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Section 3: Customizing the Admin Menu

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Settings
One of your first tasks is to customize your new eStore. Go to the Administration Menu and click Settings: Main. The “Change eStore System Settings” screen will appear. The screen instructions tell you to enter the changes, and warn you to be careful, but in actuality, you can change the settings as many times as you wish, and you can change them at any time.

Note: As you work, if you want to see how your page will look, click the “Change eStore Settings” button at the bottom of the page. A pop-up screen will inform you that the settings have been applied. Click on the blue “Return to Admin Menu” link at the bottom of the screen. At the Admin Menu, click Main Pages: View. Select a page from the pop-up menu. You will then be able to see your changes on the actual eStore page. To return to the Admin Menu, click your browser’s Back icon.

Fill the fields with the correct changes and information. In particular, you can begin with the three changes recommended in the "Your New Store Is Ready" email confirmation message you received:

  1. "Mail To": enter the email address customers should use to get more information.
  2. "Address Line": enter your company’s address as it will appear on eStore pages.
  3. "Sort Listings By": choose product ID (which allows sorting by category) or date.

To make these changes as well as the rest of the settings changes, go to the Admin Menu and click "Change eStore Settings. You will see a screen like the following:

Change eStore System Settings

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Following is a description of each system setting and of how it can be used:

Note: Before making changes to any of these settings, it is a good idea to print the parameter settings pages from within your browser so you have a record of the original settings. Once you change the settings, the changes are automatically applied throughout your eStore site.

    Store Title: The message you want your customers to see at the top of their browser's screen.

    Mail To: The email address where you want email sent when customers request more information on a product you have listed.

    Mail Subject: The phrase you want in the subject line of email you receive from visitors to your site. Setting this to something unique makes it easy to identify inquiries from ezStoreMaker. You may want something like ‘ezStoreMaker Inquiry’.

    Address Line: Your company’s address as you want it to appear on your site and on your product pages.

    Button Message: The word or phrase on the button located at the bottom of each listing page. This phrase might be something like ‘to order’ or ‘contact us’ or any other phrase you want. The default is ‘Contact us about this listing’.

    Sort Listings By: The sequential order in which you want your products to appear on the listings page and on the order form. A good approach is to use either the date you entered the listing, or the listing ID. Choosing the listing ID allows you to sort listings by product number and product category.

    Build Order Form?: Either ‘Yes’ or ‘No’. If you choose 'Yes," links to the Order Form will be placed on all pages created or rebuilt after this parameter is set. Furthermore, all new products that have a price will be added to the Order Form.

    Meta Tag Description: Description that search engines will use to describe your site. Enter something specific and appropriate, using 25 words or less.

    Meta Tag Keywords: Keywords that search engines will use to index your site. Choose up to 25 specific keywords that identify the contents of your site. (Avoid generic keywords like "Computer Store.") You may want to repeat these keywords in the "Store Title" of your eStore.

    Listing Headline Font Face: The font you wish to use on the headlines that appear on your product pages. Arial and Times New Roman are good choices because most computers have these fonts installed; however, you may select any valid font name. It is best to use a san serif font (no little tick marks on the letters) like Arial for headlines.

    Listing Headline Font Color: Drop-down list will allow you to select any valid font color. Default is black.

    Listing Headline Font Size: Headline letter size, usually either +1 or +2 depending on the font choice. Experiment to obtain the best results.

    Listing Body Font Face: Font used in the body text of product listings pages. Can be any valid font name. It is best to use a serif font (letters have tiny tick marks that help draw the eye horizontally and therefore make reading faster and easier) for body text, such as Times New Roman. Avoid fonts that are so fancy your clients will have difficulty reading your text. Avoid writing blocks of text in all-bolded or italicized fonts, because they are more difficult to read.

    Listing Body Font Color: drop-down list allows you to select any valid font color. Default is black.

    Listing Body Font Size: Font size used for product page body text, usually either +1 or +2 depending on font used.

    Main Pages Body Font Face: Font that will appear as the body text of main pages (such as Index, Contact Us, About Us, Search), usually Times New Roman.

    Main Pages Body Font Color: Color of font used in body text of main pages (such as Index, Contact Us, About Us, Search). Default is set to black.

    Main Pages Body Font Size: Size of font used in body text of main pages (such as Index, Contact Us, About Us, Search). Usually will be +1 or +2 depending on font face selected.

