zen cart newb web designer needs help!

[gjh42]

Can you just type in the address?

[lesliev2001]

my layout is all css so hopefully we're good there. there's a body background that needs to be there, a div around everything with a non repeating bg at the top (the curly bits) and then the maincontainer div with the header, content, menu, and footer divs...

i'm calming down. ;) just having a frustrating day.
and learning new things like this are always excrutiating for me as i am pretty ADD and just want to know how to do it *now* without excavating layers and layers of forum posts...

[lesliev2001]

do you have to have a certain # of posts to post links i wonder?

anyhoo, i really appreciate all you guys looking at this with me. it's a bit intimidating.

[gjh42]

OK, nothing tricky about this view. Look at the ZC stock template's stylesheet (/includes/templates/classic/css/stylesheet.css). Alternateively, you might be better off starting with the default stylesheet (/includes/templates/template_default/css/stylesheet.css).

You would put the blue patterned bg in the body declaration, the tan header bg in #headerWrapper (set to 100% width), give #mainWrapper a width to accommodate the header, make #contentMainWrapper with white bg color and auto margins so it centers in #mainWrapper.

There will be plenty more details, but that gets the overall layout.

[gjh42]

You will do well to get Firefox and its Web Developer extension. The Information > Display Element Information button will show all kinds of useful CSS info for any element you click on, and the Edit CSS button will let you see instantly the effects of CSS changes.

[kobra]

do you have to have a certain # of posts to post links i wonder?

Unfortunately many of us post and can not ourseleves recall where these are.

I know that you have stated you do not want to search and read posts - but this is the forum method

[lesliev2001]

thanks glenn. i appreciate it.

what i was saying is that i do not have 2 weeks to dedicate to picking through forum posts, trying something, having it not work, and then ending up at square one over and over again. that's the experience i have had in the past with stuff like this.

i'm a work at home mom with an 8 month old baby and it's pretty hard to find hours and hours to dig in and bury myself in learning foreign stuff. i was just hoping to get some links or info about how to go about transition a "regular" style web design process into using zen cart.

i'm not a programmer. if i was i wouldn't need zen cart, right? ;)

[yellow1912]

thanks glenn. i appreciate it.

what i was saying is that i do not have 2 weeks to dedicate to picking through forum posts, trying something, having it not work, and then ending up at square one over and over again. that's the experience i have had in the past with stuff like this.

i'm a work at home mom with an 8 month old baby and it's pretty hard to find hours and hours to dig in and bury myself in learning foreign stuff. i was just hoping to get some links or info about how to go about transition a "regular" style web design process into using zen cart.

i'm not a programmer. if i was i wouldn't need zen cart, right? ;)

You are right. A tutorial should be written for that. Maybe we can make it a community project.

I cant let this comment pass tho :" i'm not a programmer. if i was i wouldn't need zen cart, right? ;)". If you assume all programmers code everything, you may be a little far away from the truth.

PS: this may help you a bit:
http://www.zen-cart.com/wiki/index.p...on_-_Templates

[gjh42]

The Zen Cart program represents several years' worth of programmer-hours, and would be completely unreasonable for one programmer to replicate from scratch.