---
title: "Getting started"
date: 2026-09-26
description: "How Frontend Editor works: build a form profile, assign it to a menu item and give authors a simpler Joomla article form on the site."
author: "Jeroen Moolenschot"
---

# Getting started

Frontend Editor lets you decide which fields an author sees when they edit a Joomla article on the site. You build a **form profile** in the administrator and attach it to a menu item. Articles opened or created through that menu item use the profile; every other menu item keeps the standard Joomla form.

 
## How it fits together

 
- **Form profile**: the layout of the edit form. It holds the tabs, the columns, the fields and their order, the values for new articles and the buttons under the form.
- **Menu item**: a Category List, Category Blog or Create Article menu item. It decides which profile is used.
- **System plugin**: shows the form as the profile lays it out and applies the profile when the article is saved.

 ![Frontend Editor: Form Profiles, with the menu items that use each profile](https://www.joomill-extensions.com/images/documentation/frontend-editor/profiles-list.jpg)

 
## Your first profile in five steps

 
1. Go to **Components > Frontend Editor** and click **New**.
2. Enter a **Profile name**, for example *News*.
3. On the **Form** tab you start with the complete standard Joomla form in four tabs: **Content**, **Images and Links**, **Options** and **Publishing**. Remove what your client does not need, and drag fields back from **Available fields**. **Title** and **Category** are needed for every new article.
4. Open the **Menu Assignment** tab and tick the menu items that should use this profile.
5. Click **Save**, then **Preview on the site** in the toolbar to open the form on the frontend.

 ![The Form tab of a profile: the profile name, Available fields, the tabs and columns, and the field settings](https://www.joomill-extensions.com/images/documentation/frontend-editor/profile-overview.jpg)

 The author then gets this form on the site:

 ![The edit form on the site, laid out by the News profile](https://www.joomill-extensions.com/images/documentation/frontend-editor/frontend-news.jpg)

 
## Next steps

 
- [Create a form profile](https://www.joomill-extensions.com/documentation/frontend-editor/profile-builder): tabs, columns and buttons.
- [Field settings](https://www.joomill-extensions.com/documentation/frontend-editor/field-settings): labels, help texts, required fields.
- [Hidden fields and default values](https://www.joomill-extensions.com/documentation/frontend-editor/hidden-fields-and-default-values): give a field a value without showing it.