Joomla · Joomla Setup

Joomla 1.6 – Change Order of Featured Articles

Now that I found where the features articles are, how can I change the ordering of the articles showing up on the front page?  This was easily done in Joomla 1.5.  There were arrows where you could manually slide the articles up and down the page.  You could also change the ordering by changing the number beside the article.   Sometimes this wouldn’t work so I would just use the arrows to physically move them up or down the article ladder.    Now that I’m looking at the new featured articles article menu, I don’t see the arrows anymore.  So how can I change the ordering of the featured articles manually?  I can’t even change the numbers in the “ordering” column.  The numbers are all greyed out.

Here is how:

1.  Go to your Joomla 1.6 administrator backend.

2.  Click on ‘Content’, ‘Featured Articles’, look at the right side and click on the ‘Options’ button.

3.  In the “Article Manager Options”, go to the tab “Blog/Featured Layouts”

4. If you are using Joomla 1.6 – Change Dropdown labeled “Category Order” = “No order”    (Thanks to Nils for the update – This is for Joomla 1.6)

If You are using Joomla 1.6.3

  • Go to ‘Shared Options’ tab
  • Set ‘Category Order’ = ‘No Order”

5.  Change Dropdown labeled “Article Order” =  “ordering”.

6.  Save your Article Manager options.

This is to activate the ability to edit the numbers in the “Ordering” column to change the ordering of your articles, it does not allow you to make any changes yet.  Don’t forget this important step:

7.  Click on the column title ‘ Ordering’

This will actually make the text boxes  editable and you can numerically position your articles as you want them to appear.  If you only have 5 articles published and featured, Position ‘1’ means it will be the first article at the top and position ‘5’ will be the last or very bottom article on your Joomla 1.6 website.

8.  Change ordering number in the “ordering” column.

9.  Once done, you will see a little save icon beside the ‘Ordering’ title.

10.  Click the little save button.

Refresh your Joomla 1.6 website and you will see the ordering changed on your front page.  This took me a while to understand.  I got confused at the part where I had to click on the title ‘Ordering’.   So that’s why I stress that point, otherwise you won’t be able to change the number of the ordering.  BTW you cannot drag and drop the articles or physically move them with your mouse to another position above (because I tried that too).  Only way to change the ordering of frontpage or featured articles is to go through the steps above.

Elaine

Elaine@cmsmind.com

54 thoughts on “Joomla 1.6 – Change Order of Featured Articles

  1. One thing you might add to your “How to” post is that the Category Order just above the Article Order in the Article Manager Options must be set to “No order”. Else, the Article Order will only be ordered for each category, and not for all articles.
    In other words:
    Category Order = No Order
    Article Order = Ordering

    I had that problem and did not find the answer to it by searching other sites. Thanks for a great post.

  2. Thank GOD!!! I spent FOUR HOURS trying to reorganize my featured articles before finding this web page and fixing it. I would never have been able to figure that out. I wish there was a book about Joomla that I could read from front to back, because I don’t have the slightest idea about this CMS.

  3. Hi, great but in my case I can’t find a Dropdown labeled “Category Order” under the tab “Blog/Featured Layouts”??? What I doing wrong?

    1. @armin, same for me. No drop down. Joomla 1.6.3

      Article Manager Options ->Blog/Featured Layout:

      These settings apply for blog or featured layouts unless they are changed for a specific menu item.
      # Leading Articles
      # Intro Articles
      # Columns
      # Links
      Multi Column Order
      The option below gives the ability to include articles from subcategories in the Blog layout.
      Include Subcategories

      I also have trouble ordering menu items 🙁

      1. Hi Mark and Armin,
        I noticed that this has changed in Joomla 1.6.3. So I made a modification to the post to help you guys. Hope that solves your problem.
        Let me know if you continue to have problems.
        Thanks for your visit!
        elaine

    2. Hi Armin,

      I made a modification to the post. These options look like it has changed in Joomla 1.6.3. Please see the updated section for #4. Hope that helps you.

