Here's a useful little trick if you want to try out and debug a new template on your site while your visitors still see the live template. Simply add "index.php?jos_change_template=new_template_name" to your domain name.

Examples:

• Click here to view HowToJoomla with the SolarFlare template.
• Click here to go back to the HowToJoomla template.
• Click here to view Joomla.org with the SolarFlare template.
• Click here to go back to the Joomla.org template.

I know it sounds weird, but I came across a situation in which I needed to see a component's output and nothing else. That allowed me to better debug the HTML that was coming from the component.

Special thanks to Dean Marshall for showing me this nifty little trick.

It's pretty simple, just follow these steps:

• Create a menu item that links to your component.
• Once you have created your menu item, click on that menu item in your Menu Manager like you were going to edit the menu item.
• Next to "URL", you should see something like "index.php?option=com_yourcomponent&...". Copy that URL.
• In the browser address bar, type the domain name and path to your website along with the URL information you copied in the previous step.
• Change "index.php" to "index2.php", and voila! You are now looking at just your component's output.

Just in time for Joomla! 1.5, the documentation team has released the Joomla! 1.0.11 User Manual (link to large pdf file). Better late than never, right? I haven't had a chance to read through it yet, but it's 183 pages long, so I'm guessing it's pretty thorough.

In How to Lose the Splash Page, I talk about how to move your Joomla! installation between directories on your server. Because the topic was buried in the "Read more..." section of the post, there may be some readers who ignored it or did not read it. If you want to know how to do this, click on over to How to Lose the Splash Page, and scroll down to "Option 1: How to Move Your Installation".

Over at the Joomla! Developer Blog, willebil has written a great summary of the new features in version 1.5. Check it out.

A short overview on the goodies in the 1.5-beta

Splash pages (those annoying pages with some sort of fancy graphic or flash intro that say "Click to Enter" or "Skip Intro") are bad. I could spend a whole article trying to convince you of this fact, but I think this article does a better job of it than I could ever do.

One of the most common mistakes made by Joomla! designers is to assume that just because you loaded Joomla! in a directory called "http://www.yourdomain.com/joomla" or "http://www.yourdomain.com/cms" or "http://www.yourdomain.com/home" rather than your root web directory, you are stuck needing to create a splash or intro page in your root directory to point your users to the real site. Nothing could be futher from the truth. As a webmaster, you have a couple of options for pointing users to your content without the need for a splash page. I will try to cover those options in this tutorial.

I recently worked on a project in which I needed to display the page's title outside of the bounds of the "mosMainBody" command in my template. Before this project, I never even thought about doing that, much less how to do it. Well, I'm happy to report that not only did I figure out how to do it, but I am going to pass it on to you. Here's how you do it.

I just found a thread in the forums that is a must-read for all Joomla! beginners. The thread is titled Anna's Joomla Tips, and I strongly recommend you read it if you are a beginner.

Anna's Joomla Tips