What is Joomla!?

Joomla! is one of the most powerful Open Source Content Management Systems on the planet which will help you build websites and other powerful online applications. It is used all over the world for everything from simple websites to complex corporate applications. Joomla! is easy to install, simple to manage, and reliable.

What is a Content Management System?

A content management system is a computer software system for organizing and facilitating
collaborative creation of documents and other content. A content management system is frequently a web application used for managing websites and web content.

The basic Joomla! package is designed to be easy to manage, even for non-programmers. Most people have no trouble running the software.

Once Joomla! is installed and running, it is simple for even non-technical users to add or edit content, upload and add images and to manage the critical data that makes your company or organization go. Anybody with basic word processing skills can easily learn to manage a Joomla! site.

Via a simple, browser-based interface you will be able to easily add new press releases or news items, manage staff pages, job listings, product images, and create an unlimited amount of sections or content pages on your site.

Out of the box, Joomla! does a great job of managing the content needed to make your website sing. However, for many people, the true power of Joomla! lies in the application framework that makes it possible for thousands of developers around the world to create powerful add-ons and extensions. Here are just some examples of the hundreds of available extensions:

• Dynamic form builders
• Business or organizational directories
• Document management
• Image and multimedia galleries
• E-commerce and shopping cart engines
• Forums and chat software
• Calendars
• Blogging software
• Directory services
• Email newsletters
• Data collection and reporting tools
• Banner advertising systems
• Subscription services

and many, many more…

You can find more examples over at the growing Joomla! Extensions Directory at http://extensions.joomla.org. Prepare to be amazed at the amount of exciting work produced by the active developer community!