My boss created the practice intranet using Joomla a few years back.

It looks dated and is barely used except to print out word docs of referral forms.

Things (so far) that we would like the intranet to do:

- "live" calendar - something the practice manager can edit and other users can see. I envisage some thing like a wallplanner but with the ability to hover over a square that then displays meetings, annual leave, tasks/reminders
- ability to upload practice meetings in an ordered format that's ideally searchable
- ability to upload documents from the PCT - the idea being that you can look for, say, all information regarding blacklisted drugs, rather than having to sift through information that is updated weekly
- ability to upload and print off practice leaflets on various info
- common practice details eg nearby hospitals
- updated referral forms (just word docs or PDFs).
- resource packs for locum and new doctors (basically a large PDF that can be updated/replaced)

Is Joomla the best thing to use? Any useful sites/links/how-tos etc would be welcome.

Joomla is very well suited to novices and is an excellent out-of-the-box CMS.

If you have more technical know-how, Drupal is a more powerful solution.

You may want to consider upgrading your Joomla installation to the latest version for increased functionality. It's also very easy to modify the look of Joomla and there are thousands of pre-made themes and plugins.

I don't know about novices, I found joomla quite incomprehensible. The easiest cms to skin is cms made simple IMO.

I suggest MS sharepoint............
to all intents and purposes its code less and loads of themed templates to download - e.g. medical practice.

I'd agree

Cue lots of stupid questions.

At the moment, I can create the new intranet in Joomla and then just overwrite the existing files (or edit the existing files). It would all work fine. If I use any other program, how would I then get it up and running? Current intranet is on one of the computers.

Joomla is database driven so the easiest way is to install it all on another machine then back it up and restore it to the old "web server" or stick it on the new machine & repoint the dns to it.

Is it me or does it look like I'd have to buy a license for Sharepoint that works out to a monthly cost?

nope http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/en-us/buy/pages/licensing-details.aspx I suspect you were looking at a hosted solution or tied into office 365.

He would have to buy the hardware and a licence for windows server to run it on. And I suspect he'd be much better off getting someone in to set it up for him. Setting up a sharepoint system isn't a 'click and wait' operation if you're starting from scratch.

Sharepoint itself may be free, but a sharepoint solution for his requirements would be a significant expense. We go back to the old 'pick any two' maxim.

The short answer is any hardware would have to be funded by the PCT, not the practice (all IT stuff is owned by them). Given that PCTs are trying to save money, they're not gonna give us hardware just for an intranet, especially when the old one works fine.

I'm fiddling around with Joomla but it seems very counter-intuitive. As an example, there's a table on the intranet home page. I tried to change the background colour of all the cells yet it would only change the colour of one I initially clicked on. I can't seem to apply to the whole row/table yet. Another thing is I changed the headings of each column to bold and now the whole table is larger than it should be.

I've since upgraded to Joomla 1.5.25 so I can go to .26 and then upgrade to 2.5.

Mind you, not long until you're in charge of commissioning!

First off, Joomla uses TinyMCE as an editor. That's pretty common across CMSes - and can be a real PITA. Sadly, not much else is available that's better.

Secondly, and more importantly, Joomla 1.6 made major, and I mean MAJOR changes to the system. So much so that, really, it should have been 2.0. The changes are such that Joomla referred to moving to 1.6 not as an "upgrade" but a migration.

Check that all modules/plugins/extensions used have versions that work in 2.5. Not all do. Also be prepared to find that the writers of those extras may not offer very good support or help when making the move. You will also find that templates will need to be upgraded. Templates designed for 1.5 will not necessarily work in 1.6 and above. You'll need to get compatible versions, if you downloaded them from somewhere else, or write a new one if using an in house designed template.

I was going to fiddle with the intranet whilst at work but I've decided it's better to start from scratch and use 2.5. At least then, I can check the site works before going live. I've just tried downgrading from 1.5.25 back 1.5.16 and it seems to be causing problems.