Why use Joomla for Web design?

Firstly, it might be necessary to explain what Joomla is, since the term might be an unfamiliar one. Which might be considered strange, seeing that Joomla is probably one of the most popular content management systems on the planet today, and has been downloaded more than 10 million times.

It is estimated that about 30 million Web sites, possibly more, have been built with Joomla.

So what is Joomla exactly, and why should you build your Web site with it?

Joomla is a content management system, which is a sophisticated tool that has been developed to help you create and manage online content. This content is normally in the form of HTML pages and images.

A content management system helps you to create sophisticated Web sites without having to have knowledge of HTML, CSS, PHP or any of the other alphabet soup that comes with learning Web design.

So, why isn't everyone using Joomla for Web design? Good question! And this is not meant in any sarcastic way whatsoever. It is a good question since we certainly think that all Web sites should be built using Joomla.

Let's take a look at the differences, the pros and the cons of using Joomla versus using something like Dreamweaver, which is the de facto Web site authoring tool today.

Firstly, it might be good to take a step back and just look at what we are dealing with here. On the one hand, we have Joomla, which, as we said, is a content management system, to help manage Web site content, while on the other hand, we have Dreamweaver, which is a sophisticated tool that runs on your PC and helps you create Web sites.

You might argue that trying to compare Joomla and Dreamweaver is like comparing apples with trains - not comparable since they are completely different tools, but we do not agree with that sentiment. Ultimately, the end goal of using both tools is to create a Web site, and we think it is therefore quite a valid comparison to make, since both are ultimately Web site creation tools. We will, therefore, compare these two tools using the following criteria:

* Which is more efficient with regards to creating a Web site?
* Which gives you the most power and functionality/features for your Web site?
* Which assists the best with maintaining a Web site after it has been built?

To us, there is no question that Joomla is the clear winner (but then, we might be biased)!

Let's take a look at these criteria and see how the contenders stack up.

This might be a bit of an unfair question, since the whole point of using Joomla is that you start off with a fully-fledged Web site already, whereas with Dreamweaver, you start with a blank slate. The whole point about using Joomla is that it comes with the entire infrastructure for a Web site already built - you just need to add your pages and content and viola! Your Web site is done.

Joomla comes with a look and feel design already done in the form of pre-built templates, it comes with a navigation system (menus and links to pages) already set up, and it comes with some sample Web site pages already populated.

In other words, the whole Web site is there already, ready to be customised and personalised by you. If you use Dreamweaver to build a Web site, you have to first learn all the skills necessary for good Web design - HTML and CSS knowledge is essential, and you need to have graphic design skills to be able to design the look and feel. Then you need to create the content pages.

In other words, you are really building the house from the ground up (as well as creating the architectural design in a lot of cases!) whereas with Joomla, you are buying the house already built and just putting your own personality stamp on it.

Now, this might be one of the biggest arguments against Joomla levied by the Dreamweaver enthusiast - what if I do want to have a unique, fully custom built Web design and not just some rehashed template that someone else made?

The point is a valid one, but one that is easily countered. Firstly, there are thousands of templates available for Joomla, which means there are a huge variety of designs on hand. Secondly, if you are skilled enough to build an original design using Dreamweaver, you will certainly be skilled enough to create a Joomla template, which will give you any original look that you might want.

Also a bit of an unfair question, since the whole point of using a content management system such as Joomla is that it comes with a lot of functionality built in. This means that is easy to create Web sites with interactive capabilities such as e-commerce, business directories, and most of the so-called Web 2.0 features such as RSS, commenting, social networking, videos and more.

These types of Web sites are notoriously difficult to build using Dreamweaver, since you require some form of scripting and database functionality in order to be able to deliver such a type of Web site, which is not what Dreamweaver provides for.

Once again, Joomla, by virtue of the fact that it was designed to provide for easy maintenance of Web sites, wins out. If you want a site that you can easily maintain by adding new pages of content, or by updating vital pieces of information such as publishing latest news items, or by updating products and prices on your site, then Joomla is the tool to use.

With built-in capabilities to allow end-users easy access to content pages and having built-in facilities for creating and maintaining menu and navigation links across the site, Joomla really makes it easy to maintain a Web site.

The question therefore remains - why use Dreamweaver, if you can use Joomla?

Tailormade4you is presenting a hands-on course to learn Joomla, on 6 of November, in Johannesburg. To learn how to use Joomla to quickly and easily build your own Web site, read more about it and make an online booking on http://www.tm4y.co.za/intro-to-joomla.html?ref=itweb.