CMS Templates

As newbie web designer, its very tempting to find a template that will meet my needs rather than starting from scratch.  In this blog I'll discuss my thoughts about which road I think would be the "path of least resistance". The school project I'm presently working on I'm using Joomla for a content management system and I must say Joomla is a real challenge.  That being said, a template at my present level of experience, looks mighty appealing and will be my angle of attack.

Template Resources

My Google search revealed some pretty good sites for free Joomla templates that would even provide a live demo. The templates I found were pretty attractive and being free, made them even more attractive.  The following web sites were just a few out I found:

• Joomla Shack
• Joomla Shine 
• Best of Joomla
• Site Ground 

However if you feel the need to design your own template, I did find a couple tutorials for designing templates for Joomla. Compass Designs .net  had a good tutorial that explained Joomla's structure in a way that even I could understand. Another excellent site is Joomla's site itself that gave extra incite for Mac users.  Apparently Joomla can have issues with the way Mac OSX handles files and the site explains how to prevent it. One more tutorial worth mentioning is from Net Nuts.  I found this site really easy to follow and it starts with the installation of a local server, WAMP for Windows users and MAMP for Mac users.

Art Space Charter School

As I mentioned earlier, I'm working on a Joomla site for the school above and had to first find a template that would match the the schools desired look and feel.  The  look and feel being a school of fine art rather than day care with kids finger painting.  The site would also serve as information source for parents of kids enrolled and looking to enroll.  The template pictured below was what I envisioned for structure. The imagery and color scheme would be different to match the school's desired theme.

In closing,  I mentioned earlier Joomla has been a challenge however I'm finding that the more I use it, the more I'm starting to like it. I highly recommend that you buy a book or find tutorials on line or both. As my experience with Joomla increases, designing templates from scratch will not seem so daunting. For now, I'm going to tweak an existing template.