Drupal 7 Tutorials | Video Training Course with Demos

Drupal is one of the most well-known and widely-used open source content management systems out there today, and it powers millions of sites and applications throughout the web. As of this posting, the latest version is Drupal 7, which was released on January 5, 2011. For those interested in learning its new features, lynda.com online tutorials has released a series of Drupal 7 tutorials. In Drupal 7 Essential Training, computer journalist Tom Geller presents a series of video tutorials that will show you how to get the most out of this powerful and robust content management system (CMS). By the end of the course, you will have learned the necessary skills that will enable you to build a website using Drupal. The course will go through the basics of how to download and install Drupal, add content and graphics to a site, change the layout and design elements, control visitor interactions, and expand the site's capabilities beyond what’s available in Drupal core. You'll also learn about established best practices to ensure that your site remains streamlined, secure, and up-to-date.

Watch these selected videos to get a good idea of the pace and flow of this course:

Drupal 7 Essential Training - Welcome

Drupal 7 Essential Training - Getting a Drupal site up fast

Drupal 7 Essential Training - Deciding whether to use Drupal

Drupal 7 Essential Training - Investigating Drupal's inner workings

Drupal 7 Essential Training - Understanding nodes

Drupal 7 Essential Training - Adding fields to content types

Drupal 7 Essential Training - Modifying image styles

Drupal 7 Essential Training - Selecting and installing downloaded themes

Drupal 7 Essential Training - Enabling styled text with a WYSIWYG editor

Drupal 7 Essential Training - Launching a Drupal site

If you liked these videos, then go ahead and sign up for a lynda.com online tutorials membership. For $25, you get 1-month unlimited access to not just this training course, but all of Lynda.com's 900+ training courses. No long-term commitment required. You can cancel your membership at any time. And as a special promotion for visitors of this site, you can get a FREE 7-day trial pass to lynda.com. This free trial gives you access to all of their 900+ training titles so that you can see for yourself what a great learning resource this website is.

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The course is 7 hours and 25 minutes in total length, and the tutorials are divided into 17 chapters. Here is a more detailed outline of the course:

Title: Drupal 7 Essential Training
Author: Tom Geller
Level: Beginner
Duration: 7hrs 25mins
Date of Release: 14 January 2011

Chapter 1: Defining Drupal
Managing content with Drupal 7
Comparing Drupal with other content management systems
Deciding whether to use Drupal
Looking at Drupal-built sites
Exploring the Drupal universe
Getting help with Drupal issues

Chapter 2: Understanding How Drupal Works
Checking Drupal's requirements
Investigating Drupal's inner workings
Learning Drupal's basic workflow
Understanding key terms in Drupal
Touring Drupal's interface

Chapter 3: Installing Drupal on Mac OS X or Windows
Installing the Acquia Drupal stack installer (DAMP)
Importing core Drupal into DAMP
Running Drupal's installer on top of DAMP

Chapter 4: Installing Drupal on a Server
Uploading Drupal with SFTP
Uploading Drupal with SSH
Creating Drupal's MySQL database
Running Drupal's installer
Installing Drupal using Acquia's Debian/Ubuntu package

Chapter 5: Controlling Drupal 7
Using the toolbar
Using the shortcut bar
Touring the administrative controls
Customizing the Dashboard
Differentiating administrator and visitor views

Chapter 6: Building a Drupal Site
Understanding nodes
Creating basic content
Changing site information, graphics, and interface
Giving visitors a way to contact you

Chapter 7: Controlling Content
Creating content summaries
Revising content
Categorizing content with tags
Going further with content categories
Publishing content via RSS
Using text formats to prevent content damage
Setting the comment policy
Managing comments

Chapter 8: Enabling Other Content Types
Adding blogs
Adding discussion groups
Adding polls
Subscribing to RSS feeds
Categorizing RSS feeds

Chapter 9: Extending Content
Creating new content types
Adding fields to content types
Exploring field types and options
Adjusting field display
Customizing field display by context
Modifying image styles

Chapter 10: Managing Users
Defining new user policies
Creating user accounts
Setting up user profiles
Defining user roles
Controlling access permissions
Canceling user accounts

Chapter 11: Changing a Site's Interface
Understanding Drupal 7 page layout
Taking advantage of block regions
Creating and modifying blocks
Selecting and installing downloaded themes
Building themes the traditional way

Chapter 12: Helping Users Find Their Way Around
Understanding Drupal 7 default menus
Creating multilevel menus
Creating easy-to-navigate books

Chapter 13: Expanding a Site's Capabilities with Modules
Installing and uninstalling modules
Configuring modules
Surveying popular modules
Enabling styled text with a WYSIWYG editor

Chapter 14: Displaying Information with Views
Understanding views
Creating views
Modifying views

Chapter 15: Administrating Drupal
Launching a Drupal site
Troubleshooting a Drupal 7 installation
Backing up and restoring a Drupal site
Updating Drupal
Deleting Drupal

Chapter 16: Going Further with Drupal
Monitoring performance
Improving administration skills
Reviewing security and permissions
Adopting best practices

Chapter 17: Developing for Drupal
Programming modules
Joining the Drupal community

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So if you're ready to start with Drupal 7 Essential Training, sign-up for a lynda.com online tutorials membership today.