The content component (com_content) is what you use to write articles. It is extremely flexible and has the largest number of built in views. Articles can be created an edited from the front end, making content the easiest component to use to create your site content. Help

News Feeds (com_newsfeeds) provides a way to organize and present news feeds. News feeds are a way that you present information from another site on your site. For example, the joomla.org website has numerous feeds that you an incorporate on your site. You an use menus to present a single feed, a list of feeds in a category, or or a list of all feed categories. Help

The search component uses plugins to control which parts of your Joomla! site are searched. You may choose to turn off some areas to improve performance or for other reasons. Many third party Joomla! extensions have search plugins that extend where search takes place.

Default On:

• Content Help
• Contacts Help
• Weblinks Help
• News Feeds Help
• Categories Help

The search component proviedes basic search functionality for the information contained in your core components. Many third part extensions also can be searched by the search component. Help

The authentication plugins operate when users login to your site or administrator. The Joomla! authentication is in operation by default but you can enable Gmail or LDAP or install a plugin for a different system. An example is included that may be used to create a new authentication plugin.

Default on:

• Joomla

Default off:

• Gmail
• LDAP

System plugins operate every time a page on your site loads. They control such things as your URLS, whether users can check a "remember me" box on the login module, and whether caching is enabled.  New in 1.6 is the redirect plugin that with the redirect component assist you in managing changes in URLs.

Default on:

• Remember me Help
• SEF Help
• Debug Help

Default off:

• Cache Help
• Log Help
• Redirect Help

The users extension lets your site visitors register, login and logout, change their passwords and other information, and recover lost passwords. In the administrator it allows you to create, block and manage users and create user groups and access levels. Help

Please note that some of the user views will not display if you are not logged in to the site.

Editors are used thoughout Joomla! where content is created. TinyMCE is the default choice in most locations although CodeMirror is used in the template manager. No Editor provides a text box for html content.

Default on:

• CodeMirror Help
• TinyMCE Help
• No Editor Help

Default off:

• None

Default on:

• Joomla Help

Default off:

Two new plugins are available in 1.6 but are disabled by default.

• Contact Creator Help
  Creates a new linked contact record for each new user created.
• Profile Help
  This example profile plugin allows you to insert additional fields into user registration and profile display. This is intended as an example of the types of extensions to the profile you might want to create.

Weblinks (com_weblinks) is a component that provides a structured way to organize external links and present them in a visually attractive, consistent and informative way. Help

These plugins are behind the buttons found beneath your editor. They only run when an editor plugin runs.

Default on:

• Editor Button: Image
• Editor Button: Readmore
• Editor Button: Page Break
• Editor Button: Article

Default off:

• None

Content plugins run when specific kinds of pages are loaded. They do things ranging from protecting email addresses from harvesters to creating page breaks.

Default on:

• Email Cloaking Help
• Load Module Help
• Page Break Help
• Page Navigation Help
• Rating Help

Default off:

• Code Highlighting (Geshi) Help