beginner text edit question

[MnDel]

My first post:
For 14 years I've run a large website to sell my work (using Dreamweaver CS4), I am starting to work up my first zencart but find a few things most perplexing.
The person I pay to keep my site on her server recommended I upload ZC through softaculous/cPanel. (Long after I see arguments against that, but will continue as is for now.) I have added ckeditor as instructed and find it functional in dropdown pages like tools/define pages editor/define main page.php.
However, I commonly see instructions like:

"How do I Change the Welcome Guest Message?
If you want to replace this message with one of your own, start your text editor and open the includes/languages/ENGLISH/index.php file and locate these lines of code: "

I see nowhere a drop down or any button in my main ZC admin panel to 'open text editor'. I followed ckeditor installation instructions and I see it nowhere a stand alone app on my computer that I could 'start'.
I did find where I could see the above directory inside cPanel, but surely this is not what is meant?
thanks!

[twitchtoo]

You need to use Dreamweaver or similar FTP to get and edit those files, there is no way to change them in admin.

[lat9]

I'd suggest using Notepad++ (http://notepad-plus-plus.org/download/v6.5.4.html) for the editing of any .php files for your Zen Cart.

[MnDel]

thankyou twitchtoo and lat9, perhaps I should have said I'm on a mac (OS10.9), notepad looks like a win. program. My mac does have a native app called 'Text edit', and I've down-loaded 'Cyberduck', so I will try that combo. I was able to find access to the directory through Dreamweaver CS4, but the pages sure didn't open correctly.
Now I am in Cyberduck, have selected the called for index.php, then found that there is a drop down for 'text edit'.... success?!
It opens a page of code, but nowhere is there anything like what I am told to look for, here's a sample of what I am to find:

if (STORE_STATUS == '0') {
define('TEXT_GREETING_GUEST', 'Welcome <span class="greetUser">Guest!</span>
Would you like to <a href="%s">log yourself in</a>?');
} else {

Here's a representative sample of the downloaded code:

// $Id: index.php 2539 2005-12-11 05:17:05Z ajeh $
//

define('HEADING_TITLE', 'Choose an action..');

define('BOX_TITLE_ORDERS', 'Orders');
define('BOX_TITLE_STATISTICS', 'Statistics');

define('BOX_ENTRY_SUPPORT_SITE', 'Support Site');
define('BOX_ENTRY_SUPPORT_FORUMS', 'Support Forums');
define('BOX_ENTRY_MAILING_LISTS', 'Mailing Lists');
define('BOX_ENTRY_BUG_REPORTS', 'Bug Reports');

All this begs the question "Where is there an actual Beginners Guide to learning Zencart"? It is not the 450 page zencart manual I bought, nor on the Zencart site, nor any of the 6 different youtube Zencart tutorial authors I have explored - All these presume I know way more that I do.
Thanks much!

[lat9]

You're looking at the admin (/YOUR_ADMIN/includes/languages/english/index.php) version of the file which, as you've noted, is totally different.

You should look to /includes/languages/english/YOUR_TEMPLATE/index.php and, if that file's not yet present, copy /includes/languages/english/index.php and make your edits in the template-override directory.

If you haven't chosen a template yet, I'd suggest that you do that first (it'll be a lot easier). Look in the Plugins area for "Templates"; there are a bunch of very nice ones that you can adapt to your needs.

[MnDel]

You're looking at the admin (/YOUR_ADMIN/includes/languages/english/index.php) version of the file which, as you've noted, is totally different.

Is there anywhere that makes sense out of the 2 parallel directories you refer to?, to a newby it's mindboggling!

You should look to /includes/languages/english/YOUR_TEMPLATE/index.php and, if that file's not yet present, copy /includes/languages/english/index.php and make your edits in the template-override directory.

Thanks lat9, no such file present that I could find, what do you mean by by copying the above directory and then using it in a 'template-override directory' - what/where is that?

If you haven't chosen a template yet, I'd suggest that you do that first (it'll be a lot easier). Look in the Plugins area for "Templates"; there are a bunch of very nice ones that you can adapt to your needs.

There is only one template there, it seems to be the original one "Classic Contemporary Green", is it so bad a one that it must be abandoned?

I took your hint above, found the same file in the other parallel (non admin) directory, opened it in Cyberduck, changed a couple words in the Greeting Heading, backloaded it, and voila! it erased the Entire page, with only text left from a Dreamwever test I did yesterday.
http://pinewoodforge.com/zencart/index.php?main_page=

It is not right that a generous soul like yourself should be hand-holding beginners such as me - who'd rather do their homework and be independent anyway, may I repeat what I posted before?, in case it was missed:
"All this begs the question 'Where is there an actual Beginners Guide to learning Zencart'? It is not the 450 page zencart manual I bought, nor on the Zencart site, nor any of the 6 different Youtube Zencart tutorial Authors I have explored - All these presume I know/understand way more that I do.
Thanks much again!

[mc12345678]

There is only one template there, it seems to be the original one "Classic Contemporary Green", is it so bad a one that it must be abandoned?

I took your hint above, found the same file in the other parallel (non admin) directory, opened it in Cyberduck, changed a couple words in the Greeting Heading, backloaded it, and voila! it erased the Entire page, with only text left from a Dreamwever test I did yesterday.
http://pinewoodforge.com/zencart/index.php?main_page=

It is not right that a generous soul like yourself should be hand-holding beginners such as me - who'd rather do their homework and be independent anyway, may I repeat what I posted before?, in case it was missed:
"All this begs the question 'Where is there an actual Beginners Guide to learning Zencart'? It is not the 450 page zencart manual I bought, nor on the Zencart site, nor any of the 6 different Youtube Zencart tutorial Authors I have explored - All these presume I know/understand way more that I do.
Thanks much again!

So on the use of "a different" template. Every installation, upgrade, etc of Zen Cart includes some version of the green default template. Okay, that might change in the upcoming versions, but...

The problem is, if one uses and modifies the default template without copying it or without installing a new template, then come update/upgrade time, you will have to "bypass" or incorporate those new updates.
Another benefit of leaving the default template as it is/was is that if something is not working correctly, changing the template to the default (unmodified) helps with testing.
A third reason to use a different template is just that some of the other templates look better on the eyes. Some may argue that any other template is better, but I wouldn't suggest a complex template on your own yet.

As for good reading material or the like, well... It sounds like you're on the verge of breaking into the programming aspect of operating ZC, not just the management of product and content. Really I would think searching this forum and getting familiar with some of the terminology and maybe even testing out (following along) some of the posts would help with understanding.

For example, if you were to review the instructions for installing ckeditor and possibly wanted to use it elsewhere, what do the instructions state to do to display ckeditor. Based on that and what it takes to display the editor, what functionality might be expected? Ie from/while on say the page defines area, does it seem like it could or is intended to be used to edit a file on a third computer? Probably asking what is this guy asking? Basically exactly, the intent of ckeditor is to edit text inline with the page presented inserting the applicable html to provide a sort of What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) editor for the content on the page.

Hope/maybe that helps some more?

[twitchtoo]

There is only one template there, it seems to be the original one "Classic Contemporary Green", is it so bad a one that it must be abandoned?

I took your hint above, found the same file in the other parallel (non admin) directory, opened it in Cyberduck, changed a couple words in the Greeting Heading, backloaded it, and voila! it erased the Entire page, with only text left from a Dreamwever test I did yesterday.
http://pinewoodforge.com/zencart/index.php?main_page=

It is not right that a generous soul like yourself should be hand-holding beginners such as me - who'd rather do their homework and be independent anyway, may I repeat what I posted before?, in case it was missed:
"All this begs the question 'Where is there an actual Beginners Guide to learning Zencart'? It is not the 450 page zencart manual I bought, nor on the Zencart site, nor any of the 6 different Youtube Zencart tutorial Authors I have explored - All these presume I know/understand way more that I do.
Thanks much again!

I can go here:
http://pinewoodforge.com/zencart/ind...age=contact_us

And I can navigate some of the pages you have, however whatever has been overwritten on your site has broken the index page/logical paths... can you replace your changes with the originals/backups?

[MnDel]

Hello, my reply to this yesterday seemed to have failed....
No, no backups made so far, I am such a newby I'm still looking for the gearshift!, so I thought to load up a trial new template to replace the default one I seem to have lost. here's the result:

When I am in Admin control panel>tools>template selection>templates installed>classic contemporary green>preview
it opens a page properly
control panel>tools>template selection>twist of nature>preview
I get this:
Forbidden
You don't have permission to access /zencart/includes/images/scr_nature.jpg on this server.
Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.

In cPanel here's the directory where I placed the new template according to it’s instructions:
public_html/zencart/includes/templates/Twist of Nature/twist_of_nature

In cPanel I see also this:
public_html/zencart/includes/templates/images/scr_nature.jpg (permission 0755)

Is this enough to go on to help me get started again? thanks!

[stevesh]

The preview function in Admin - Tools - Template Selection only displays an image of the template, not your site using it, so it's pretty much worthless and I wouldn't worry about it.

Remove that Dreamweaver text and see if your pages come back.