The content component (com_content) is what you use to write articles. It is extremely flexible and has the largest number of built in views. Articles can be created and edited from the front end, making content the easiest component to use to create your site content. Help

The contact component provides a way to provide contact forms and information for your site or to create a complex directory that can be used for many different purposes. Help

Joomla! 2.5 offers two search options.

The Basic Search component provides basic search functionality for the information contained in your core components. Many extensions can also be searched by the search component. Help

The Smart Search component offers searching similar to that found in major search engines. Smart Search is disabled by default. If you choose to enable it you will need to take several steps. First, enable the Smart Search Plugin in the plugin manager. Then, if you are using the Basic Search Module replace it with the Smart Search Module. Finally, if you have already created content, go to the Smart Search component in your site administrator and click the Index icon. Once indexing of your content is complete, Smart Search will be ready to use. Help.

News Feeds (com_newsfeeds) provides a way to organize and present news feeds. News feeds are a way that you present information from another site on your site. For example, the joomla.org website has numerous feeds that you can incorporate on your site. You an use menus to present a single feed, a list of feeds in a category, or a list of all feed categories. Help

The users extension lets your site visitors register, login and logout, change their passwords and other information, and recover lost passwords. In the administrator it allows you to create, block and manage users and create user groups and access levels. Help

Please note that some of the user views will not display if you are not logged-in to the site.

Weblinks (com_weblinks) is a component that provides a structured way to organize external links and present them in a visually attractive, consistent and informative way. Help

All components are also used in the administrator area of your website. In addition to the ones listed here, there are components in the administrator that do not have direct front end displays, but do help shape your site. The most important ones for most users are

• Media Manager
• Extensions Manager
• Menu Manager
• Global Configuration
• Banners
• Redirect

Media Manager

The media manager component lets you upload and insert images into content throughout your site. Optionally, you can enable the flash uploader which will allow you to to upload multiple images. Help

Extensions Manager

The extensions manager lets you install, update, uninstall and manage all of your extensions. The extensions manager has been extensively redesigned, although the core install and uninstall functionality remains the same as in Joomla! 1.5. Help

Menu Manager

The menu manager lets you create the menus you see displayed on your site. It also allows you to assign modules and template styles to specific menu links. Help

Global Configuration

The global configuration is where the site administrator configures things such as whether search engine friendly urls are enabled, the site meta data (descriptive text used by search engines and indexers) and other functions. For many beginning users simply leaving the settings on default is a good way to begin, although when your site is ready for the public you will want to change the meta data to match its content. Help

Banners

The banners component provides a simple way to display a rotating image in a module and, if you wish to have advertising, a way to track the number of times an image is viewed and clicked. Help

Redirect

The redirect component is used to manage broken links that produce Page Not Found (404) errors. If enabled it will allow you to redirect broken links to specific pages. It can also be used to manage migration related URL changes. Help

H1 ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmonpqrstuvwzyz

H2 ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmonpqrstuvwzyz

H3 ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmonpqrstuvwzyz

H4 ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmonpqrstuvwzyz

H5 ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmonpqrstuvwzyz

H6 ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmonpqrstuvwzyz

P The quick brown fox ran over the lazy dog. THE QUICK BROWN FOX RAN OVER THE LAZY DOG.

• Item
• Item
• Item
  
  • Item
  • Item
  • Item
    
    • Item
    • Item
    • Item

1. tem
2. Item
3. Item
   
   1. Item
   2. Item
   3. Item
      
      1. Item
      2. Item
      3. Item

 The Quick Icon plugin group is used to provide notification that updates to Joomla! or installed extensions are available and should be applied. These notifications display on your administrator control panel, which is the page you see when you first log in to your site administrator.

Default on:

• Quick icon - Joomla! extensions updates notification Help.
• Quick icon - Joomla! update notification Help

The Captcha plugins are used to prevent spam submissions on your forms such as registration, contact and login. You basic installation of Joomla includes one Captcha plugin which leverages the ReCaptcha® service but you may install other plugins connecting to different Captcha systems.

Default on:

• ReCaptcha help

Note: ReCaptcha is a the trademark of Google Inc. and is an independent product not associated with or endorsed by the Joomla Project. You will need to register and agree to the Terms of Service at Recaptcha.net to use this plugin. Complete instructions are available if you edit the ReCaptcha plugin in the Plugin Manager.

The search component uses plugins to control which parts of your Joomla! site are searched. You may choose to turn off some areas to improve performance or for other reasons. Many third party Joomla! extensions have search plugins that extend where search takes place.

Default On:

• Content Help
• Contacts Help
• Weblinks Help
• News Feeds Help
• Categories Help

System plugins operate every time a page on your site loads. They control such things as your URLS, whether users can check a "remember me" box on the login module, and whether caching is enabled. New is the redirect plugin that together with the redirect component will assist you in managing changes in URLs.

Default on:

• Remember me Help
• SEF Help
• Debug Help

Default off:

• Cache Help
• Log Help
• Redirect Help

The authentication plugins operate when users login to your site or administrator. The Joomla! authentication plugin is in operation by default but you can enable Gmail or LDAP or install a plugin for a different system. An example is included that may be used to create a new authentication plugin.

Default on:

• Joomla Help

Default off:

• Gmail Help
• LDAP Help

Default on:

• Joomla Help

Default off:

Two new plugins are available but are disabled by default.

• Contact Creator Help
  Creates a new linked contact record for each new user created.
• Profile Help
  This example profile plugin allows you to insert additional fields into user registration and profile display. This is intended as an example of the types of extensions to the profile you might want to create.

Editors are used thoughout Joomla! where content is created. TinyMCE is the default choice in most locations although CodeMirror is used in the template manager. No Editor provides a text box for html content.

Default on:

• CodeMirror Help
• TinyMCE Help
• No Editor Help

Default off:

• None

These plugins are the buttons found beneath your editor. They only run when an editor plugin runs.

Default on:

• Editor Button: Image Help
• Editor Button: Readmore Help
• Editor Button: Page Break Help
• Editor Button: Article Help

Default off:

• None

Content plugins run when specific kinds of pages are loaded. They do things ranging from protecting email addresses from harvesters to creating page breaks.

Default on:

• Email Cloaking Help
• Load Module Help
• Page Break Help
• Page Navigation Help
• Vote Help

Default off:

• Code Highlighter (GeSHi) Help