A question that comes up often of new users is "How do I change the layout of the content on my frontpage?". To be more specific, the question is often about how to change the content layout from Joomla!'s default 1 column leading / 2 column intro / links layout. Fortunately, Joomla! makes this really easy to do.

It's Really a Component

What most new users don't realize is that when they're looking at the frontpage of their brand-new Joomla site, they're not looking at a bunch of articles randomly placed there. They're looking at Joomla's content component, whic is intelligently pulling those articles in and placing them in a specific, logical arrangement. Changing this arrangement happens to be a piece of cake:

1. Log into your site's administrator. (www.yoursite.com/administrator)
2. In the main administrator menu, go to 'Menus' > 'Main Menu'.
3. Click on the menu item titled "Home".
4. On the right, you'll see the "Parameters (Basic)" panel. In here you'll see numbers that relate to how your page is laid out. Change these numbers to shuffle your page layout around.

The first parameter is "# Leading", which determines the number of leading articles that are displayed on the frontpage view. The second parameter is "# Intro", which determines the number of articles that are displayed on the frontpage view with their introductory text. The third parameter is "Columns", which is the number of columns in which the intro articles are displayed. The last basic parameter is the "# Links", which determines the number of links that are displayed in a list of article title links after the intro articles.

The default layout is like the diagram at the top of this how-to, but you can change it to whatever you want. You can even set values to "0". For example, you can change the "# Leading" to "0", which will bump your two-columns of intro articles up to the top. Or you can set your "# Leading" to "0", "# Intro" to "10", and your "Columns" to "1" to create a more standard blog layout.

You can actually do a whole lot to change the look of the frontpage component on your home page. Play with the numbers in the "Parameters (Basic)" to see if you can come up with a layout that works better for your website.

About the Author

James Hafner is an Austin, TX-based developer who brings years of web experience to the HTJ team. He's worked with hundreds of companies large and small to develop their online presence, and has followed the Joomla! community since the Mambo days. He currently works as Senior Developer for Cory Webb Media, LLC. While leaving the really nerdy stuff to the other HTJ writers, James has a knack for finding things that make everyday life easier.  To him, developing, like Joomla!, is all about working smarter; not harder. You can follow James on Twitter @jhafner or check out his web site at JamesHafner.com.

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