Chapter 9, "Creating a Pure CSS Joomla 1.5 Template," will take you through the steps to create a Joomla! template that uses cascading style sheets (CSS) to produce a layout without the use of tables. This will help produce a fast loading site that will perform will in the search engines. This chapter is more for the technically minded user, but nothing too hard to learn.

Chapter 10, "Creating a School Site with Joomla 1.5," is all about building a medium to large website. This shows the power and flexibility of a Joomla! as opposed to a traditional site. This chapter defines the need for a school site and the fact that there is a defined body of content and the different groups that you have to get the information to

Chapter 11, "Creating a Restaurant Site with Joomla 1.5," is really about creating a small business web site. It begins with a needs analysis and how to organize content including adding photos and what further extensions could be used. This kind of site represents a site that needs fixed content but yet wants to add interactivity to make the site interesting enough to come back to regularly. Some of the features here include an image gallery, calendar, newsletters, and the use of Google maps.

Chapter 12, "Creating a Blog Site with Joomla 1.5," examines how blogs today are much different than they were when they were created as a personal diary. Now, instead of being devoted to an entire website, many times they are part of a website. While being a communications medium that contain brief posts about a particular subject, they are also a medium in which the author(s) communicate in the first person, on a one-on-one level with the visitor allowing the user to relate to the writer on a familiar basis.

Joomla!: A User's Guide is written for those who are on a beginner to intermediate level with Joomla! and CMS in general. It provides an excellent introduction and will get you up and running in no time. I really liked the way it thoroughly explains the lay out of the content and how to organize a site. I also like how you are taken through three different types of sites and shown how to develop each type. These are not just a couple of pages on each, development of the three sites encompasses over 90 pages of the book.

Joomla!: A User's Guide is logically organized and will lead you from the basic concepts to running a Joomla! site in no time. I think that Joomla!: A User's Guide will find a place on many a shelf as not only is it a good guide, but serves as is a great reference book to building and maintaining a Joomla! web site.