Things every New Zenner needs to know

Please do this project. I am so frustrated with this stuff. I am not a computer expert and don't understand how to do any of the things offered as solutions to my issue

Magie Pie, go back to where you originally asked your question about upgrading. I answered and gave you a link to the upgrade instructions and an idea that helped me when I was just learning. As someone else has said, you don't have to be a computer expert, just be willing to read and follow instructions.
Best of luck to you
Dorothy

Well I'm looking for the most basic of tutorials subjects, which is how to take a design I have and put the elements of it into template. This may sound like a very simplistic question, yet if one is new to the cart like I am (I've taken over maintenance of the cart for one of my clients) and have no coding experience in php, yet lots of experience in html and css, it's daunting.

I purchased a manual on how to use the cart and there's oodles of information on the working of the cart, users, products, etc. yet next to nothing on how to actually insert into the header or footer files specific images or any other of what I would consider basic design implementation. For example, how to I get some social media icons into the right hand side of the top of the header? Sounds straight forward and simple enough doesn't it, yet trying to find that information is like searching for a pin in the pacific ocean, you can spend hours doing searches and not find anything even closely related to the subject.

In one case the only way I was able to change a link that was associated to an image in the header was by download the entire site and doing a character string search for the old link, this was after hours of frustration searching for any reference to how to accomplish it.

This makes it extremely frustrating to want to continue to offer services to my client as if anything goes wrong they expect me to fix it and when the information is so difficult to find, if at all, how does one stay in business when one's time is wasted on non-billable hours spent searching for a solution.

So as it turns out a free cart isn't really free when you're new to working with it considering the number of hours one will have to invest just to get a handle on how to work the cart's design. Working with products, orders, users, all of that is fairly straight forward.

So my questions is, Is there a straight forward, step 1, 2, 3, tutorial on how to implement components into the cart, i.e. images for a background, header, footer, etc. etc. That would be a life saver to me at this point as I'm almost ready to throw in the towel and walk away and pass the maintenance on to someone who has some more experience. It is an issue as the client wants to move to a responsive template, which at this point I'm clueless as to how to implement it.

Thank you so much for listening to me ramble and rant just a tiny bit. :-)

Sincerely,

David

Also simple things like how and where to add code for a slide show of images and links.:cool:

picaflor-azul has a collection of tutorials that might help: https://www.picaflor-azul.com/easy-help-zen-cart-video-tutorials

If you are just getting started as a designer, you might consider showing your clients a few demo responsive templates and have them choose from that selection. There is usually quite a bit of information and learning that can be had by following the README files associated with the templates. You could use that information to help make your customizations.

Many of the responsive templates already have the code built for the slide show and links.

That might be a bit easier than inventing a new wheel from scratch and help with the non-billable learning curve that you mention.

Thank you lat9 and RixStix, I was planning on doing just that with the responsive portion, finding a template that the client likes and also has either good documentation or at least a simpler interface to work with. :cool:

You might also look at this link. https://www.zen-cart.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=1724

From the description of issues including downloading files to do a character/word search, might suggest taking a look at this FAQ on the developers tool kit to better understand the power of ZC especially with customization and finding where things are.

dmaria:

Thank you lat9 and RixStix, I was planning on doing just that with the responsive portion, finding a template that the client likes and also has either good documentation or at least a simpler interface to work with. :cool:

Well this is a great way to get your feet wet.. Need to add this.. DO NOT make the mistake of using Theme Forrest or Template Monstrosity templates.. They look good but if you REALLY want to learn how to construct a Zen Cart template, these templates are poorly constructed and will not teach you the RIGHT way to do it for yourself.. Picaflor-Azul templates are a good start..

I thought I would have problems with the installation, but everything went well :)