Sorry if I seemed brutal. You are experiencing the reason for my signature. Many folks just jump in to Zen Cart with both feet, especially those who are more familiar with the territory.

I did much teh same in 2002. Jumped into OSCommerce with both feet, got my ego slapped, and jumped the OSC ship not long after ajeh moved to Zen. She, along with DrByte, has managed to save my bacon on many occasions. I'm a certified member of the "two steps forward: three steps back" club. Without this forum, I'd have gone back to door to door sales long ago.

You've done several things that are redundant possibly because you were not aware of what Zen does. For instance, a nice header is interrupted with your cart is empty and the amount when the cart is filled. Zen automatically adds the extra nav items when there's an item in the cart so there's no need for the extra. And there are several links that are not only hard-coded but include zenIDs that are from another session.

The classic template is an "old-school" example of how the cart can look. It does not take full advantage of css nor xhtml. Most folks recommend basing changes on the temple_default but, both are overwritten with any upgrade without A LOT OF WORK. Template_default is where Zen looks for most files if no override is found.

When I get a new customer, I suggest that they load the files, create the override directories, and then go through the admin drop-down menu items from left to right through the entire admin. It's amazing what can be learned by the time you get to tools.

Once the basic setup is done, I have them enter a product and start making the cart look like they want. By then, most of the look has been accomplished through the admin. Simple things like sort order for instance. I set up close to 1,000 products once only to have a customer want one group in the category to come first. ajeh commiserated with me but also taught me to use 10, 20, 30, etc. in sort orders for WHEN (not if) something needed to be inserted.

Normally, I just sit back and try to put a band aid or two on folk's problems but you are doing good work for the pets and I couldn't bring myself to let it get worse.

If I were you, I would load one of the templates from (sorry, site offline) and load the one that is closest to the look you want. Don't worry about the colors as they are easily changed. Turn on the new template and the sideboxes. See if most of the problems don't disappear. If they don't, you'll need to find which classic or template_default file(s) changed and fix or remove them.

Not a fun process I know. I had a sign above my desk in the Air Force. "Never enough time to do it right but, always enough time to do it over." It always frustrated me that they would not allow time to do it right but, always come back for corrections.

You have control of the situation and can decide to continue on or backup, regroup, and perservere.

I'll be here to help, either way.
john