How do I show my Joomla frontpage as one column?

By default Joomla’s frontpage is set to 2 column, with one teaser article that is full width.  How can you change it to one column full width all the way down?

This is probably one of the most popular questions I get asked. I admit, It is a bit hard to figure this out without either knowing it already, or Googling it. Let me tell you the secret. read more…

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Don’t forget your meta

So you have your new website up and running.  Did you set your meta keywords yet?

After your site is all done and setup, it is easy to forget all about your meta keywords and your site name. If you didn’t do it when you set the site up initially, you may not notice it until it hits Google and you might be left with a goofy page description when people search for your site.

So, let me tell you how to change it. read more…

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How to switch between 1 and 3 column layout

When using a fixed width design, you always run into the problem of not having enough space to load a forum or gallery.

Now the typical work around would be to design two templates. One to use for the site (2 or 3 columns) and one to use for the forum / gallery or any other component that requires more space.

This method works, but is more of a hassle than it is worth, as it requires twice as much work and is not as effective as the method i am highlighting below. read more…

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How to recover your admin password

The passwords are stored using a one-way MD5 hash which prevents recovering the existing password, but you can reset it to a new password by editing the password field in the database.

The password is stored in the MySQL database jos_users table password field (change this for your table prefix if different). Use a MySQL utility such as phpMyAdmin or MySQL Query Browser to edit this field:

1. open the table
2. find your admin username and select that row for editing
3. set the password to a known value and then you may log-in using that new password. The password must be hashed, you cannot simply enter text into this field.

read more…

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Hiding a module position if no modules are assigned to it.

This basic “if” statement allows you to show or hide a module position, based on whether any modules are assigned to that page.
A typical example of this, would be that you want to show the “latest news” mod on your home page and not on

So, if you had a module assigned to your “user1″ position on your home page – the module would only show up on the home page
and not on any other the other pages.

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