Review of Joomla! a Users Guide by Barrie North

Written by Steve Burge

Barrie North has been a prolific writer about Joomla over the last few years. This is a review of his latest book called "Joomla! a Users Guide" about how to run a Joomla 1.5 website.

Who is the Book for?

Joomla 1.5 site administrators. There are a couple of chapters on designing a template, but the bulk of the book is for people that want to learn how to manage and run their own Joomla websites. For professional Joomlers, its the kind of book you can provide to clients and save yourself some support emails.

Strengths

Barrie's writing style is easy-to-read and flows well.
Thoroughly illustrated. Especially in the early parts of the book, theres an illustration on every page.
The book is comprehensive - at over 420 pages, it clocks in at twice the size of some other Joomla guides.
There's an accompanying support forum for follow-up questions.

Weaknesses

It was written before the stable launch of 1.5 so things mentioned in the book have changed slightly.
The book does contain affiliate links (but then so does this blog post)

Overall Impression

This book is a quantum leap forward over Barrie's previous "Joomla! Admin Manual". How do I know? His previous book had a lot of the same flaws as my SEO Book when it was first published. It was a collection of blog posts rounded out into a book, with a lot of the normal problems of self-publishing including typos and substandard organization.

Barrie has worked hard on making this new book much better and enlisting the help of a professional publishing company has clearly paid off. "Joomla! a Users Guide" is 50% longer and has replaced the bloggy-style with slick text and clear organization. Readers seem to think so too - its now the best rated Joomla! book on Amazon.

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Your Comments (4)

Webhostingpad

February 24, 2008

I have bought this book and I 100% satisfy with this. The guideline is very clear and everything is there! thumb up!!! smilies/grin.gif

Mads N. Pedersen

May 27, 2008

I also bought Barries book and I overall think it is worth every penny - on page 213 (in the tip) Barrie states that one can go nd register at joomlaseobook.com - which redirects to alledia.com - and as a book buyer one should be able to download a seo friendly template override file here.

However, I cannot seem t find the acclaimed file anywhere... looking forward for a briefing on this!

Steve Burge

May 27, 2008

Hi Mads

Just opening my book ... Barrie does recommend alledia.com on some pages but P.213 says joomlabook.com for me.

Mads N. Pedersen

May 27, 2008

Reread the tip passage - and it states joomlabook - not joomlaseobook - must have gotten that mixed up somehow.

My bad - I'll go get so eye laser surgery asap!