Categories and Sections
From Joomla! Documentation
The "J1.5" namespace is an archived namespace. This page contains information for a Joomla! version which is no longer supported. It exists only as a historical reference, it will not be improved and its content may be incomplete and/or contain broken links.
This page's content makes references relevant only for Joomla! CMS Version(s) 
and earlier →The use of "Section" has been deprecated from
and later Versions, please use: Categories.Categories and Sections can be confusing in Joomla. Here is an explanation of how Categories and Sections work in the Joomla! CMS. The organization of a Joomla site goes Section / Category / Article. Every article MUST be in a category in a section. Every article MUST be assigned a category IN THAT SECTION before you can save the article, or it will have to be saved as Uncategorized.
- Planning your site (Think of the site as a Filing Cabinet with unlimited file drawers.)
- Break your content into sections first (Think of each section as individual file drawer which can hold unlimited file folders.)
- Then create categories you will want to use to sort articles within that section. (Think of each category as a file folder filled with sheets of paper, each is an article or the website's content page.)
If you are using Search Engine Friendly URLs for Search Engine Optimisation, the section and category names are incorporated into the URL.
Things to Remember[edit]
- If you have a category in one section, you may not use it in another; you have to create a similar category in the other section.
- You must create the category before you can put an article in it. You can't do it while you are writing an article.
- When you set up your Joomla! site, you can create as many sections and categories as you like, but try to be organised in the structure. You do not have to use everyone of them, nor create everyone of them when you set up the site.
- You can not have a category under a category. (Continuing with the above example, you can't put another file folder inside another file folder.)
Structure Example[edit]
- Pie recipes with Fruit(section)
- Apples (category)
- Aunt Edna's Apple Pie (article name)
- Another Piece Please! Apple Pice (article name)
- Pears (category)
- Peaches (category)
- Apples (category)
- Pie recipes with Fillings (section)
- Custard (category)
- Chocolate (category)