Some people prefer to leave the design aspect of their website till last, ensuring that they get all their content in first with a menu structure that suits them. I prefer to do it the other way, installing a Joomla Template first and then adding all the content and menu structure. In this article we will be installing a Joomla Template provided by YOOtheme, a template called 'Balance'.

YOOtheme offer a number of extensions (ZOO, Widgetkit, Icons) and templates (themes, skins etc) for both Joomla and Wordpress. ZOO, Warp and Widgetkit are available for free download with the other products being subscription based with their lowest subscription service priced at €39 for a period of 3 months.

Some other template clubs include:

• YOOtheme
• Shape5
• JoomlArt
• Rocket Theme

Choosing A Joomla Template

Depending on your website (business or personal) will / should greatly influence your template choice. If you are building a website for a business you need to consider your target audience are chose a template that suits your audience. Our target audience are users of the Joomla CMS, most of which are businesses so we design our company websites with light colours, with easy-to-read text, appropriate images where applicable. Colours that 'work well' with each other, no bold and 'in your face' colours, subtle colours.

How To Install A Joomla Template Part 1

When you purchase / download the template of your choice you will most likely be produced with a ZIP(.zip extension) folder. There may be additional download / installation notes about the template that you should read first, in most circumstances this '.zip' file will be used within the Joomla Installer. Log in to the Administrator area of your website and go to 'Extensions' -> 'Extension Manager'.

Click here to view the screen shot relating to browsing to the 'Extension Manager' within Joomla

Click here to view the 'Extension Manager'

How To Install A Joomla Template Part 2

Within the 'Extension Manager' you have three options available to you,

1. Upload Package File - This option is used when you have a ZIP folder on your machine. For this tutorial we will be using this option.
2. Install from Directory - If for some reason the ZIP file is to large you can upload the files to the server using an FTP client and this option to avoid any upload limits that are set on your server.
3. Install from URL - If your extension is located externally, say on Joomla as an Update Package you could use this option.

Because we are using the first option (Upload Package File) you will first need to click the 'Browse' button, a dialog box will appear which allows you to browse your machine and find the extension ZIP folder.

Click here to view the dialog box to browse your machine

Once we have found our ZIP folder we will then click the 'Upload & Install' button located to the right of the 'Browse' button. After waiting a couple of seconds you should receive a confirmation message, if you don't then either you have:

• Tried to install an un-allowed file extension
• A ZIP folder that is larger then the 'max upload size' of the server
• Tried to upload a ZIP folder that contains Joomla 1.5 contents

This instance we received a successful message and our Joomla template was installed.

Click here to see the successful message

How To Install A Joomla Template Part 3

Now that the template has been installed we then need to tell Joomla to use our newly installed template. For that we need to go to 'Extensions' -> 'Template Manager'. With the Template Manager we can see all of the installed templates, both for the Administrator area of our website and the Front End area of our website.

To tell Joomla to use our newly installed template we need to make it the 'default' template by doing any of the two options:

1. Click the 'checkbox' to the left of the templates name (a tick should be present once clicked) and them click the 'Make Default' button located next to the 'Edit' button near the top right of your screen.
2. Click the 'star' image which is located within the 'Default' column (third column from the right)

By doing one of the above actions you are telling Joomla to use the template that you made default, if in the future you want to change your template go into the 'Template Manager' and complete one of the above actions.

Click here to see how we get to the 'Template Manager'

Click here to see the list of installed templates

Click here to see how we tell Joomla to use our template

How To Install A Joomla Template Part 4

Now all you need to do is visit the Front End to make sure that your template is being used.

Click here to see our Front End with the template being used

As you will notice our website is empty, this is because all of our modules positions were set for the 'Beez' template. In a later article we will show you how to add menus, content and modules to your Joomla website.