On most sites, unless they are primarily blogs or news, you don't want to show the name of the author and the date last modified. Especially since some content, 'About Us,' for example, is likely to stay the same for some time, and you don't want it to say 2008 in 2011. When you first install Joomla!, the author and the date show up at the top of every article.

You've installed modules before. But did you realize you can make your own? Go to extensions, module manage, and click 'new.' One of the options is for a 'custom html.' When you create a new custom html module, you see an editing box on the bottom, the same as you see when you are editing an article. You can enter text and/or images and display the module anywhere on the site. A small business owner, for example, might want the business address and hours in a prominent place on every page - a custom module might be the ticket. You might want a bright red 'Contact Us' button leading to a contact form, insert an image in the custom module and make it a link to your form contact page.

There are four main options right now for search on a Joomla! website.

1. The first is Joomla!'s core search component. It has limitations - only 20 characters of a search phrase can be used, and there are no options for drill downs, spelling corrections, etc. So what do you do if you need better search?

2. A Joomla! extension - JXtended Finder $50 includes upgrades and support for one year, can be installed on unlimited sites.

3. Google Site Search - with or without Adsense results. Google Site Search can be integrated by using a Joomla! extension such as googleSearch component and module (free).

4. Enterprise Search Integration - you install an enterprise search engine (separate from your Joomla! site) and then use a Joomla! extension to use that search engine on your site. The free IBM OmniFind Yahoo! edition search engine can be integrated using the TNR ESearch Component. Plans are in the works for a new extension that will use the Solr search engine. This is an option mainly for large enterprise Joomla! sites - and it's the best way to get fine tuned control over how search results are generated and displayed.

We will be posting a new Joomla! tip every week! (Or even more often.)

Today's tip: If you use the standard Joomla! site search, you should enable search logging. Go to the back end, components, search. On the top right hand side, click on 'parameters.' Choose 'Gather Search Statistics' and click save. Now you can see what people are searching for on your site. Simple, but useful. People may be searching for synonyms of the words you are using on your site, or related items you hadn't considered. Now's your chance to edit your articles and make sure the right words are there for your users to find.

Tamar Schanfeld of TNR Global led an all day Intermediate Joomla! Workshop on August 5th in Hadley. Topics included backups, security, search engine optimization, social networking, blogs, and more. For those Joomla! junkies who were not able to attend - TNR will be posting a Joomla! tip of the day on our TNR Joomla! Blog.

Participant feedback was very positive!
"lots of info - very pleased"
"exceeded expectations"
"a very patient instructor"

Interested in taking a Joomla! workshop? Email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and we'll notify you of upcoming Joomla! classes and events. TNR Global also provides online training and small group training for businesses. Contact us today!

Security is always a concern. It's important to update your core Joomla! installation and your added extensions regularly. A popular tool for updating the core is Update Manager for Joomla!. It installs as a regular extension, and then provides a one-click method for updating Joomla!. Caution - if you have modified core Joomla! files, you may overwrite them during the update. Which is one reason you should not be modifying core files, unless all else fails. Stick with template overrides whenever possible.

Some individual extensions require you to uninstall and reinstall, and others can be installed on top of the current version. Especially if you have more than one site, it helps to keep a spreadsheet with all of your installed extensions, their version numbers, url where you downloaded the extension, and install date. There is no one click method for keeping your extensions updated - you need to manually check them on a regular basis.