How do I put my Dreamweaver template into my store?

I am in the midst of developing an E-commerce web site and am at the beginning stages when I have run into an issue. I have created a template in dreamweaver that I will apply to all of the different pages. The ecommerece page will only be one of many that are shown on this page.

My problem is that my spry menu looks good and operates fine on the index page but when I apply that template to the index.php page the text size of the menu items are much smaller and the padding does not correctly put them in line with my button images.

Little background. In dreamweaver I created a new html page based off of my html template and inside the editable region I have copied the php contents of the index.php page. Then when I saved the file i saved it as index.php instead of .html.

I have a feeling that the root of my problem is related to the stylesheet.css butting heads with my SpryMenu.css but don't have a clue where to start and was looking for a little insight.

If you wanna see what this looks like go to new.computechracing.com and everything looks as it should. Then if you click on Shop Now you will see that the spry menu has changed. Any help on this would be great. Thanks guys.

I am in the midst of developing an E-commerce web site and am at the beginning stages when I have run into an issue. I have created a template in dreamweaver that I will apply to all of the different pages. The ecommerece page will only be one of many that are shown on this page.

My problem is that my spry menu looks good and operates fine on the index page but when I apply that template to the index.php page the text size of the menu items are much smaller and the padding does not correctly put them in line with my button images.

Little background. In dreamweaver I created a new html page based off of my html template and inside the editable region I have copied the php contents of the index.php page. Then when I saved the file i saved it as index.php instead of .html.

I have a feeling that the root of my problem is related to the stylesheet.css butting heads with my SpryMenu.css but don't have a clue where to start and was looking for a little insight.

If you wanna see what this looks like go to new.computechracing.com and everything looks as it should. Then if you click on Shop Now you will see that the spry menu has changed. Any help on this would be great. Thanks guys.

you should never edit index.php and you taking a wrong path.

Please head to tutorial / faq section and read up about Override and how to create custom template.

also there is a free module in add on section of this site that allows you to create header menu like one on your site .

I have implemented a spry menu above my shopping cart using the override system. I have created a new tpl_header file and placed the spry menu and background image right after the "headerWrapper" division. The problem is that the stylesheet.css somehow overwrites and modifies the existing sprymenu.css

new.computechracing.com

If you click on that link you will see what the spry menu and header image is supposed to look like. Then when you click on products you will see what happens.

I have found that if i disable the font-size="62.5%" then the font size changes but not correctly, it actually gets bigger than its supposed to. So then i figured that if I made my general css of the main page to have the same 62.5% text size that I could get them both identical and then adjust the spry to accommodate. But that didn't work either.

Why is the same html code that uses the same stylesheet showing up two different ways. What on the zen cart stylesheet is causing this to happen?

I originally wanted to use a dreamweaver template and put the catalogs index.php file inside of the editable region but was instructed that I shouldn't ever mess with the index and instead should use the override. This is a little frustrating cause it means that if I want to make any changes to the spry menu I have to change the template which will update all the other pages and then I have to individually modify the template override files.

If anyone knows how to get my spry menu to look the same on a regular html file as well as the the catalog pages then I would greatly appreciate it.

If anyone knows how to apply a dreamweaver template to the overall catalog then I would be even more grateful.

I have tried changing a lot of little things but that is synonymous to throwing a dart at the wall and trying to hit a bulls eye when I don't know where the bulls eye is!!

Please Help!!

Can anyone offer any help at all? I've purchased the book but there is no mention of this anywhere in the book, or in the FAQ as far as I can tell.

Please Help!

you can add spry css rules to end of stylesheet.css and this might solve some problems.
also , you can add your spry style sheet in CSS directory ( follow the naming convention ) and let zencart load your stylesheet for you. ( better practice ) .
zencart is modular , a single zencart page is dynamically constructed of many php pages. such as header, footer, sideboxes, and center box.

in most case you can change the look of your pages using zencart stylsheet. however, if you need to move elements around , then you need to find the correct php page to do so .

install firefox browser and firebug plugin , this will help you find page elements and you can modify them ( cache version ) to see the effect on your page.

also you can use Developer tool kit , in admin > tools , section of your store to search for any tag , code , class , language . etc within your zc pages.

DesignLessDesign:

If anyone knows how to apply a dreamweaver template to the overall catalog then I would be even more grateful.

That, at least, can't be done.

When I add a Zencart installation in a subdirectory of an existing site, I style the Zencart part to look like the existing design, but only working within Zencart. In other words, I don't try to insert any of the current design into Zencart, but rather copy the design using Zencart styling methods.

Of course, you have to know a little about how Zencart is styled, and there's lots of info in these forums and in the FAQ/Tutorials about that. Unfortunately, The Book contains almost nothing about styling.

My advice: put Dreamweaver away while you're figuring this out. An FTP client and a good text editor are your tools of choice, along with the Web Developer plugin for Firefox.

We'll be glad to help with specific questions/problems.

I had a look at your DW efforts so far and what you have done is achievable in ZC.

I advocate what Steve says - put Dreamweaver back in its box for the next few weeks - it is of no use to you right now.

The "dropdown" menu can be replicated using a variety of techniques specific to zencart, and there are already a few modules that will give you dropdown header menus.

Unfortunately, most people who work with Dreamweaver have been utterly "spoilt" because the program is so good at what it does. It does not require its users to know the slightest whiff of raw HTML, CSS, or JS...

Unfortunately, you've just entered the real world, where that knowledge is fundamental...