Managing Your Joomla Site: 101

Getting Help

 When you run into something unexpected, email is always the fastest path to a fix.

Email:  [email protected]

When you write in, include:

• Your organization name and the URL of your site

• A clear description of what you need or what went wrong

• A link to the specific page you are working on

• A screenshot of what you are seeing

• Any error messages that appeared

Free monthly trainings:  Register at thirdsun.com/support

Getting Started

Logging In

1. Go to yoursite.com/administrator in your browser

2. Enter your username (all lowercase) and password

3. Click Log in — you will land on the Control Panel dashboard

Dashboard

1. Your dashboard should have been customized with your most commonly used tools, and may not look exactly as above.

2. Often used links are repeated along the left sidebar.

3. The full menu to all options available to you are in the top menu.

4. The "Third Sun Support" box highlight how to get help and may be customized with specific instructions for your site as well.

5. Tools for managing Caches are along the top

   1. "Clear Cache" cleans the site caches - always your first step

   2. "Invalidate Cache" should force your browser to freshly load the site

   3. You may need to manually clear YOUR browser cache

6. The button on the far right top will open the front end of the site - and will allow you to open directly to an article when you are editing it.

7. Finally, the dashboard CAN be customized for often or commonly used articles, modules, etc. Just ask!

Quick Reference

Articles and Categories

Finding an Article

Publishing and Unpublishing

• From articles, you can click the "green check mark" to unpublish an article

• Click the "grey x" to publish an article

• If you are not seeing unpublished articles, change your status filter settings.

Creating a New Article

Categorizing

• Every article belongs to a category — choose it from the Category dropdown on the right side of the editor

• If you are not sure which category to use, look at a similar existing article and match it

• Contact support if you think you need a new category created

Versions

Formatting Articles 101

Style Guide

To access a view of all styling on your site, go to yoursite.com/style-guide or click on the "Style Guide" quick link on your dashboard.

Headings

• H1 is your page title — it is set automatically from the article title. Do not use H1 anywhere in the body.

• Start with H2 for your first section, then Heading 3 underneath it, then Heading 4, and so on

• Never skip heading levels (do not jump from H2 straight to H4)

• Headings in order help screen readers navigate and improve accessibility for all visitors

• Heading 4 is commonly used for staff titles

Tip: If in doubt about which heading to use, look at how another page handles a similar piece of content.

Basic Formatting

Line Breaks

• Enter = new paragraph (adds extra space below the line)

• Shift + Enter = line break (stays visually tight with no extra space — useful inside a heading or for addresses)

Bullets or Number Lists

• Enter your text with hard returns between the lines you want to bullet point (or number).

• Select the lines and click the Unordered List or Ordered List icons.

Bold, Italics, or Underlines

• Use Bold and Italics sparingly for impact.

• Avoid Underlining as it can make the text look like a hyperlink. 

Columns

Columns are a great way to organize your information-dense pages to reduce scrolling and they automatically stack on mobile.

Links

Buttons

Images - Intro/Full Article Images and Images in Content

Image Size and General Formatting

File requirements for all images:

• Minimum width: 1,600 px

• Resolution: 72 dpi

• File size: 200–300 KB is ideal; under 1 MB is required

• Format: JPG or PNG

Alt Text:

• Always add alt text for every image

• Alt text is the description a screen reader speaks aloud and what search engines index

• Write it as a sentence describing what is in the image, not just a file name

• Example: Three volunteers planting trees at Liberty Park — not "volunteer-photo.jpg"

Extras

Accordions/Tabs

Embed Codes (Newsletters, Maps, etc.)

YouTube Videos

Ordering -Staff Pages

Menus

Best Practices

• Your site is not a flier. Avoid posting images with text baked in — they are invisible to screen readers and nearly unreadable on mobile.

• Left-align your body text. Centered text is harder to read at length.

• Use heading order sequentially — never skip a level. H2, then H3, then H4.

• Do not bold, underline, or italicize entire paragraphs. Emphasis loses meaning when it is everywhere.

• Keep formatting consistent across all pages. Visitors notice inconsistency even when they cannot name it.

• Make sure images are sharp before uploading. Blurry or stretched photos undermine trust.

• When in doubt, copy formatting from a page that already looks right.

• When something feels risky or you are not sure — email support. That is what we are here for.

Custom Site Features

Each site is customized to our client's needs. If you can't find the tutorial you're looking for, please email [email protected] and we will help you out!