Joomla! has been a very powerful tool from its earliest days. However, the place where you control all that content managing power—the backend administration area—hasn't always been particularly user-friendly. The menu arrangement would sometimes force you to switch back and forth between administration screens to perform simple tasks. For example, if you needed to change an item on one of the site menus, you had to open the menu and then the associated menu module to affect the revision—often repeatedly.
In Joomla! 1.6, the administration area has been redesigned—but the real changes are more than skin deep. All kinds of little usability improvements help you to get things done more efficiently. Let's find out what the main improvements are:
Before you start: choosing a safe username
Changes in the backend interface
Top five time-saving features
New ways to trash and delete items
Changing the looks of the backend