Joomla is one of the most popular content management systems on the market today. Its popularity is also due to enormous number of templates, software and addons available for this CMS: There is virtually no web page functionality that couldn't be implemented with one of Joomla extension. Free Joomla addons come in form of components, modules and plugins. Below is a list of 10 extensions I install by default with every Joomla installation. 

JCE Editor

As writing articles is the main task once Joomla is installed, a good and user friendly editor is a first component I recommend to install. JCE joomla editor is a superset of default TinyMCE editor that is integrated in Joomla. JCE offers some functionality (like browsing and downloading of pictures to server) that will ease significantly your article writing.

Akeeba Backup

One of the most important things with every website is security. For this reason an Akeeba Backup component is a must install. It is very easy to reinstall ore move a whole site with this extension. There is a desktop utility named Native tool that facilitates a backup of various sites on schedule basis. It is possible to do backups also manually and for a various sites in the same time.

JUpdateMan

There are new versions of Joomla every while. This addon makes a Joomla upgrade three clicks straight forward process. Huge time saver over time consuming manual upgrade.

Xmap

For better indexing and general search engine optimization, it is wise idea to generate XML sitemaps of your web site. Xmap is a handy extension that serves to these purposes. Once installed and configured it creates a link to xml sitemap. You will have to enter this link to Google webmaster tools manually. Since than, component will automatically update it, whenever you change the content of the site.

Joom!Fish

When it comes to a multilingual site this is the best Joomla addon available. It facilitates and controls a translation of menus, articles, modules and other components.

GoogleMaps plugin

The most versatile Google maps plugin for Joomla. Reumer Tech Google maps plugin supports multi domain Google API key, KML files, Multi locations, placing plugin in articles, modules and components add many more.

PHP module

PHP module from Fiji Web Design, embeds PHP and Java script code in module position. Useful for adding widgets, custom written php scripts and also AdSense code to your webpage.

Mavik Thumbnails

icture lightbox and photo thumbnail in one plugin. Upload pictures in original size, enable Mavik plugin and change their size (width or height dimension) in pictures property tab of article editor. Plugin will create a thumbnail with lightbox resize on mouse hover.

YouTube video

Simple plugin that shows YouTube videos on the web page. It is possible to define basic look and feel properties of video window like dimensions and border colors.

Joomla extensions directory

Official Joomla Extension site, where majority of commercial and free Joomla addons can be found.

I am a Joomla web designer from Slovenia. I used to search for commercial or free Joomla templates and manually tweak them. Very time consuming and one can easily run into W3C compatibility problems while manually updating a source code.

For me Artisteer was a revelation. Now with Artisteer’s visual approach I focus on the design and forget about the code. And the result is guaranteed to be W3C compatible. How much easier could it be?

When I tried a demo version I decided immediately to make a purchase. I use it for all my projects. I can make a demo template in minutes now. I have never encountered any compatibility problems with Joomla plugins. Plus my clients are very satisfied. They get exactly the design they want.

The Artisteer team is adding more and more functionalities to this web designer’s dream software. Keep going, I’m looking forward to your upcoming versions!

Joomla CMS is one of the most popular Content Management Systems on market these days. Joomla is suitable for all types of sites. From mini personal sites to corporate portals. Its learning curve may last longer than popular Blog CMS Wordpress but when it comes to extendibility and scaling Joomla might be better option.

Joomla, like all CMS systems, distinguishes among content and form. A basic peace of content is article. To make a Joomla site more interesting various modules are incorporated in web page design. The most useful ones are menus, photo galleries, image rotators, slide shows… In total there are few thousands of Joomla extensions available today.

The other part of system is templates. Templates serve as a unifying form of a web page. They dictate module positions, fonts, colors, shape and general look of the web page. Templates can be found on various free and commercial sites. Just enter “free Joomla templates” in Google to find them.

How about if you want to make your own template? A design that you have in mind and will be unique and never used before? There is option to do this manually. But this involves a plenty of time and detailed knowledge of CSS and HTML. Alternative to this tedious process is a Joomla template Maker.

Joomla template Maker is specialized software used to design a fully functional Joomla templates. This tool is completely visual so there is no need to know HTML or CSS. And what is even better is that you can export designed templates to variety of CMS like Joomla, Drupal, Wordpress and Blogger.