Cherry Zen Template Support Thread

**chachab** · 3 Jan 2009, 03:57 AM

I love this temp.. but how do i change the BlUE background? I have an actual image (wallpaper) i want to use....
can you tell me where to go?

**timstoel** · 3 Jan 2009, 12:03 PM

Hi paigesjewelry,

You would probably really benefit from getting the Zen Cart book. It will explain to you in easy to understand terms.

I used the Cherry Zen template and made it into this:
www.newoldsounds.com

I have been working with the template for about 6 months now and spent a lot of time getting it to look this way. If you want to retain full control over the way stuff looks and behaves, Zen Cart is far superior to GoDaddy, not to mention a lot cheaper. With GoDaddy, a lot of stuff is "locked in" so to speak, whereas Zen Cart has addons that can completely change or add functionality specific to your needs. Plus, the community is very supportive.

A lot of the formatting happens here:
includes\templates\cherry_zen\common\tpl_header.php

and in:
includes\templates\cherry_zen\css\stylesheet.css

The learning curve gets compounded when working with a 3rd party template. It is somewhat more challenging to work with a template because there is a little less documentation, but as you see from my site, it is very configurable. If you're the kind of person that wants to really control the look and feel of everything, Zen Cart is great software. I admit it was frustrating to get it looking good. You may consider hiring a Zen Cart expert, there are many companies who specialize in it.

Hope this helps,
Tim

**timstoel** · 3 Jan 2009, 12:08 PM

chachab,

The blue background is in:
\includes\templates\cherry_zen\css\stylesheet.css

Look for this line, close to the top:
background:#84A4C1; /* main site background color, blue default */

I changed the number to 555555, which is grey.

And some info on HTML colors, not sure if you need this:
http://www.w3schools.com/Html/html_colors.asp

Hope this helps,
Tim

**jar3300** · 3 Jan 2009, 05:34 PM

Originally Posted by paigesjewelry

Hi -

Paige,
I'm far from an expert, but I've noticed that the experts won't always help, so I'll throw in my two bits. I've found Zen to have quite a steep learning curve. Particularly for those of us that don't write the code. However, with patience and lots of reading of the FAQs and the forum, it can be done.

1. I need to get rid of the "powered by zen-cart" logo picture. I went into the template_default and deleted the logo.gif but that did not work.

http://tutorials.zen-cart.com/index.php?category=4 also see this about the template over ride system.
http://tutorials.zen-cart.com/index.php?article=143

2. I don't know where the "Heading_Title" came from or how to get rid of it.

Try this http://tutorials.zen-cart.com/index.php?article=95

3. I would like to make "Welcome to Paige's Jewelry & Fragrance. Your Wholesale Jewelry & Fragrance Source." bigger, centered, and in a different font but not sure where to do all this either.

That is in your \includes\templates\cherry_zen\css\stylesheet.css I use http://www.blumentals.net/rapidcss/ to edit the css. I'm not a coder either and this helps me a lot.

4. I also would like to enter some additional text information below the header.
Not sure how to address this.

I am VERY new at this coding stuff so any help would be appreciated.

Thanks so much!

Paige

Good luck,
Jim

**jettrue** · 3 Jan 2009, 06:36 PM

Originally Posted by paigesjewelry

Hi -

Well I have installed the cherry zen template and I really like so far.....but I actually haven't gotten that far at all. I've been spinning my wheels for four days now. Reading through posts and monkeying around with the code. I am ready to give godaddy $50 a month for their shopping cart.

Please check my website; www.paigesjewelry.com. The issues I need help with are:

1. I need to get rid of the "powered by zen-cart" logo picture. I went into the template_default and deleted the logo.gif but that did not work.

2. I don't know where the "Heading_Title" came from or how to get rid of it.

3. I would like to make "Welcome to Paige's Jewelry & Fragrance. Your Wholesale Jewelry & Fragrance Source." bigger, centered, and in a different font but not sure where to do all this either.

4. I also would like to enter some additional text information below the header.

I am VERY new at this coding stuff so any help would be appreciated.

Thanks so much!

Paige

1. Did you read the readme.txt? Number 6 in the readme.txt explains how to change the logo.

2. You deleted something from a language file you should not have.
You probably made a mistake in this file:
/includes/languages/english/index.php

I'm guessing you wanted to remove the "Congratulations" text, and instead of just removing the text, you removed the whole line. to make it blank, you need to change this:

Code:

define('HEADING_TITLE', 'Congratulations! You have successfully installed your Zen Cart&trade; E-Commerce Solution.');

To this (i.e., only remove the ACTUAL TEXT):

Code:

define('HEADING_TITLE', '');

My advice is to reload the original
/includes/languages/english/index.php

And put it in includes/languages/english/cherry_zen/

so that when you ever update the store, you changes will be saved in your cherry_zen/ folder.

3. includes/templates/cherry_zen/css/stylesheet.css

under #tagline:

#tagline {
font-size:1.1em;
text-align:center;
padding:25px 8px 35px;
}

4. Lets get the other 3 settled first.

**nikki72** · 3 Jan 2009, 08:08 PM

Originally Posted by nikki72

Hello,

First of all, I wanted to say thank you for this wonderful template.

