Customising Newsletter Sign Up Page

[chancer]

Where do I alter the signing up page for the newsletter? It appears to be attempting to do two very different things at once: lend a sort of "privileged member" feel to the site for existing customers, and offer a newsletter service to customers and non customers alike. Each is laudable in its own right, but is it wise to lump them together?

There's just too much billing detail in there to attract people to subscribe to a newsletter. I view this as a marketing tool, not simply for keeping in touch with people who have already bought. I'd like to give people the option of signing up using only email address and password.

For those who have already bought, I'd like to get rid of expressions which mean absolutely nothing to them. My customers are all from UK and its surrounding islands, so State, Zip and "default country" are utterly meaningless to them and to me. British women, feminists included, feel insulted when told they must have the title Ms so I'd like to add some options there, too, and if we must have a date, put it in a format my own users can relate to. 11/05/2007 here means the 11th of May this year, not 5th November. 11/25/2007 is as meaningless to us as 25/11/2007 probably is to you.

I want buyers, not people who either object to or are confused by the language I use.

Will this section work by copying the relevant files, wherever they may be, to my own template section?

I'd like to have a go at splitting it for the two separate purposes, if nobody has already done that and made the "how to" public.

[Chuckl]

There's a signup page for the newsletter?
Only one I know of is the Newsletter Subscribe mod in the downloads section, which is a Sidebox with a field to enter an email address and 2 radio buttons for HTML or TEXT.

On the other matters, the UK template from www.mutualadvantage.co.uk might be useful, and save a bit of work.

[chancer]

Wow! Many thanks, Chuckl. Now, that looks as though it does several things I've just spent several hours over a few days doing for myself, and a few more things I haven't yet worked out how to do!

So it leads to a few more questions. Like, will it throw out the alterations I've already made to the logo, background heading images, sidebox top bars and colouring, various settings? I've added the first couple of product categories and products, too. In so far as it has been possible, I've set up my own template section and directories, so the changed files have all been copied into those, but some have been made in the admin section.

The README file says there is a choice of two templates, one UK and one default. Do I have to start all over again fro there? I thought I'd done pretty well, designing one of my own with only a bit more to do on it.

On to your questions. The login page has an option to join the newsletter at the bottom - and tells you to fill in the whole form if you haven't already. I wasn't aware of the Newsletter Subscribe mod which would obviously answer that specific part of my problem.

[Chuckl]

And I'd have to answer 'No idea'. I've only ever installed it at install time, no idea what trying to add it later does. Kevin has a forum at mutualadvantage, you might ask the question there.
That said, it is not a template as in complete shop ready to go, it is a template insofar as it sets up all the niggling things that need to be done for a UK store. I don't think any of it affects the visual layout of the site, but don't quote me. Rather ask the creators.

Ah that is the create account page, where it as rather important to have a bit of info, such as where to deliver the products.

Rgds,