Obviously, this article is just the first of many, as my presentation "Going Pro with Drupal" was only the start in learning the secrets behind the world's best CMS.

Learning the secrets of Drupal doesn't mean acquiring a decoder ring (well, that's what they tell me — what? You mean there is a ring? Please, tell me how to get the ring). I taught Drupal to students learning about CMS and other turn-key solutions, but actually adopting Drupal was fraught with challenges. Joomla! had a better out-of-the-box experience, and there used to be a clear advantage in more high-quality themes freely and professionally available for Joomla!, as well.

Drupal is a great application right from the word go, but I learned through the experiences of my students that a few little improvements can go a long way. So, some secrets here are not really secrets, but are the results of trial and error, and ways to improve how to work with Drupal. The first item listed here, the admin menu, isn't really a secret — except to those who haven't used it yet. Then, as soon as they do, they are likely use it every day. Sure, it's just a dropdown menu, and the Drupal UX team has come up with great new innovations for answering the challenge of administering a Drupal site in the form of a new "admin" module, but it makes a world of difference over the old nested Navigation menu — where commands and features were hidden in a huge nested menu by default.

Of course, using Taxonomy would also be simpler if there was a way to improve the user experience — oh, wait — there is! Taxonomy Manager uses clever AJAX and JS tricks to really improve the management of your taxonomy — in the case that you're not using a user-generated tagging taxonomy, but are initially setting up a catalog or content structure with it. Joomla! can't even come close without a lot of help.

Joomla! also fails rather spectacularly at Search Engine Friendly URLs out of the box, but the Path module can use help if you're trying to standardize your URL aliases, so make sure to set the replacement patterns early, right after you setup your taxonomy and content types and before entering content!

Speaking of entering content, the clone module is a lifesaver, but because of the “netherworld” your clone temporarily inhabits while duplicating a node, don't attempt to change the taxonomy or ImageCache or other independent elements until saving your new copy of the node — then, go to town and save again!