1
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,000
In the previous video, I added this Contact page to the Web site, and this is the 

2
00:00:05,001 --> 00:00:07,001
way the Contact page currently looks. 

3
00:00:07,002 --> 00:00:11,002
I have my contact information listed at the top, and when I click on the Contact 

4
00:00:11,003 --> 00:00:15,003
Form here at the bottom, I have a very nice Contact Form available here. 

5
00:00:15,004 --> 00:00:20,004
But it's not a terribly attractive page, and I don't like the fact that the 

6
00:00:20,005 --> 00:00:23,005
Contact Form is hidden under this slider kind of thing. 

7
00:00:23,006 --> 00:00:25,006
I also really hate these icons. 

8
00:00:25,007 --> 00:00:28,007
They are dated from the Mambo days, I believe, 

9
00:00:28,008 --> 00:00:29,008
so they are at least seven years old. 

10
00:00:29,009 --> 00:00:31,009
So, I would like to take those out as well. 

11
00:00:31,010 --> 00:00:35,010
Let's take a look at how I can format this Contact page. 

12
00:00:35,011 --> 00:00:36,011
Here in the back-end of Joomla, 

13
00:00:36,012 --> 00:00:41,012
I am going to go to Components > Contacts > Contacts. 

14
00:00:41,013 --> 00:00:46,013
Then I am going to go to the Options item that's up here upper right corner, 

15
00:00:46,014 --> 00:00:52,014
and here inside of my Contact Options, I am going to change the settings for a few things. 

16
00:00:52,015 --> 00:00:57,015
First of all, my Display format, by default, is set to Sliders, and that is what 

17
00:00:57,016 --> 00:01:00,016
you see in action here on the front-end of the Web site. 

18
00:01:00,017 --> 00:01:02,017
Click on things, some things disappear, and other things reappear. 

19
00:01:02,018 --> 00:01:07,018
That was really cool for the articles, but I really don't like it on the Contact Form, 

20
00:01:07,019 --> 00:01:10,019
So I am going to change this display to Plain. 

21
00:01:10,020 --> 00:01:13,020
The other thing I would like to do is get rid of those icons. 

22
00:01:13,021 --> 00:01:17,021
So, here under the Icons tab, right now my setting is for Icons, but I don't 

23
00:01:17,022 --> 00:01:19,022
have any icons specified. 

24
00:01:19,023 --> 00:01:24,023
I can specify icons, I can upload icons, I can just upload new ones, and 

25
00:01:24,024 --> 00:01:29,024
specify which icons I want to associated with which fields here for my 

26
00:01:29,025 --> 00:01:30,025
contact information. 

27
00:01:30,026 --> 00:01:33,026
But really, I don't want any icons at all. 

28
00:01:33,027 --> 00:01:37,027
So I am just going to change my settings here from Icons to None. 

29
00:01:37,028 --> 00:01:41,028
Notice that text is also an option, but I think it's pretty self-explanatory 

30
00:01:41,029 --> 00:01:43,029
what the contact information is. 

31
00:01:43,030 --> 00:01:47,030
We have a US-based audience, who is used to looking at US-based addresses, 

32
00:01:47,031 --> 00:01:49,031
so I think the page is pretty self-explanatory. 

33
00:01:49,032 --> 00:01:51,032
I don't need any extra text. 

34
00:01:51,033 --> 00:01:57,033
Now I am going to say Save & Close, and when I refresh the front-end of the Web site, 

35
00:01:57,034 --> 00:02:02,034
now I have my contact information listed here at the top, and then underneath, I 

36
00:02:02,035 --> 00:02:08,035
have my contact e-mail form, and all of the icons are gone. 

37
00:02:08,036 --> 00:02:12,036
Now, you may still be kind of unhappy with the way this works, and looks, because 

38
00:02:12,037 --> 00:02:16,037
it does say Contact here, and Contact Form here; you might want to get rid of 

39
00:02:16,038 --> 00:02:18,038
those. You can get rid of those through CSS. 

40
00:02:18,039 --> 00:02:23,039
You can just sort of set those to display none, so that they don't appear here on the page. 

41
00:02:23,040 --> 00:02:28,040
You could certainly use CSS to alter the formatting of that address there at the 

42
00:02:28,041 --> 00:02:30,041
top of the page, and the alignment of the page. 

43
00:02:30,042 --> 00:02:35,042
Some people have asked me before about this contact form. A very common question 

44
00:02:35,043 --> 00:02:40,043
I get is, how can I add more fields to the form? Additional fields. Or take away 

45
00:02:40,044 --> 00:02:42,044
some of the fields, in some cases. 

46
00:02:42,045 --> 00:02:44,045
And unfortunately, the answer with the Joomla 

47
00:02:44,046 --> 00:02:47,046
contact form, this default one that comes with Joomla, 

48
00:02:47,047 --> 00:02:51,047
that's part of core; the answer is, you really can't. 

49
00:02:51,048 --> 00:02:55,048
It's quite involved if you're ever going to alter this, and there's really 

50
00:02:55,049 --> 00:02:56,049
no need to do that. 

51
00:02:56,050 --> 00:03:00,050
There are a number of really great contact form extensions that are out there. 

52
00:03:00,051 --> 00:03:04,051
You can build your own form using one of these third-party extensions. 

53
00:03:04,052 --> 00:03:08,052
The one I recommend strongly is called RSForm!Pro from a place 

54
00:03:08,053 --> 00:03:10,053
called rsjoomla.com. 

55
00:03:10,054 --> 00:03:11,054
It's a great extension. 

56
00:03:11,055 --> 00:03:16,055
It has a small price tag associated with it, but it's well worth it, and you can 

57
00:03:16,056 --> 00:03:17,056
build your form to do just anything. 

58
00:03:17,057 --> 00:03:22,057
It'll also record everything from that form into a spreadsheet that you can then 

59
00:03:22,058 --> 00:03:27,058
export in CSV format, or you can look at it in Excel, or you can look at it in 

60
00:03:27,059 --> 00:03:31,059
Access, or whatever it is that you want to do with that data. 

61
00:03:31,060 --> 00:03:34,060
So, the form itself really can't be altered.