Starting on some Drupal basics for beginners

We encourage users to post events happening in the community to the community events group on https://www.drupal.org.
smokinggoat's picture

Let's jump right in: What are the best, simplest resources to online to show / explain what Drupal does and how it works (for newcomers and basic users)?

I know a lot of this below is repeating what is on the Drupal.org website, but let's face it, these resources are put in several different places, and the site can be overwhleming for someone new. Why not just stroll through a culled "Best of" selection? Please feel free to add to/ contest the selections below. ;-)

So far, what I have:

Drupal overview - what is it, and what can it do?

Is Drupal right for you? (Useful if you know what "Content Management System" means.....)
http://drupal.org/handbook/is-drupal-right-for-you

But what if a user/ org doesn't know what a CMS is or why they would want customizable permissions?

There's my overview/ description:
http://ext311.blogspot.com/2005/12/open-source-content-management-system...
and the follow-up:
http://ext311.blogspot.com/2006/01/open-source-cms-challenges.html

These two offer a more immediately "grokkable" overview:
http://drupal.org/node/22953
http://drupal.org/cases

Basic screenshots (of 4.7)
http://drupal.org/image/tid/40

(I assume there's a "tour of Drupal" videocast somewhere?)

How do I use Drupal?

A fairly simple intro trio -
1 - End user's guide
http://drupal.org/node/6261
(Nonetheless features sentences containing "rather than forcing users to specify a fixed, pre-declared arrangement of content....")

2 - Beyond the basics:
http://drupal.org/node/6262

3 - Advanced user's guide
http://drupal.org/node/33958

Intro to Drupal terminology (a bit dense for new users?)
http://drupal.org/node/21951

A working test / demo version!!!
http://demo.opensourcecms.com/drupal/
Useful for people who've been introduced to the idea, but not for absolute beginners.

And finally, for people a bit farther up the chain, a good (but getting older) primer:
http://knaddison.com/Drupal-Installed-Now-What-An-Introduction

Comments

older?

greggles's picture

So the "Drupal Installed Now What?" is a little long in the tooth, eh? So what should I fix about it?

I guess the installation procedure has gotten easier for most modules. Anything else? The lists of "cool modules" could be updated too... What else?

greg

--
Growing Venture Solutions
Drupal Implementation and Support in Denver, CO

A little dated - but good!

smokinggoat's picture

Well, uh..... I guess when I first looked at it, I noticed the date was definitely prior to the 4.7 release. But now on closer inspection, a lot of the details are still pretty much the same. I think you pretty much got it in your reply - I just figured that this stuff moves so fast, that you wouldn't intentionally keep up.

But if you do want to update the post, power to you. And I'll keep pointing people your way. :-)

G

The Smoking Goat aka Greg Beuthin
http://www.commerceguys.com

kannanb's picture

Please try to visit my book "Drupal For absolute beginners" at
http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/drupal-for-absolute-beginners/1584...
You can preview nearly half of the book there.That itself is a very good resource for beginners.
Also I would greatly appreciate your comments about this book.

install problem

balu.pathuri's picture

hi sir my self balu,m new to drupal n more over i hve been trying since 48 hrs to install m not able install on win7,n have 5.4.6 php,n mysql...............so plz do assist me to install ......as soon as possible.

Handbook \ Documentation

samcis's picture

At Drupal.org own handbook/documentation might be a good starting place for starters and newbies!

You can move on to the http://drupal.org/handbooks or https://drupal.org/documentation