Joomla?

[dolmansaxlil]

Has anyone used Joomla for web design for a school?

I'm redesigning our school website as a summer project - trying to make it easier to update/manage and give teachers and administrators a way to update it. It's available with Fantastico through the web host that I use for my own webspace, so I can play with it before I commit. Any thoughts on it?

[scrivener]

The learning curve for Joomla is steep, but once you get the hang of it, it's a pretty cool web app. Different templates let you customize the look, and if you're into tweaking the code yourself, an onboard template editor lets you get into the CSS stuff without having to download, edit, and then upload.

Another huge plus is the massive number of third-party extensions available for Joomla, both free and fee. There are so many fun plug-ins to play around with that you can easily get distracted by them as you decide what to include in your own Joomla. That's a good problem to have.

I have three Joomla sites: two are active ('though sadly in need of updating) and one I only used last summer for my summer school kids. If you're interested, here (http://www.scrivenersudoku.com) is my sudoku site (the front end is using a third-party, paid-for extension called iJoomla Magazine), here (http://www.oahumathleague.org) is the site I run for the local math league, and here (http://www.alg1.net) is the website I used for my algebra 1 students this past summer (it was mostly for daily goal-setting and reflection).

Let me know if you need any help.

PS: Joomla does NOT play nicely with Safari, so if you're on a Mac and using Safari, do yourself a favor and download FireFox or Flock and use that for your Joomla work.