First-time setup

Follow these steps in order the first time. You can finish in about 10 to 20 minutes.

1. Prepare articles

1. Create or choose article categories under Content > Categories.
2. Publish articles with titles and, where possible, intro images.
3. (Recommended) Add a published Articles Category Blog or Category List menu item for the parent category so article links stay short. Display in Menu can be No.

2. Create the module

1. Go to Content > Site Modules > New.
2. Select Easy Articles Grid.
3. Give it a Title (example: Home Articles Grid).
4. Choose a Position that exists in your template.
5. On the Menu Assignment tab, choose the pages where it should appear.
6. Set Status to Published.

3. Content tab (what articles load)

1. Select one or more Categories.
2. Leave Include Child Categories on if you use nested categories.
3. Set Count (items per page / per load), for example 6 or 9.
4. Pick Ordering (Newest is a good start).
5. Optionally read the Show link routing notice helper: it tells you whether Joomla can build short article links. Turn the switch off if you do not want that message.

4. Layout and Theme

1. On Layout, start with Grid, Columns 3, Gap 20.
2. On Theme, start with Classic.
3. Leave Apply Preset Defaults on when you try other layouts.

5. Behaviour (optional)

1. Set Pagination to Load more if you have more articles than Count.
2. Turn on Category filter and/or Live search only if visitors need discovery.

6. Save and check the front end

1. Click Save.
2. Open the assigned page in a new browser tab.
3. If something looks old, clear cache and hard-refresh (Ctrl+F5).

Student tip

Change one setting at a time, Save, then refresh the front end so you can see what each option does.