* What version of Zen Cart are you using?
1.3.8 or whatever the latest one is

* Has your site been upgraded? When? From what version(s)?

A few years ago I tried OS Commerce and ran away screaming. So now I'm trying zencart. I know it's a derivative but my evil friends claim it's better. We'll see.

* What addons have you installed? When?

nothing, but I downloaded some. No clue what to do with them now. Will I break stuff by installing them? How do I go about doing that?

* In what ways is your site customized or different from a brand new uncustomized install?

I'm coming from an Etsy store. I want it to look and act a lot like my Etsy store. But this is erm. Really confusing. So it's not changed or customized yet at all. I also like the layout of American Science and Surplus's website [sciplus.com].

I would like the product pages to have a somewhat different look than the "welcome customer" page.

I would like the categories to be across the top and not on the sidebar.

I did click "no sidebar on the right side" but after looking at other shops I might instead change that to "no sidebar on the left side" so people will not have the speed hump of the sidebar in the way of their reading.

* If you're encountering display/layout problems, post your site URL* so it can be seen in action.

not live. I don't know how to make it live, but then I don't have any changes made to it, because I'm such a n00b

* If you're encountering problems that could be related to your server or hosting company, include the name of your hosting company (not their URL).

nope, the problems are all mine

* HAVE YOU LOOKED IN THE FAQ AREA for answers to your question? (ie: a search for your error message or what you want to edit/change, etc)

yeah and most of the people are pretty cool, but there are some pretty smarmy devs out there who expect that everyone should have some kind of knowledge about the back end of this. I confess I didn't read all 66 pages of this thread. I was hoping that the first message would contain a link to the tutorial they were talking about putting together in June of 2006, when this thread was started. Haven't come across it yet.

* Have you searched the FORUM for your error message or for answers to the question you're asking?

I'm still looking. I haven't got any error messages yet coz I haven't got that far yet.

* WHEN did the problem "start"? How does that compare with other events of your hosting company, changes you've made to your site files/addons, or your admin settings, etc?

Well, first of all it started when I downloaded ZenCart. I couldn't figure out how to make it work with Blue Host. So I poked around on the control panel and found out that if I run Simple Scripts from the control panel it would install it all by itself. I'm sure that this is going to cause some problems because now I have one version (still in the wrapper) on the computer, and the other one on my web host.

I didn't see any kind of button labelled "here's where you download your live store so you can fool with it safely offline" or another button offering me the option of uploading my destructive changes to the to-be-live store.

Two major questions:

one, can I use ProPay as my credit card processor. I got hosed by Authorize.net a few years ago and refuse point blank to repeat that experience. looks like the answer is no. I would love to change the option of whom to use as my merchant account. So for now it looks like it's going to be good ol' PayPal, with the call center in India, yay.

two, trying to figure out how to make shipping costs work on a per-item basis, like on Etsy. For instance, if I sell a heavy jar candle for $8 and it weighs over 13 oz, it's going to be shipped by priority mail (I don't do parcel post or UPS or FedEx, just USPS first class and priority). If I sell a $45 necklace that weighs 3 oz, it's going to cost $3 to ship. So working out by weight or by final cost would be very hard to calculate an accurate rate. So I'm looking at how to do it where I say, Item Candle is $7 to ship, or $5 with another item. Item Necklace is $3 to ship or .50 with another item. Item Incense is $4 to ship or .50 with another item. So if someone buys Items Candle, Necklace, and Incense, the shipping will calculate at $8 ($7 +.50 +.50) and not, say, $4 [incense] + $5 [candle] + .50 [necklace].

* If this is your first store, have you tested all aspects of transactions before going live?

No. I want to learn how to make it look more or less like I want it to look before I start adding products. I can put in some fake items to stub that aspect out, but I can't figure out how to apply a template. I can tweak as I go, but I'd like to goth up the basic look and feel a little.

I last had programming in 1985 when I took "Basic" on a Radio Shack computer. I admit I had a little problem with that.

I don't understand html other than <br> and <p>. I have tried to learn but it just slips out of my brain. I bought a book on html a few years ago, it would be useful if I were going to write a website I suppose. But why write one when there are templates?

I've been looking suspiciously at Joomla. I might try it. Although when my business partner said we needed a CMS I thought he was talking about the guys with the red vests at WalMart. Figured it out since then.

I know that "css" stands for "cascading style sheets" but don't really understand what dish detergent and bedspreads have to do with computers. You can use Dawn dish soap on your laundry to get out grease, but Cascade should stay away from clothing and sheets. Try Tide or Gain...

Ning and GoogleDocs confuse me. I grok Yahoo groups and some of the more BBS-like forums. This forum is bloated but I think I can navigate it. I don't understand Facebook and had to have my teenager teach me MySpace. (Why anyone would want to use them is beyond me.) "Blog" sounds like something rude left floating in a toilet.

I'm a 39-year-old commercial artist who is not a programmer. Although, in the early 90s I was a Linux SysAdmin. So I can kind of wade around through the back end of things if I have a roadmap. Furthermore... I'm married to the guy who wrote Pan and Transmission, and HE had problems getting around in OS Commerce. He flat out refuses to help me with ZenCart because he doesn't want to fool with anything related to OS Commerce.

I am not stupid. I just don't know where the hell to start. If I could buy a program that would act just like Etsy I would love to know where to get one. But evidently this is just as much of a solution as anything else out there, so if someone can point me to some man pages (I'm NOT paying for the eBook until I know whether or not I'm going to keep this as my shop software). And when I do buy the book, I'm getting a hard copy so I can keep it in my bathroom. I understand "you can't Grep a dead tree", but there isn't a lot of command-line interface with zencart.

What would be helpful is something (a file? a picture?) that will allow me to quickly get overviews on what I'm looking at so that I can manage my time better. I need to spend a lot of time making and marketing my products, not hours and hours poring over some jargonesque and over-my-head forum posts. I don't know what I'm looking at.

As I used to tell my own lusers, "I'll hand you the paper but I won't wipe your a$$." So would someone please steer me in the direction of the ladies' room? Coz at the moment, trying to parse the interface and forums seems a bit like trying to find a clean bathroom at the state fair. And the instructions are akin to the graffiti written on the wall in eyeliner, nail polish, and sharpie... and excrement, sometimes.