Easy Drupal Admin Manual (EDAM)

...for the beginning or even completely non-technical administrator of a Drupal site

Welcome to the Easy Drupal Admin Manual. Or EDAM, like the cheese: appealingly mild, and suitable for the gourmand and the first-time cheese-eater alike. (With a slightly nutty taste, say some.) All without the red wax rind.

The name is also a friendly nod to the Dutch origins of Drupal itself.

Who is this for?

EDAM is not aimed at the typical Drupal site developer, but rather the non-technical end user who has only basic content management and site administration needs. Early pages assume no knowledge of concepts like content management systems, open source, or Drupal; even a moderately technical user will find it fairly basic. But EDAM helps fill a real need for beginner-friendly documentation centered on maintaining a site and managing content as an end user, as opposed to developing a new site.

Target readers for EDAM include:

• My non-technical clients for Drupal sites
• Your non-technical clients for Drupal sites
• Any Drupal beginner who's installed Drupal and wonders where to go from there
• Any Drupal user with some experience, who can still appreciate a beginner-oriented guide to some steps
• An IT manager with technical chops, but who's suddenly been handed control of some site made with this Droopa-whatever thing he's never heard of
• Anyone looking for ways to explain some Drupal basics to a beginner administrator

Caveats! (That means "Beware!")

EDAM pages are originally written for Drupal 5. They're undergoing updates for Drupal 6: stay tuned to this site's blog for notices.

EDAM's text originated with instructions for clients of mine, not as a how-to guide for generic unknown users. As such, it doesn't cover installation and initial configuration of Drupal (topics already covered thoroughly by other online documentation). EDAM reflects the ways I personally like to set up and explain sites, which may or may not be ideal for your purposes.

EDAM cheerfully takes some non-standard liberties with terminologies where I've found the usual Drupal way to be confusing. I consider this a bonus!

Finally, EDAM is a work in progress. It'll keep changing as I find better ways to do things; as viewers report problems, solutions, and discoveries; and as Drupal itself keeps improving. It's only one entry into a growing ocean of Drupal documentation, but I hope it'll be a helpful island for beginner site administrators in that sea!

Thank you!

Your feedback is wildly appreciated!