Working on a book!
- Details
- Posted: September 11, 2009
It's been way too long since I've posted, but that's because I'm spending many hours each day writing a book. Joomla! Start to Finish: How to Plan, Execute, and Maintain Your Web Site
Writing a book has definitely been the most challenging project I've had for quite a while. Knowing something and teaching it are always two separate things. You have to know what you're talking about at a very deep level to really teach it well.
I've also been learning a ton about Joomla, not to mention noticing a bunch of little usability problems that I'd overlooked for years. Why, for example, is there an option to "show hits" in the menu item for a Category Blog when there's no place that hits ever actually show in that layout? Why is it called Published in the Article Manager, but Enabled in the Module Manager?
Anyway, I'm having a great time, even though I don't have time for much else at the moment!
I am deeply grateful to my friends at Wrox for giving me this fantastic opportunity. And I am even more grateful and thrilled to have my old friend and longtime collaborator, Bill Tomczak, working as my technical editor. Bill and I have been teaching each other Joomla since the very beginning, and we've really thrived together through the years. (And bonus! We haven't killed each other yet!)
I was so excited to see the book listed on Amazon the other day. That really makes it a reality!
For those of you who have had me as an instructor before, nothing I have to say in this book is going to be particularly new to you. I'm teaching the same thing I have for years. You can't start building a website until you know your client, know what their strategy is for their organization, and understand what problems they're trying to solve with their website. Sometimes the website isn't the answer, and sometimes Joomla isn't the answer. Understand where your own strengths and weaknesses lie in the web development process, and hire people to help you where you're weak, whether that's graphic design, content development, HTML/CSS, template design, interface design, usability, client management, project management, custom programming... and the list goes on.
I'll be wrapping up this book in mid-October, then immediately moving to recording two more Lynda.com training videos, which will really be a blast.
By then, maybe I'll get a little time off. :-) Nah, there will be more websites to build by then, and another Marlboro College Web Applications class to teach in January!