla’s robust native feature set, over 4,000 free and commercial plug-ins are available to use with it (see Chapter 7 for instructions on accessing the Joomla Extension Directory). This vast array of extensions makes it possible to deploy a Joomla system that can do almost anything you need, from chat rooms, to online auctions, to classified ads, to inventory management.

Despite the gold-medal capabilities of the system, however, I think the primary reason Joomla is so popular is the award-winning user interface aesthetics the application offers to even the most novice users. The professionally designed user interface templates, both those included with the default installation and those available from the large third-party market, can instantly make almost any web site a “sight to behold.” Gone are the days when a web site required a dedicated professional web designer to look immaculate. Joomla allows the most humble blog site to stand toe to toe with a multimillion-dollar web site without blinking. That means a professional web presence is available to site creators with no graphic arts experience. The aesthetics of a Joomla site are unparalleled by any other system.

Further, many CMS systems nearly require an advanced degree to set up and maintain. Joomla, in contrast, enables you to perform all maintenance tasks through a simple and elegant administration screen (see Figure 1-2). Since Joomla administration is web-based, a Joomla site can be managed from wherever you happen to be—even if you’re resting comfortably on a beach in Maui with a piña colada in one hand and laptop with a Wi-Fi connection in the other.

In the sections that follow, you’ll be introduced to various Joomla features and learn, in a nutshell, how the application works.