Customer Reviews

The Joomla Admin Manual: A Step by Step Guide to a Successful Website

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

This book is the work of an experienced and skilled Joomla! template developer.

Particularly useful: The discussion of the flexible use of sections and categories finally made Joomla! website creation fall into place for me. It seems straightforward, but Sections and Categories don't necessarily match the site's menu structure. The Section/Category coverage is brief in the book, but more in-depth and helpful than most other books on Joomla!, which usually just urge you to get it right, without really explaining how. (The Mambo "Visual Blueprint" book also has an excellent treatment of this, which can be directly applicable to Joomla!)

Also particularly useful: "The Least You Need to Know" sections that provide a good overview of key ideas, and Chapter Summaries that are brief but helpful.

The book covers some of the most valuable Joomla! extensions (many of which don't yet work with Joomla! 1.5).

You will need to purchase the "Joomlashack School Shack Pack" in order to make the best use of the book, but it's probably worth it, at a cost of $97. Hiring a developer would cost a lot more than that. (It would be nicer, of course, if the template came with the book.)

I give this four stars instead of five is because of frequent typos throughout the book. The book is obviously self-published; I look forward to the more professionally typeset (and hopefully, proofed) upcoming book on Joomla! 1.5.

Notice how many two line "reviews" were posted on August 28th and 29th, 2007. That's ridiculous.

There are better and more up-to-date guides available free on the web. Don't bother with this.

Although there are a few (very minor) grammatical errors, the content of this book is fantastic. It is an indispensable guide to administering a Joomla website, and requires no previous knowledge. The reader is taken logically through the theory behind what content management systems do, and how to put the theory into practice.

There is a comprehensive section about Search Engine Optimization which gives very good advice on improving your rankings in Google, and it even gives you detailed instructions on how to create your own Joomla template (no previous knowledge of HTML or CSS required). There is a chapter on creating a website for a school, and an example of creating an e-commerce site. The book is well illustrated throughout with clear real-life examples. It covers just about everything you need to know - highly recommended!

This is a very bad book. The author doesn't know how to write a computer book - it reads like a high school term paper. There is so much to say, but I'll use a single example. The book is printed in black/white and text often refers to things that are highlighted in red. Shows how much effort went into it.

This book is badly written. My copy has grammar mistakes, errors in logic, and punctuation errors everywhere. It even has apologies for bad writing right in the text. There are many errors that make it difficult to understand what the author is saying. It appears that it was never proofread, and yet it was sold as a finished commercial book.

If you can get past all the mistakes in writing, and figure out for yourself what the author is trying to say, you might get something out of it. Other Joomla books are MUCH better. The writer rehashes many points that are more clearly stated on the Joomla support website.

This book wasted my time. After about 50 pages, I stopped correcting the mistakes just to understand the intended thoughts. When I complained to the author that it should not have been released until it is rewritten, he said that he had sold almost 1000 copies so far and stated that I was the first person who complained. Selling a lot of copies does not make it okay to waste people's time and money!!

The author refunded my money instead of accepting my marked-up copy to fix the book in a future release. As far as I know no changes have been made. He claims it was rewritten. However, no proof or even evidence of that claim was provided. I suppose the author wants me to buy the book again to prove to myself that he fixed his mistakes. Once is enough. I refuse to spend more money on a book that wasted my money and days of precious time.

It is not okay to sell such poorly written materials regardless of a satisfaction guarantee!! A refund does not fix anything or replace wasted time.

The Joomla Admin Manual: A Step by Step Guide to a Successful Website

Review posted 6/28/2007

This book was great for a new user with little or no Joomla experience.

I read this book through in one sitting and gained a lot of insight to Joomla. It is pretty clear in the way it presents info. Readers are guided through creating a basic Joomla template.

As an advanced user, I would like to have more examples of creating working templates in less of a click-this, click that step by step instruction. The examples were a little hard to follow. It would be better to have an overview of the process followed by instructions. I found myself clicking through the examples not knowing what I was trying to accomplish.

I've read the many critical comments on this book. I purchased it as a PDF. The information was concise and to the point. Good examples that I could copy and paste to get a quick handle on the material.

To all the grammar critics out there. I read through it; Noticed things here and there; Submitted updates and information; Got responses and updated copies as they came available.

Joomla has a lot to offer although the CMS concept is not the easiest thing at first. If your stuck on the grammar, then perhaps you're not the intended audience. If you see Joomla as a huge potential to your organization, you are the audidence. This book is for you.

I tried Joomla for my site several months ago and couldn't get my head around it. When I began looking for some in depth how-to manuals, I found Barrie's and use it all the time. It's organized logically, provides insight into what Joomla can and can't do and is not a technical manual. Even now that my site is live, I go back to the manual to learn some more and make it even more user friendly.

Barrie North is one of the reference points on the Joomla landscape. The pace of change in Joomla-land is fast with little time to create documentation before new software iterations occur. This book has been one of the better resources. The Joomla Admin Manual has been a great reference for all the recent versions of Joomla.
It was a godsend for me in starting working with Joomla. It covers the main territory, along with the author's obvious enthusiasm for ensuring Joomla websites are search engine friendly.
I recommend Barrie North's work. I've used the Joomla Admin Manual, his CSS templates and followed his recommendations for SEO and content editors. In general I've found his advice sound. The book presumes a lightly technical way of looking at things and not unexpectedly in view of the pace of change in Joomla-land could do with a bit more careful proofreading in parts. Well worth the money as a quick way in to using Joomla!

Before finding this guide I read three other user manuals and visited I don't know how many Web sites and online forums. When I found this guide I was still unclear exactly how Joomla went together. But then I read this guide, and suddenly it all came clear! Mr. North explains everything is a direct and simple manner. I have been building Web sites for over 10 years, and I have designed many Web sites using content management systems. But this was the first time I was in charge of the actual construction. I was frustrated and confused up until I found Mr. North's book. I was so relieved to finally have the guidance I needed!

If you are new to Joomla, or if you are still confused about how to put it together, I highly recommend this guide. I threw out all the other user manuals and just kept this one. It's definitely been the best guidance I found so far!