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Now that we've discussed section and category blogs, let's look at front page blog layouts.

Functionally, they're very similar to the section and category blog layouts. The major difference here is that instead of choosing a section or section/category to display on the front page (home page), you assign individual articles to appear on the front page.

In the Article Manager (column labeled "front page"), or within an individual article, you can choose to display an item on the front page. By default, the choice is no.

All items chosen for the Front Page then show up in the Front Page Manager, under the Content menu. If you choose to display those articles in a specific order that you set, you can order them here in the Front Page Manager, and that ordering will be reflected. (This assumes you have picked the "ordering" option in the menu parameters.)

Essentially, all parameters under the menu item for the Front Page Blog Layout follow the conventions for section and category blogs.

When you install Joomla, even if you don't install the sample data, you will get one single menu item created, which is a Home link. The home link will connect to a Front Page Blog Layout. You can also create a front page blog via the Menu manager.

But here's the big secret: you do NOT have to keep the home page item linked to a Front Page Blog Layout. This is definitely in the top 10 list of misconceptions about Joomla.

If you simply want some introductory text on your home page, typically you would create this as an article. Many developers then turn on the "show on front page" option, the article shows on the front page, and you're done.

However, it doesn't have to work that way -- and in fact, Barrie North has said using the front page blog may hurt your search engine rankings due to the bloated code it uses by default.

Think about it -- if you want one article on the home page, only one article, and it's not going to change and you're not going to add to it -- why not just change your home page from "front page blog layout" to "article layout"? It's very easy to do. Simply click on the "home" link within the Menu Manager, then click the "change type" button near the top of the editing screen on the left side of the page. Change the type to "article layout", choose your article, save, and you're done!

Likewise, your home page could be any other menu type -- section or category blogs or listings, a web links page, a contact page, etc. Some of these certainly make more sense than others from a content perspective, but you CAN use any type of technology you want. (But, of course, just because you CAN doesn't mean you SHOULD -- apply some common sense logic to the construction of your site!)

And finally, the biggest hack of all where this is concerned. Just because it's called "Front Page Blog Layout" does NOT mean it must run on a link called Home that takes you to the home page of your website. You could call this link "cool stuff" or "latest news" and run it three levels deep in your menu structure. The only thing that makes this a "front page" item is that Joomla creates a link called Home that is a type of Front Page Blog Layout in the initial installation. Joomla uses the term "front page" consistently throughout the site to refer to this functionality. BUT -- you could train your client that "front page" means "cool stuff". Anytime they want something to show on the "cool stuff" page, they can check off the "show on front page" option, and what it really does is show on the "cool stuff" page, which is buried three levels deep in the menu hierarchy.

And, in theory, you could edit some language files to change "front page" occurrences to "cool stuff" occurences throughout the back end. But I'm not totally sure how to do that (please comment if you do) or that it's totally possible (though I suspect it is)!