      Thanks for your visit,
      elaine

  4. somehow it won’t work for me 🙁 template beez 2, changing those options seems to don’t have any effect at all, nothing changes in the Home… i thought the issue was on my site where i slighltyplayed with the positions so i tried with a fresh installation of Joomla, unfortunately i have the exact behaviour, nothing happens changing these… argh!

    1. This solution did not work for me in Joomla 1.6.3 either.

      Or maybe my problem was that I wasn’t clicking the “save” (floppy disk) icon in the “order” column header????!!!!!

      1. Hi Robert,
        That fix is actually a copy from my site. You can either use the arrows or numbers for ordering your articles. Both will work. and yes, remember to click on the “floppy disk’ icon to save your changes.
        Thanks for your visit,
        elaine

  5. Thank you so much for this article. I was looking for this for weeks…

    Is there also a possibility to lock an article on the first place, so newer articles will be always published below the locked article?

    Smika

    1. Hi Smika,
      I’m glad the post helped you. I’m creating a new post to help you making an article “sticky” to the top. Should be up by end of the day.
      Thanks for your visit,
      elaine

  6. Hi .. I’m having such a hard time to find a newspaper template basically Im looking for a template that has three columns. two wide columns in the sides and a slim one in the middle. I have been all afternoon looking in free sites with no luck. Have u seen this type of format by any chance? (Joomla 1.6)
    Thank you!!

    1. Hi Trice,
      I know of a few news and magazine templates that have that format. I will create some posts for you. I did create one post for you already but it’s not a free theme for Joomla 1.6. I’ve posted the article on my other site the-themes.com. You can see the post here.
      thanks for your visit,
      elaine

  7. Hi Elaine. Thank you very much for your help. The site you pointed out looks interesting but I might need something a little more simplier. I have three questions I would appreciate if you can put my knwledge in the right track:
    1. Basically the template I need will look close to this one:

    Basically I need just the title of the newspaper at the top and three columns falling down: LEFT with news, MIDDLE with horoscope, dollar eschange info, classified notes and RIGHT with advertising.
    2. Do you know where can I find some documentation about how to position and resize FEATURED articles? I have the idea I dont need menus to create this site and certainly Im having such a hard time to understand how to position E.g. Article#1,#3 in left col, article#2,#5 in Middle column and Article#4,#6 in Left column. Thanks to your explanation I know how to arrange but only vertically not accross.
    3. The templates I’ve tried to learn with look very different after I download them and try to work with them. The ones for sale come with an explanation on how to arrange the content?
    Thank you very much for your help.

    1. Hi Trice,
      I didn’t quite understand your article positions, they seemed kind of random. Mentally picturing it….
      1 2 4
      3 5 6
      I created a post on how to tile your articles horizontally…you can check it out here.
      I will help you find other templates when I have some time… 🙂
      thanks for your visit!
      elaine

  8. Hi Elaine,
    Now that I know how to handle the layouton the template I’m figuring maybe I wont need to find a template as the beez2_default template is giving me all I need except for one thing… do you know if there is a way to rezise the width of the columns on featured articles on such template?
    Thank you and best regards.

  9. Hy Elaine, the steps from your article don’t work for me, i’ve changed everything but nothing happens. I just posted another article and made it featured but wanted to move it down, make it the second article and it wont work. Any ideas?

  10. This worked great – just had to re-read the instructions as my first go had skipped a step.

    Many thanks for posting this. – Conn, Dublin

  11. Using 1.6.3. I followed your most recent instructions and was able to save the feature articles in the desired order. The only problem is that, when the front page reloaded, it ignored the adjusted ordering. Clearing cache did not help. Only one article is misplaced. It is the article with the most recent modifcation date. Any thoughts?

  12. I spent 2hours of my precious time today, going through articles on Joomla related sites.
    Most of these articles were protracted and convoluted. The fact that I am new to Joomla does not help either.
    However your instruction were crisp, easy to understand and well illustrated.
    Thank you for not allowing me pull out my hair in frustration.

    1. Hi Linda,
      I’m glad you found the posts helpful. 🙂 Welcome to the world of Joomla. If you have any questions feel free to leave me a comment or send me an email. I will try to get back to you.
      Thanks for your visit,
      elaine

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