Joomla Tutorials: How to Use and Manage Sections and Categories

With a fresh Joomla install on your server, there are a few content section and categories already available under the news section. The categories available News, Newsflashes and FAQ's.

If you would like to categorize the articles on your joomla web site into topics other than these, you will need to create new sections and categories. Sections are broken into categories.

The reasons for organizing your articles into different sections and categories is to make them easier to link to and for users to find your article on a specific topic on your Joomla web site.

For example. If you want a link in your menu to all of your articles on home buying, you would want a section and category for home buying that you can link to.

How to add content sections in a Joomla web site:

1) Log in to your administration area at www.yoursitename.com/administrator

2) Across the top row of menus go to "Content"

3) Choose "Section manager" from the drop down menu

4) Click the "new" button at the top right of the page.

5) Enter the title and information for your new section.

6) Click the disk icon to save.

How o add new content categories to your Joomla web site:

To create new categories for your Joomla web site, you will need to make sure you create the correct section first (unless the categories will go under the "news" section that is already present in a fresh Joomla install).

1) Log in to your administration area at www.yoursitename.com/administrator

2) Across the top row of menus go to "Content"

3) Choose "category manager" from the drop down menu

4) Click the "new" button at the top right of the page.

5) Enter the title and information for your new category.

6) Choose the correct section your category will fall under.

7) Click the disk icon to save.

How to change a category or section on a previously published article on your Joomla web site:

To move an article to a different category or section:

1) Log in to your administration area at www.yoursitename.com/administrator

2) Go to "Content" in the row of menus across the top of the page

3) Choose all content items

4) Click the title of the article you wish to move

5) Use the drop down arrows to change the section and category at the top of the editing area.

6) Click the disk icon to save.

How to link to a content section or category in your Joomla web site menu:

1) Log in to your administration area at www.yoursitename.com/administrator

2) Go to "Menus" in the row of menus across the top of the page.

3) Choose the menu you want the link to appear in

4) Click the "new" button at the top right of the page.

You now have some options. You can choose a blog style display of your category items or a table. I prefer tables as it will list a table with all of the titles in that category, where as a blog will only display so many per page and makes the viewer wade through entire articles to find a title that catches their interest.

5) Choose the type of link you want. For example: "Blog: content section" will display all items within a given section in blog style. "Table: Content Category" will display a table with all of the titles in a given category.

6) After choosing the link, enter the name of the link (what viewers will click) and choose the content section and/or category you want the link to go to.

7) Click the disk icon to save.