This tutorial walks through a single realistic scenario from start to finish: you run a site with a Premium Articles category, and you want logged-in members to see the full articles while everyone else sees only a short teaser with a login prompt.

By the end, every article in the Premium Articles category will be partially restricted, and you'll know which settings did the work.

The Scenario

• You have a category called Premium Articles containing several articles.
• Anonymous visitors should see the article title and a short intro paragraph.
• Logged-in registered users should see the full article.
• Links to premium articles should still appear in listings (so visitors know there's more to read if they sign up).

Prerequisites

Administrator access to a Joomla site (version 5 or above). See 1.0 Admin Login.

Steps

1. Create the Premium Articles Category
   1. Go to Content → Categories.
   2. Click New in the toolbar.
   3. Fill in the Title field with Premium Articles. The alias will generate automatically.
   4. (Optional) Add a description in the editor — this can show on category pages depending on your menu settings.
   5. In the right-hand sidebar, set Access to Public.
   6. Make sure Status is set to Published.
   7. Click Save & Close.
      
      Why Public? It seems counterintuitive, but the category itself needs to be Public so menu items pointing to it remain visible to logged-out visitors. The restriction will happen at the article level, not the category level. If you set the category to Registered, the entire section vanishes for anonymous users — they won't even see that premium content exists.
      
      
      
      
2. Add Articles to the Category
   

   If you don't already have articles, create a few now:

   1. Go to Content → Articles and click New.
   2. Give the article a title and write your content.
   3. In the Category dropdown (right sidebar), select Premium Articles.
   4. Click Save (don't close yet — you'll add the Read More break in the next step).

   Repeat for each article you want to restrict.
   
   

3. Add a Read More Break to Each Article
   

   This step is critical. Without a Read More break, Joomla treats the entire article as intro text and shows it to everyone, ignoring the access restriction.

   For each article in the Premium Articles category:

   1. Open the article in the editor (Content → Articles, then click the title).
   2. Place your cursor where the free teaser should end — usually after the first paragraph.
   3. Click the Read More button in the TinyMCE toolbar (near the bottom of the CMS Content menu).
   4. Click Save & Close.
      
      
   You should now see a horizontal red line in the editor marking the break.
   
   
   
   
4. Batch-Set the Articles to Registered Access
   

   Rather than opening each article again, use the batch tool:

   1. Go to Content → Articles.
   2. Filter the list by Category: Premium Articles.
   3. Tick the checkbox in the column header to select all listed articles.
   4. Click Batch in the toolbar.
   5. Under Set Access Level, choose Registered.
   6. Click Process.

   Every article in the category now requires login to view past the Read More break.

5. Enable Unauthorized Links Globally
   

   This makes restricted articles still appear in listings for logged-out users, prompting them to log in when they click through.

   1. Go to Content → Articles.
   2. Click Options in the top toolbar.
   3. On the Articles tab, find Unauthorised Links and set it to Yes.
   4. Click Save & Close.
   
   
   

   

6. Check the Menu Item
   

   If you display Premium Articles through a Category Blog or Featured Articles menu item, mirror the setting there:

   1. Go to Menus → [your menu] and open the menu item that shows premium articles.
   2. Click the Options tab.
   3. Set Unauthorized Links to Yes (it's at the bottom of the list).
   4. Click Save & Close.
      
      

   

7. Test It
   

   Open your site in a private/incognito window (so you're logged out) and visit the Premium Articles section.

   You should see:

   • Article titles and intro text visible.
   • A login prompt or "Read More" link that triggers login when clicked.
   • Full article content hidden until you log in.

   Now log in as a registered user and confirm the full article appears.

Done

That's the complete setup. To restrict additional categories later, repeat steps 1, 3, and 4 for each one — steps 5 and 6 are global and only need to be done once.

Summary

Key Concepts Covered — four concepts the tutorial actually touched (Access Levels, Intro vs full text, Batch operations, Unauthorized Links). 

Next Steps — six practical directions: enabling user registration, custom access levels, custom user groups, the Special/Super Users levels, adding a login module, and the full ACL documentation link for deeper permission work.