Customizing My Site

Blue host is my webprovider so they put zencart on my site for me. I bought the Zen Cart book which is wonderful but there is no section on customizing your store with the templates etc. I have made it to chapter 13 and part of 14. I see where I can download templates etc but the book does not start at the beginning like it does for all your products. I found somewhere a checklist of what I need to run cart. I had everything except a text editor so I downloaded Crimson but I do not know what to do with it. I used filezilla to get into my site but I cannot find all this HTML coding that needs to be modified. I originally had my website designed and working via frontpage and I needed a shopping cart and blue host suggested Zen Cart. My entire website was wiped out with this shopping cart and not made a part of. I will work at a project until I get it but I do not know where to start to find the basics with outlines. It would be great if Zen Cart could go farther in the instructional manual to include the building of the site with the templates etc along with the Wonderful Instructions for the inventory. Could someone please give me direction :frusty:

The best place to start is the FAQ and tutorials. Link at the top of the page.

Thanks Kim I have been there and seem to be lost as well. I went to your site and did not find any info either. Can you tell me where to start looking???
Do you plan on expanding the book to include this information

Eventually, there will be a template book. Take a deep breath and take one small step at a time. As long as you have time you can learn everything you need to know.

ok, thanks I read somewhere zen cart is not all that easy to use, I hope that is not true. I just wish the book would have started from the beginning.

Kim, I contacted blue host, they are not really very helpful at all I am starting to get really frustrated with them. I have 8 sites with them and refer people but lately they have a hands off approach. They cannot help me find a "catalog" folder. I have found the zen cart, to configure my .php files I and they can only find the folders that start after "catalog" I have includes, admin/includes etc but not catalog. Blue host says ask you?

also, is part of my problem that i did not download zen cart to my computer first and that bluehost stuck it right into the website?

Although it would be nice if Templating was easier, it is not the place to start when first starting with Zen Cart. I would suggest to start building a cash reserve so you can hire someone to incorporate a different Theme for you, when you are ready.

Right now, best to start with the default or Classic Theme and to start learning how the various Zen Cart features work to your advantage. Whatever changes you make in the Admin section will transfer over to a new Theme. Continue with the Manual as your starting point and get things setup the way you want. Theme changes can be done at anytime without losing your settings.

Just FYI - many of the tutorials refer to the catalog files - unless the files were installed in a directory called 'catalog' you won't find it. Catalog is used to differentiate the store side of the program from the admin.

So it is safe to say, bluehost did not get a full install for me?

What is the URL to reach your Zen Cart?

If it is: http://yourdomain.com/catalog/ then it could be said they set it up correctly, but necessarily installed correctly.

If it is: http://yourdomain.com and your previous Home page is now replaced by the Zen Cart Home page and you did not ask them to do that, then it could be said they did not do a correct setup.