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Go to the UserToolbar page on the Joomla Extensions Directory site and click Download.

You'll be taken to Joomlacode.org. Click on the link under "Files" and a file will be sent to your computer.

In the administrator area of your Joomla site, go to Extensions >> Install/Uninstall and click Browse. Find the file you just downloaded and then click Upload FIle & Install.

You should see a Congratulations message show that you've installed the component successfully.

Once you've installed the component, go to Components >> UserToolbar >> Button List

Click New in the top-right corner.

Here you can choose what you'd like to add to the toolbar on your site. In this example we'll choose an Internal Link.

Next we'll click on Articles, but in reality we could choose any element of our site.

Click Article Layout just as you would when creating a menu link.

You'll now see a very slightly modified version of the menu creation page. You can click on Select Article to find the page you want to link to. You can also enter a name that people will see on the front of the site. Finally, click the Icon link to choose from the default images or upload your own.

In this next example we're going to add a login module to the toolbar. In Components >> UserToolbar >> Button List >> New you can choose to add a Module.

Choose Login on the next page.

Now you'll see a modified version of the Login Module page. You can set a name and choose an icon as before. Save your choices.

Visit the front of your site and your toolbar will look like the one above. You can add many more items, linking to almost any page on your site or someone else's site. A common use for these toolbars is to add contact links plus social website links such as Facebook and X / Twitter.

Click on the Login link and you'll see the login box displayed in a pop-up.

Go to the SplashR listing on the Joomla Extensions Directory and click Download.

Go to the administrator area of your site then Extensions >> Install/Uninstall, click Browse and upload the module file.

Then go to Extensions >> Module Manager and open up the SplashR module.

There are several settings you'd need to change here:

• Splash URL: the page you want to use for the splash screen.
• Splash Title: telling people what site they're visiting.
• Autohide Timer: setting this to 0 forces people to click through to your main site.

Once you enable the module, visitors to your site will see a screen like the one above. There will be a black bar across the top of the screen and a button in the top-right corner.

If you'd like to edit the design of the splash controls, go to this folder to replace the images: /modules/mod_splashr/assets/images/

Go to the Simple Subscribe page on the Joomla Extensions Diretory and click "Download".

There should be a huge download button on the developer's website. Download the file to your desktop and then go to Administrator >> Extensions >> Install/Uninstall to upload the extension.

Configuring Simple Subscribe is easy. Go to Components >> Simple Subscribe. Then enter your PayPal information, the cost of membership and the currency code. If you aren't sure what the right code for your currency is, check this list.

Next you'll need to make a sign-up link for people. Go to Menus >> Main Menu and click "New".

Choose "Simple Subscribe" and "Default Layout" from the dropdown menu.

Give the menu link a title such as "Join Our Site" and then click "Save".

As soon as people click "Subscribe" they will be taken to PayPal where they can complete their subscription.

There are a couple of extra fixes you'll need to make to make Simple Subscribe work perfectly. First, we're going to prevent people from registering without paying. Go to Extensions >> Module Manager and disable the "Login Form" module.

Instead of the default login module, we're going to use the Core Design Login Module. You can download it using the previous link to the Joomla extensions site. Download the file to your desktop and upload it via Administrator >> Extensions >> Install/Uninstall

Go to Extensions >> Module Manager >> Core Design Login module and open that module.

Under "Advanced Parameters", set "Define Links" to Custom - specify below". This means that people can't use the normal Joomla registration system to pay. They have to go through Simple Subscribe. In the "New Account Link" field you can enter this: index.php?option=com_simplesubscribe&view=register

There is a small language mistake that appears on the Simple Subscribe registration screen.

To fix it, go to this file /components/com_simplesubscribe/views/register/tmpl/default.php

You'll need to find this line at the bottom of the file:

<?php echo JText::_( 'REGISTER_REQUIRED' ); ?>

Either remove the line entirely or change the "REGISTER_REQUIRED" so that it reads "Required fields are marked with a *"

In your Joomla administrator area, create your articles as you would normally.

One thing to note is that you will need a special Section and Category for these articles, so be sure to create a category called "Slider News", "Headline News" or similar.

Visit the Content Slider Module page on the Joomla Extensions Directory and click Download.

You'll be taken to the extension developer's website. Scroll down to the find the latest version which at the time of writing is Version 1.3. You'll get a file on your desktop with a name very similar to mod_slider_1-3.zip.

In the administrator area of your Joomla website, go to Extensions >> Install/Uninstall, click Browse and upload the mod_slider_1-3.zip file.

Staying in the administrator area of your Joomla site, click Extensions >> Module Manager and search for the "Content Slider Module".

Choose the section and category in which you created all your articles. Set "Show Title" to "No" and set "Enabled" to "Yes".

On the front of your site the module will now display. It's unlikely to be perfectly set up the first time you do it. If text is being cut-off, you'll need to go back to your module:

Change the width and the height of the module to fit your template space.

Inside each article there will be a "Reset" button on the right-hand side to change your hits back to zero.

In order to reset all the hits for your site, you'll need to access your database. First of all, we need to double-check the name of the database we're using.

Go to Site >> Global Configuration and click on Server.

On the right-hand side under Database Settings, make a note of both your Database and Database Prefix.

We'll now need to access our database. Many hosting companies will give you access via phpMyAdmin. If you don't know how to get there, ask your hosting company.

Once you are inside phpMyAdmin, click on your database name that you found in the previous step. Then click on "SQL" at the top of the page.

Enter this code into the box:

update jos_content set hits = 0

The default Joomla offline page has a large Joomla logo and the message "The site is down for maintenance. Please check again soon."

In order to to start changing the page, go to the Administrator area of your website, click "Site" and then "Media Manager".

Click the red X next to the file called joomla_logo_black.jpg. We're going to delete that file so that you can upload your own.

Here's the thing ... you must make sure that the file you're uploading is also called joomla_logo_black.jpg. If it isn't yet, rename it.

At the bottom of your screen, click "Browse" to find the image on your desktop. Then click "Start Upload". If your image had uploaded successfully you should be able to visit the front of your site and see the new logo.

If you'd like to change the text that appears on your offline page, go to Site >> Global Configuration and you can edit two area:
- Offline Message
- Site Name

Click Save when you're done and visit your new offline page: