One Country | US Only, Login Page not defaulting to US

Hi, I have a few little problems with using only one country. I have not gone and deleted all of the countries as ZC will remove the country field from my checkout and then not pass country data to the checkout. it'll throw a flag and say, no country data. Note my ZC settings below my questions:

1. How do i get my login page to default to US? Is there a way to hide it via css once it appears with US as default?

2. Side bar shipping estimator does not fit due to the "Please Select your Country." I would like to get rid of the select your country bit across the site.

Folks have done it, does anyone know how?

http://www.bulkgummy.com/gummy-bears

Oh, i installed the Active Country plugin so i can just turn off countries, over having to delete from the database.

My Store --> Country --> United States

My Store --> Zone --> Michigan

Customer Details --> State - Always display as pulldown? true

Customer Details --> Create Account Default Country ID --> United States

Config --> Shipping/Packaging --> Country of Origin --> United States

modules --> Shipping Zone --> Lower 48

A bit more..
Zone Definitions

Zone Name | Zone Description
48 Lower States | 48 States + DC

The reality there are so many, majority maybe not, but certainly many individuals pouring tons of redundant time on configuring zc for one country. in future releases, it would be nice to have some simplicity here. seems like thousands and thousands of people are struggling to repeat the same steps...

is there a work around for the checkout error once i remove the other countries from the database?

Okay, after your numerous other threads and posts on this same topic, I did the following in 10 minutes:

1. Set up a fresh clean v1.5.0 site, using demo data
2. Deleted all countries except USA, and deleted all zones except those associated with USA
3. Set the State pulldown to always on in Admin->Customer Details
4. Set the default country to USA in Admin->Customer Details

Now the create-account page defaults to USA, and shows a pulldown for states to select from. There's nothing wrong with the Country field showing as USA, since that makes it clear to the customer that that's the selected country. It removes a potential point of confusion that might exist if country was omitted from display altogether.

Shipping Estimator also defaults to USA and offers only the US states in the pulldown.

What am I missing here vs what you're trying to accomplish?

2 big user interface errors. first with just the US in the country field as running now, the State is not a drop down! now it is a fill in, where the user can fill it in wrong, type the whole state or just plain misspell.

but mostly it says, You must select a country from the Countries pull down menu. AND THERE IS NO COUNTRY PULL DOWN.

for non-US testing just use the STATE of Ohio | City: Perrysburg | Post/ZIP Code: 43551

hmm..part of it may be the editing of the login page to get it lighter....

If you're not getting the dropdown, then your template is either extremely old or severely damaged.

When I use the default ("Classic") template, the pulldowns (both State and Country) both work just fine ... out-of-the-box.

how about the issue with the great big long country selector for the shipping estimator on the sidebar? how can i can clean that up?

Not sure. Where did it come from? It's not part of default Zen Cart code.

What about it is "too long"? The width or the height?

it pops up the "Please choose your country bar" as it is just reprint the shipping estimator. so certainly the width. you can see it on the page link way up top as well.

If you change the text (in your language files) for "Please choose your country" to something shorter, like "Please select:", then the width problem should be solved.

But frankly, on your site, I don't see the value in having a shipping-estimator sidebox. I know I for one would never use it. I'd use it on your Shopping Cart page instead. Having it in the sidebar feels pointless, especially when it's below-the-fold and not seen anyway because of all the credit-card and security logos you've stuffed above it.

Thanks again. I removed the sidebox shipping estimator per your suggestion. now i stuffed all those logos in there just for you good doctor. i struggled to find the original zen login that actually had the form on it. if one just wanted to edit the current form, that shows State/Province: /Type a Choice below, can i just rip the shopping car part and stick it in there or....