Joomla is an award-winning open source CMS (content management system) that allows anyone to build a professional site quickly and easily, even if they’ve never built a website before. Joomla has a number of free plugins that help you extend the power and is a great tool for developers of any skill level.

What is a Joomla Template?

When thinking about the design of your site you can either make use of the thousands of pre-designed templates, or you can make a custom template. If you don’t want to make your own template there are a multitude of free templates that you can make use of. If you choose to have your template custom designed there isn’t much to worry about. Templates are comprised of just a few simple files that are easy to setup and edit.

How Do Joomla Templates Work?

Joomla content is stored in a database. When a new page is requested, Joomla pulls all of the menus, content, modules, and other important data from the database and uses your template code to generate the final page.

To make things as easy as possible, Joomla allows for controlling the look and feel of your site using just two kinds of files; CSS and HTML. The HTML controls where elements are placed on the page while the CSS controls the design elements like colors.

Changing any images in the template you need is very simple. Since the image files are routinely linked in the HTML files you just need to go in and point the image call to the location of your new image file. If the new image isn’t the same size as the image it’s replacing you can cause some weird errors.

Simply select your template from the thousands that are available for no charge online and you can start customizing it to your heart’s content. With a couple clicks of a button you can convert your site into anything you want.

How Do Joomla Templates Help?

In the old days you used to have to hire a web designer who would charge you thousands of dollars for the initial site, then sometimes over $100 just to add a new page to the site. Using templates with Joomla you can avoid all of that expense and easily add new pages whenever you want. It’s also incredibly easy to add graphics, music and videos.