Joomla! Documentation™

A template is a type of Joomla! extension that changes the way your site looks. There are two types of templates used by the Joomla! CMS: Front-end Templates and Back-end Templates. The Front-end Template controls the way your website is presented to the user viewing the website's content. The Back-end Template controls the way your website's administrative tasks are presented for controlling management functions by a Joomla! Administrator. These would include common tasks such as: user, menu, article, category, module, component, plugin and template management.

See also: Component, Module, Plugin

See also: Extension types (general definitions)

Template Types

There are two types of templates used in a Joomla CMS powered website.

Front-end Templates

Front-end templates change the way your site looks to average users. Most of the templates you use or install will be Front-end Templates.

Back-end Templates

Back-end Templates are much rarer than Frontend Templates. You will probably never need to change your Back-end Template. Back-end Templates allow you to change the way the administrator interface looks.

Recommended Reading

Administrators

Joomla administrators should go to the page on Template Management for topics about managing your Joomla template or templates.

Developers

Joomla developers should go to the Template Development portal page for more topics on developing a Joomla template.

Finding More Information

• List of frequently asked Template questions
• List of articles in the Template category.