Categories are used for structuring your content. You can group similar articles in one category, create a page that displays the intros of all the articles, and so on. This menu item type displays all the categories in the site. Each category, when selected, displays all the articles that belong to it in category list layout. Visitors can select any article title from the list to display its contents.
When you select this menu item type, you’ll see a screen for entering information for the menu item. There is no need to make any changes except to select the category for which you want to see the subcategories. In this case, select the Electronics category, as shown in Figure 7-45.
To configure the List All Categories menu item type, select the Categories tab. On selecting the Categories tab, you see the fields shown in Figure 7-46.
The Top Level Category Description option is used to display the description of the category at the top of the page, under the title. In this case, set it to Hide because you are not interested in showing the description. If you set the field to Show, enter a category description in the Top Level Category Description box. Set the Empty Categories option to Hide because you want to hide the categories that contain no articles. Set #Articles In Category to Show to display the number of articles in each category.
In the browser window, when you open your Joomla web site and select the menu item New Electronics Among Cameras And Cell Phones, you’ll find that the Electronics category appears with two subcategories under it: Camera and Cell Phone (see Figure 7-47).
If you select the Camera category, you’ll see the list of articles under it, as shown in Figure 7-48.
If you select the Cell Phone category, you’ll likewise see all the articles under it, as shown in Figure 7-49.
You can select the title of any article to see its contents. For example, if you select “CDMA Cell Phones,” you’ll see the contents displayed in Figure 7-50.
Source: Harwani B M (2015), Foundations of Joomla!, Apress; 2nd ed edition