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Message from Dean - May 8th 2007
I am currently testing out a new version of the APF Bridge Component - If you notice any errors within this demo store please drop me a line.
Joomla! Template Design: Create your own professional-quality templates with this fast, friendly guide: A complete guide for web designers to all aspects ... Joomla! 1.0.8 PHP Content Management System
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Books : Joomla! Template Design: Create your own professional-quality templates with this fast, friendly guide: A complete guide for web designers to all aspects ... Joomla! 1.0.8 PHP Content Management System
Rating:  -
I bought this book to learn how to create Joomla templates. Look at chapters 1, 2 and 3. NOT A SINGLE WORD HOW YOU DO IT.
In chapter Two 3 screenshots how you can change the Rhuck template without coding. But nothing as how this gets done.
In chapter Three the author has the nerve to start with "We continue with our modified Rhuck template" - the changed template he forgot to describe in chapter Two.
Yes, very useful information about what I don't want to know about. Like which color picker to choose, this is a nice editor, that is a great photo editor, and you set it up like this.
Sorry, but if I want to learn how the NVU editor or Dreamweaver works, I look for different titles. That has nothing to do with coding templates.
I expect some guidance as how to change the template css, the related images and the module positions so a newbie template editor can get acquainted with the beginnings.
In fact, if you try on your own, you will find that the author KNOWS you're going to run into trouble on page 15. He describes the area below the top=newsflash as 'this area's space is hardcoded in the xhtml'. If you try to switch the menu's from left to right that little bit sits nicely in the way. The authors knows it, but doesn't care to mention it.
It's like learning English as a second language, and dumping the sonnets of Shakespeare on your desk with the remark "This is what you can achieve if you master the language."
The examples from the website? I tried to install the supplied templates, but even that doesn't work. A complete waste of money.
The book is very expensive. I'd expect a LOT more for this kind of money. Not the first time I am snookered out of money by Packt, but it is most certainly the last time.
For beginners this is worthless. You don't learn anything that you can't find on the Internet with some searching. Actually, I bought this book because I need to code a 1.0 template - and even there it fails miserably.
Barry North book "Joomla a user's guide" teaches a LOT more in a single chapter about creating templates.
Rating: -
I thought I would learn to make joomla templates. But this is just a makeover of one of the standard themes.
I read the entire book and didn't read anything new.
I could not imagine that the publisher of this book read it too, because he would have thrown it in a bin
Rating:  -
Joomla! Template Design covers a wide variety of topics in Web design and development, but fails to thoroughly cover the topic of the book. The topics covered range from coding to animation, with less than 10% about Joomla! templates.
As stated, the book is targeted at Web designers, yet the author does not appear to be a designer, as the design of the template example lacks any modern design techniques or style. The single template example was not custom, as the book description promises, but a modification of the basic template that comes with Joomla!.
It is clear that the author is passionate about Web development and the Web standards movement. Unfortunately, the book is unfocused and fails to fulfill expectations.
Rating: -
I grabbed this book with great expectation, and hopeful to get started with Joomla! 1.5 template design, but after a few page turns this book turned out to be a big disappointment.
There's no 1.5 template coverage! The author gives an excuse regarding joomla 1.5 being in beta, and that you should never use beta software. Hum!?
It is filled with fluff and though there are a few useful tips, and tricks the same information is available for free on blogs and articles about Joomla!
This book gives you no bang for your buck. It is riddled with inaccuracies and half-though methodologies, looks rushed and incomplete.
I do not recommend this book. However it's not totally the author(s) fault. What the heck did the reviewers and the editor had in mind to print a book in this state?
If you want to support Joomla! you better donate the money to the Joomla! foundation or documentation team!
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