General Help

[esue]

At the risk of incuring the wrath of those who might think the FAQ's have all the answers I--who have thoroughly searched the FAQs--am posting anyway.

I have only slight knowledge of php although I have worked with html before and what I would like to know is this: what page of the dozens I have been given in the zen cart file trees governs what attribute of my layout?

In other words, I want to add a navigation menu that will appear on all of my pages. Where do I type in order to do that? Is this a style-sheet issue? Or does one simply have to know code very well in order to use zen cart?

Also, I did not understand what the FAQ was trying to tell me about side boxes...there is no command to delete boxes, all of my boxes are set by default to 0, and changing the 0s to any other number does not change the layout, contra FAQ. Am I doing something wrong?

Also, can someone explain to me how to edit the index page?

I have the latest version of zen cart. I downloaded it and installed it last night. I am working on my local machine with the latest version of WAMP, so none of this is online.

I also created my own template and have created override directories for all the files that I have tried to edit, so the originals are all intact.

I am extremely frustrated. One of the reasons I am trying Zen Cart is because it seemed that you couldn't go wrong with a program that has such a loyal following and an exhaustive knowledge base, but this has proved to be the most difficult program I have ever worked with.

I'm really hoping the loyal following will come through for me.

[Donal]

Hi
all done by the admin>tools> layout boxes controller> pick your box> edit> switch on/off left right > update
:)
index can be edied in tools> define page editor> main_page

pm me if you need more:)
regards Donal

[stevesh]

I've been using Zencart for years, and have never written a line of PHP - wouldn't know how.

Changing the index page (assuming you mean changing the content) is done by editing define_main_page.php and inserting HTML. You can do that with the Define Pages Editor in Admin - Tools, or manually.

Sideboxes are turned on or off in Admin - Tools - Layout Boxes Controller. If all your boxes are set to 'off', you probably dind't reset them (Layout Boxes Controller - Reset at the bottom) after you changed templates.

I'm not sure what you mean by a 'navigation menu'. Zencart has a bunch of those built in, and there are variants available in the mods (Free Software Add Ons, above).

Most actual design changes atre done in the stylesheet(s).

No 'wrath' here BTW. We usually refer newcomers to the Tutorials/FAQ because most people don't check them first.