What is a Content Management System (CMS)?

A content management system is software that keeps track of every piece of content on your Web site, much like your local public library keeps track of books and stores them. Content can be simple text, photos, music, video, documents, or just about anything you can think of. A major advantage of using a CMS is that it requires almost no technical skill or knowledge to manage. Content management systems also allow you to upload different web designs to your website and change them out with a click of your mouse button. Since the CMS manages all your content, you don't have to.

What is Joomla?

Joomla is an award-winning content management system (CMS) for websites, which enables you to manage your website through your browser window. Many aspects, including its ease-of-use and extensibility, have made Joomla the most popular website software available. Best of all, Joomla is an open source solution that is freely available to everyone.

What is WordPress?

WordPress is another highly popular open source (free) content management system, but is different from Joomla in that it is blogging software. Over the past few years however, Wordpress has been developed to be highly flexible and now is also used by many to build and maintain websites.

What is the Difference Between a Website and a Blog?

Website software such as Joomla gives you the most versatility in building, maintaining, and expanding your website. Blogging software such as WordPress was originally created to make it easy to post new articles on a regular basis. When you post a new article on a blog, that post is published in the top position of your home page automatically. Older posts on the Home page are then moved down one place with each new article published. Hence, your articles are published in reverse chronological order. WordPress also has the ability to create new individual pages with their own menu buttons. For small websites, this is sometimes a good choice if your are mainly going to be publishing text articles with or without photos in the main content area of the article. Updating is quick and easy. The drawback is you are somewhat limited in rearranging the order of your articles except by creating a menu button for each new article you want to arrange.

Website software such as Joomla, on the other hand, is far more versatile in categorizing and ordering of your website material. It is also easier to add additional functionality to your site for such things as photo galleries, sermon and audio downloads, guestbooks, forums, and other utilities for your website. Joomla also has the capability to list your articles in blog format like WordPress.

To learn more about Joomla and WordPress, visit their websites: Joomla.org and WordPress.org

Tutorials and Documentation

For Joomla

Joomla is a powerful and highly extensible content management system. When you login to a fully developed Joomla website with a lot of content for the first time, you might get blown away with all the features and menu buttons. When we set up a ministry website, we streamline it with your content to make it easier to find your way around the Administrator's control panel. Below are some links which show the features and also video tutorials.

Main website: Joomla.org
Documentation
Quick Start Guide
Absolute Beginner's Guide to Joomla
Video Tutorials
Getting Started with Joomla
Overview of the Administrator's Control Panel

Free Templates for Joomla

Joomla24.com has over 3000 free templates for Joomla websites...free to download and use on your website.

For WordPress

Main website: Wordpress.org
Documentation
Video Tutorials