Using Multiple Templates in Joomla / Mambo

Just like Drupal, we could also use multiple templates with Joomla. But, compare to Drupal, using multiple templates or themes in Joomla or Mambo is much easier because we don't have to install additional module or components to do this.

Please note that Joomla templating system uses the ItemID to determine which template to show. This is why only menu items are shown in the list of pages to which you can assign templates. For an example, we are going to assign two different templates to our Joomla site.

For this example I'm using default Joomla instalation, with rhuk_solarflare_ii and madeyourweb Joomla templates. I'm going to assign rhuk_solarflare_ii for every menu except for the "News" menu. So, for the "News" menu we are going to assign madeyourweb template to it.

Ok, lets get on to it.

1. Login to the Administrator page.
2. Go to Site -> Template Manager -> Site Templates. You'll see a list of templates available, if you're using default Joomla instalation, you'll see madeyourweb and rhuk_solarflare_ii template on that list.

   

3. Because there will only be one menu using different template than the other menu, so we only going to change the madeforweb template assignment. Click on the radio button next to madeyourweb template's name, and click on the "Assign" icon on the top of your screen.
4. You'll see a list of all menu available on your Joomla site, because we only want to use madeyourweb template for the "News" menu, so select on the mainnenu | News, if you want to assign this template to other menu, just use Ctrl + Click so you can select multiple menu item.

   

5. If you're done, click on the "Save" icon.
6. That's it, you're done. To see the results, just click on the "News" menu on your Joomla frontend and see what happen.