Joomla URLs: An article doesn't have a pretty URL by itself?

Question

I'm new to Joomla (1.5), and I'm trying to clarify something about the way Joomla handles URLs.

I've activated what they call "Search Engine Friendly URLs". But it appears that a page (or an "Article" only gets such a URL once I link to it from a menu.

Are pretty (parameter-less) URLs really only assigned to pages once I link to them from a menu?

I know I can assign Aliases to articles, but they don't seem to do anything. An article's URL seems to be defined by the alias of a menu item that links to it.

Is this correct, and if so, how do I link to pages without listing them in a menu (e.g. from within another page).

Thanks

Hannes

Answer 1

Update: This really seems to be the case. Why on earth anyone would design a CMS in such a way is beyond me, but my guess is that it's historic (there used to be only parameter-style URLs, and then pretty URLs were slapped on at some point).

This would normally be a dealbreaker for me. A page shouldn't have a bunch of different URLs.

But I found one way around this. It's an extension called sh404SEF (http://extensions.joomla.org/extensions/2380/details). It rewrites all URLs on the site and is actually pretty smart about it.