- Select your article (required)
- Under Parameters (Component), you could override global article settings, so you could change whether certain items display or not, such as section name, author name, created date and time, PDF/Print/Email icons, hits, and so forth.
- Under Parameters (System), you could set a page title and whether it displayed, plus whether an image would display on the menu, as well as some other minor items. You could not upload your image from this interface, and images had to be stored in the images/stories folder.
Let’s compare that with Joomla 1.6. There’s so much more you can do with an individual menu item now.
- Select your article (required, under Required Settings)
- All of the same types of options under Article Options that you had under Parameters (Component) in Joomla 1.5
- It’s much easier to set up a menu item with an image in Joomla 1.6, under Link Type Options. Assign a title attribute and a custom CSS style to the link if you wish. Select the link image — even upload it to the Media Manager through this interface — and determine if you want the text of the menu title to display next to the image!
- Under Page Display Options, set a browser page title (i.e. the HTML title tag), and assign an optional page heading (formerly page title in Joomla 1.5). Assign a page class for styling if desired.
- New in 1.6, assign meta-keywords and meta-descriptions to the individual menu item. This is particularly helpful if you’re using Joomla’s blog or list layouts, where you may want meta information for that page, with separate meta information for articles.
- Assign modules within the menu item itself! (Yay!!!) You don’t have to go to the Module Manager to do this.
- Assign a template style to the page you create, without having to go to the Template Manager.
Adding these configuration features to individual menu items is a great addition to Joomla. There’s a few less steps for the average client to add a new page to their website as a result. What’s more, using Joomla 1.6’s ACL, you can lock your client out of the Module Manager and Template Manager… yet they can still assign modules and template styles to new menu items they might create.
The client gets improved usability and fewer steps to add items to the website. The developer keeps the client out of sensitive configuration areas in Joomla’s back end. It’s a win for everyone!
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