Here is what I need help with. The search in the header, I need it to be an advanced search that follows this pattern.

keyword field/category pull down/manufactures pull down/ button

I tried to mess the with the advanced search in the side box (this is an add on), and use the code in my header but..... it only works on the main page. Any searches from other pages in my site doesn't work. I really hope someone can help me with this as I believe it's a major help to website visitors.

Thanks for your time Nicole

I am not sure if I posted this in the wrong forum, I haven't seen any replies yet. I have also found what I worked out trying to use the advanced search in the header is that it interferes with my cart.. I can not add anything to the cart.

**paigesjewelry** · 3 Jan 2009, 11:10 PM

Originally Posted by jettrue

1. Did you read the readme.txt? Number 6 in the readme.txt explains how to change the logo.

2. You deleted something from a language file you should not have.
You probably made a mistake in this file:
/includes/languages/english/index.php

I'm guessing you wanted to remove the "Congratulations" text, and instead of just removing the text, you removed the whole line. to make it blank, you need to change this:

Code:

define('HEADING_TITLE', 'Congratulations! You have successfully installed your Zen Cart&trade; E-Commerce Solution.');

To this (i.e., only remove the ACTUAL TEXT):

Code:

define('HEADING_TITLE', '');

My advice is to reload the original
/includes/languages/english/index.php

And put it in includes/languages/english/cherry_zen/

so that when you ever update the store, you changes will be saved in your cherry_zen/ folder.

3. includes/templates/cherry_zen/css/stylesheet.css

under #tagline:

#tagline {
font-size:1.1em;
text-align:center;
padding:25px 8px 35px;
}

4. Lets get the other 3 settled first.

1. Thank you so much for taking the time to help me! Since I did not want a logo at all, I deleted the logo.gif from /includes/templates/cherryzen/images. This gave me the zencart logo. I then went to /includes/templates/template_default/images and deleted the logo.gif there. I still have "Powered by Zen Cart" sitting on the main page (www.paigesjewelry.com).
Do I have to have a logo in order for that "Powered by Zen Cart" to go away?

2. Thanks - that worked it is gone now. :)

3. I was able to make the font larger but it does not "look" centered, even though it says it is centered in the stylesheet. Also, can I change the font of the tagline without changing the font anywhere else on the page? I wanted to make the tagline font Monotype Corsiva.

4. entering the additional text.

Thanks again for your help!

**paigesjewelry** · 4 Jan 2009, 01:40 AM

Originally Posted by timstoel

Hi paigesjewelry,

You would probably really benefit from getting the Zen Cart book. It will explain to you in easy to understand terms.

I used the Cherry Zen template and made it into this:
www.newoldsounds.com

I have been working with the template for about 6 months now and spent a lot of time getting it to look this way. If you want to retain full control over the way stuff looks and behaves, Zen Cart is far superior to GoDaddy, not to mention a lot cheaper. With GoDaddy, a lot of stuff is "locked in" so to speak, whereas Zen Cart has addons that can completely change or add functionality specific to your needs. Plus, the community is very supportive.

A lot of the formatting happens here:
includes\templates\cherry_zen\common\tpl_header.php

and in:
includes\templates\cherry_zen\css\stylesheet.css

The learning curve gets compounded when working with a 3rd party template. It is somewhat more challenging to work with a template because there is a little less documentation, but as you see from my site, it is very configurable. If you're the kind of person that wants to really control the look and feel of everything, Zen Cart is great software. I admit it was frustrating to get it looking good. You may consider hiring a Zen Cart expert, there are many companies who specialize in it.

Hope this helps,
Tim

Your site looks great. Thank you for the advice and additional motivation! I will stick with it!

**rmaldonado** · 4 Jan 2009, 02:17 AM

Jettrue Hello,

After using the template of apple-zen me decided by the staff of cherry-zen.

Now I have 2 problems I had with the cherry zen template and are as follows:

1 .- I replace logo.gif with which I had already designed, but it appeared a space between the logo.gif and area categories. How do you shrink the space created?
2 .- I need to expand the width of the columns 200pcx. How do I do?

Thank you and wish you a Happy New Year 2009

Rolando Maldonado
www.todoenguate.com

**jettrue** · 4 Jan 2009, 04:33 PM

Originally Posted by rmaldonado

Jettrue Hello,

After using the template of apple-zen me decided by the staff of cherry-zen.

Now I have 2 problems I had with the cherry zen template and are as follows:

1 .- I replace logo.gif with which I had already designed, but it appeared a space between the logo.gif and area categories. How do you shrink the space created?
2 .- I need to expand the width of the columns 200pcx. How do I do?

Thank you and wish you a Happy New Year 2009

Rolando Maldonado
www.todoenguate.com

1. I don't see much of a space. Did you fix this?

2. in the readme.txt file, I give complete instructions on changing the sidebox widths.