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Step 3: Show

We need to show people our articles. We do that by making menu links to the articles.

  1. In the administrator drop-down menu, click Menus and then Main Menu. You will see a screen like Figure 5.14.

    Figure 5.14

    Figure 5.14 The Main Menu of your Joomla site

  2. Let’s add a new link to the Information articles we created earlier. Click the “New” button in the upper-left corner. You’ll see a screen like Figure 5.15. Whenever you create a menu link to any part of your site, you’ll always see this same screen.

    Figure 5.15

    Figure 5.15 Creating a new Joomla menu link

  3. Click the blue “Select” button, as in Figure 5.16. This will allow you to decide which part of the site to link to.

    Figure 5.16

    Figure 5.16 Choosing which type of menu link to create

  4. The pop-up screen presents you with all sorts of different options. Each one allows you to link to a different part of your Joomla site. You could link to a contact form, a search box, a registration form, or many other features. We want to link to one of the articles we created earlier, so click Articles and choose Single Article, as in Figure 5.17.

    Figure 5.17

    Figure 5.17 Choosing to link to a single article

  5. We have just chosen to link to a single article. Now let’s choose which article. Click the “Select” button, as in Figure 5.18.

    Figure 5.18

    Figure 5.18 Choosing which article to link to

  6. You’ll see another pop-up box. Click the “Climate” article, as in Figure 5.19.

    Figure 5.19

    Figure 5.19 Choosing to link to the “Climate” article

  7. Enter Climate in the Menu Title field. Your screen should look like Figure 5.20.

    Figure 5.20

    Figure 5.20 Your menu link to the “Climate” article

  8. Click Save & Close to complete the creation of your menu link.
  9. Visit the front of your site and look for your new Climate link in the Main Menu, as in Figure 5.21.

    Figure 5.21

    Figure 5.21 Your new menu link

  10. Click the Climate link, and you should see your new article published on your site, as in Figure 5.22.

    Figure 5.22

    Figure 5.22 Your “Climate” article published on the site

That’s it. You’ve done it! Both you and your visitors can see that new article on your site.

Now that we’ve created a menu link once, let’s go back and create more links while the steps are still fresh in your mind. Let’s link to our “Location” article. Go ahead and follow these steps:

  1. Click Main Menu under the Menus drop-down menu.
  2. Click the “New” button in the upper-left corner.
  3. Click the “Select” button next to Menu Item Type, and you see a pop-up screen.
  4. Click Articles and then Single Article.
  5. Click the “Select” button next to Select Article, and you see a pop-up screen.
  6. Click Location.
  7. Enter Location in the Menu Title field. Check that your menu link looks like Figure 5.23.

    Figure 5.23

    Figure 5.23 Your menu link to the “Location” article

  8. Click Save & Close to complete the creation of your menu link.
  9. Visit the front of your site and look for your new Location link on the left in the Main Menu.
  10. Click the Location link, and you see your new article published on your site, as in Figure 5.24.

    Figure 5.24

    Figure 5.24 Your “Location” article published on the site

Congratulations, you’ve done it again! You and your visitors can see two of your new articles on the site.

You’ve done great so far. Are you feeling brave? I’m going to set you a challenge: See if you can make a menu link to your “History” article. To do so, you follow exactly the same process as we just did for the “Climate” and “Location” articles. Figure 5.25 shows the end result that we’re aiming for. If you get stuck, the specific steps you should take to complete this task are at www.joomla3explained.com/chapter5.

Figure 5.25

Figure 5.25 Your “History” article published on the site

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