What is Joomla!?
Joomla! is software that lets you make and update web pages easily.
You can think of a Joomla! website as bringing together three elements.
Your content, which is mainly stored in a database.
Your template, which controls the design and presentation of your content (such as fonts, colors and layout).
Joomla! which is the software that bring the content and the template together to produce webpages.
Installing Joomla!
There are several ways to install Joomla!.
First, make sure that you have an account on a web server. For most people this means signing up with a hosting company and purchasing a domain that will serve as your site's main address.
Option One: One Click Installs. Many hosting companies offer "instant" installation of Joomla!. Follow the instructions your host provides for a one click install.
Option Two: Conventional Installs. This method requires that you copy the Joomla! zip file to your hosting account, unzip, create a database, and then run the installation. Complete instructions can be found in the Joomla! Installation Manual. This video takes you through the steps
Option three: Demo Site. You can create a working website at demo.joomla.org and then either follow the instructions provided to back up and move the site to your existing host or establish a hosting account at the end of the free 30 day trial. (Note that the Joomla! Project receives a royalty if you choose paid hosting from that site.)
For support with installation, you can ask questions in the installation forum.
Learn to Use Joomla!
Now that you have a working Joomla! site, you will want to start filling it with your own content and making it look just the way you want. Before doing that, it is a good idea to learn more about how Joomla! works. There are a number of very useful resources to help you with this.
This article shows you how to create an article from the front end.
