To change the layout of your front page articles, log in to Joomla! backend, go to Menus -> Main Menu and select Home (in a standard Joomla! installation it's the menu item at the top of the list).

On the right column of the Menu Edit screen you will see a panel labeled Parameters-Basic

#Leading - Number of leading articles, i.e articles that are displayed on the topmost part of the Front page and always occupy all the available horizontal space.

#Intro - Number of articles displayed in columns, immediately below leading articles.

Columns - Number of columns used to display Intro articles.

#Links - Number of articles displayed simply as hyperlinks at the bottom of Front Page.

To change the order in which your front page articles are displayed, without leaving the Menu Edit screen click the panel labeled Parameters-Advanced.

All options should be self-explanatory. Front page articles can be sorted in chronological order, alphabetical order or by the number of page views (hits) they have received.

The only option that requires a few words of explanation is Default: when you select it you can control the display order of front page articles from the Front Page Manager.

Go to Content -> Front Page Manager

You can move articles up and down using the small arrows. Articles will be displayed on the Front Page in the same order they appear on this list.