Product Description
Create your own professional-quality templates with this fast, friendly guide Create Joomla! 1.5 Templates for your sitesDebug, validate, and package your templates Tips for tweaking existing templates with Flash, extensions and JavaScript libraries In Detail Using Joomla! Templates with HTML and CSS allows you to give a unique look and feel to your site, present a “fresh face” to your pre-existing content, ensure that your site design is consistent with … More >>
#1 by James Gifford on July 4, 2010 - 9:41 pm
If you’re looking to master Template design and development, don’t buy this book. I bought this book in hope that I’d be able to really go beyond the skimpy chapters on custom Joomla Templates in other books. I’m a front end designer and developer with a good understanding of the tools of the trade- ostensibly, the target audience for this book. However, the book is more geared towards total novices in web design. The author spends great lengths discussing Photoshop, what different kinds of websites are, how to choose a color scheme. Yet, actual joomla specific techinical information is very skimpy. While the author chooses to spend 4 pages discussing the importance and variety of fonts in web design (ie: what the difference between serif and sans serif is, etc…) she spends a modest 7 lines on Joomla Module Positions! Overall it seems that the author didn’t have a good grasp on the overall purpose of her book, but rather needed to either fill up pages for the sake of selling a book or she was trying to create something that apply to everyone (and thus, no one). All this being said, there is some useful information in the book, if you can sit through all the elementary stuff. I’m still searching for that book that will help me become joomla template builder. If you’re looking for a better resource on this topic, check out [...] joomla template tutorial (limited but useful).
Rating: 2 / 5
#2 by blog.elimu.pl on July 4, 2010 - 11:18 pm
In my opinion, one of the best books about Joomla! and templates. It contains many valuable and helpful tips and suggestions. Layout of the book is logical and well-chosen complement all the screenshots.
I lacked only: chapter about Inspiration, information about changes in templates for Joomla! 1.6, information about tools and the wizards for creating template (for eg.Artisteer). My guess is that it will be in the next edition. By now, mandatory book for all who want to build your own Joomla template.
Rating: 3 / 5
#3 by Maigrey on July 5, 2010 - 1:37 am
I’m not a noob; but I’m no programmer either; so I knew what I was getting into! I was pleased to find that I could follow the information supplied in this smaller than average how-to book for website content managers.
Rating: 5 / 5
#4 by Jacques Desforges on July 5, 2010 - 4:18 am
This book is for beginner in web-design, not for advanced designer or professional. The author explain which tools you must have to build a website and a lot of poorly recommendations to build a website. This for a 1/3 of the books. Unfortunately, these recommendations are not the good ones. She doesn’t know notepad++ or Topstyle. The only interesting chapter is number 6, template reference. The others are only “blabla”, ie words just to write something on the paper. I learn more in an five pages article in a PHP revue than in this book.
I was very disappointed by this book. I bought some others books from Packt publishing which are a higher lever as Learning Joomla extension development.
And at the end, the price is high for a thin book. don’t loose your money.
Rating: 1 / 5
#5 by Michael N. Burch on July 5, 2010 - 6:39 am
I, too, can only give this book two stars, which is unfortunate, because had a little bit more care been taken this could have easily been a five-star book.
The main reason I can only give the book two stars is due to the same concerns that have been previously expressed…the code and style sheets are not in sync with the text of the book (and I’m only in Chapter 2). I’ve had to constantly replace the code and style sheets I’ve typed in from the book with the code and style sheets downloaded from the site. More often than not, changes have been made to the code or style sheets as the book progresses without the author even indicating that such changes have been made. This is not something that someone who has purchased this book should have to contend with.
Rating: 2 / 5