    Main Pages Headline Font Face: Font face to be used in headlines on the main pages (such as Index, Contact Us, About Us, Search), usually Arial or a similar easy-to-read sans serif font.

    Main Pages Headline Font Color: Color of headline text on the main pages (such as Index, Contact Us, About Us, Search). Default is black.

    Main Pages Headline Font Size: Size of the headline text, usually +1, +2, +3 depending on font face selected.

    Color of Panel on Contact Us Page: Drop-down list allows you to choose the color of the panels on the Contact Us page.

    Background Color on All Pages: Drop-down list allows you to choose the background color you want on all your pages. White usually works best.

    Text Color: Drop-down list allows you to choose the color of the body text to be used on all pages. Black usually works best.

    Link Color: Drop-down list allows you to select color for links to be used on certain pages. Default is blue.

    Visited Link Color: Drop-down lists allows you to select color to be used for visited links on all your pages. The default is blue.

    Active Link Color: Drop-down lists allows you to select color to be used for color of active links on all your pages. The default is blue

    Listings Headings Column 1: Heading to appear on the top of Column 1 on the product listings index page, usually set to ‘Item Number’.

    Listings Headings Column 2: heading to appear on the top of Column 2 on the product listings index page, usually set to ‘Product Description’.

    Listings Headings Column 3: heading to appear on the top of Column 3 on the product listings index page, usually set to ‘Price’.

    Extra Page #1 Name: Name of optional extra page link you wish to appear on all ezStoreMaker pages. If you leave this blank, it will not appear. Useful if you want a page such as ‘sponsored by,’ or ‘map,’ or anything else. Put the link name of the page here.

    Extra Page #1 URL: If you enter a page name in the setting above, tell ezStoreMaker where the page can be found. If you plan to use the extra pages that ezStoreMaker provides for this, enter the full page URL. It will look something like the following:
    http://www.hostsite.com/yourname/page1.html
    Replace the URL with your site name. Note that you can enter any valid address on the Internet and ezStoreMaker will link to it.

    Extra Page #2 Name: Name of optional extra page link you wish to appear on all ezStoreMaker pages. If you leave this blank, it will not appear. Useful if you want a page such as ‘sponsored by,’ or ‘map,’ or anything else. Put the link name of the page here.

    Extra Page #2 URL: If you enter a page name in the setting above, tell ezStoreMaker where the page can be found. If you plan to use the extra pages that ezStoreMaker provides for this, enter the full page URL. It will look something like the following:
    http://www.hostsite.com/yourname/page1.html
    Replace the URL with your site name. Note that you can enter any valid address on the Internet and ezStoreMaker will link to it.

    Extra Page #3 Name: Name of optional extra page link you wish to appear on all ezStoreMaker pages. If you leave this blank, it will not appear. Useful if you want a page such as ‘sponsored by,’ or ‘map,’ or anything else. Put the link name of the page here.

    Extra Page #3
    URL:     If you enter a page name in the setting above, tell ezStoreMaker where the page can be found. If you plan to use the extra pages that ezStoreMaker provides for this, enter the full page URL. It will look something like the following:
    http://www.hostsite.com/yourname/page1.html
    Replace the URL with your site name. Note that you can enter any valid address on the Internet and ezStoreMaker will link to it.

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How to Apply Changes
To change any of the above parameters, enter the new information or use the drop-down menus to select a valid entry. Then click the Change ezStoreMaker Settings button to rebuild the pages. Then refresh each page to see the changes.

Most Internet browsers ‘cache’ or store in memory Internet pages the first time they are viewed. If they are viewed a second time, the pages are usually shown as stored in memory, instead of the way they currently exist on the Web sites. This can cause you to think a page has not been updated, when it actually has been. If you have any doubt, press and hold the SHIFT button on your keyboard, and then click the Refresh or Reload button on your browser. This will force a page reload so you can see the changes.

How to Load an EZStoreMaker Image Button
You may choose from several basic button images provided in your eStore software. To select one of these buttons, go to the "Change eStore Settings" screen.

You will see the following screen:


Below the "Link Phrase" input box is a "Button Image" upload box. Click the Browse button and select the image you want to upload as the button for that page.

Note: A button does not automatically name its action. You must create a separate image for each button. In addition, you must supply a link phrase for each page you want featured in the text links at the bottom of each page.

How to Create and Load a Customized Image Button
You can create a customized button image. First, you need a graphic that you can take into a graphic editing program like Paint Shop Pro (http://www.jasc.com/psp6dl.html). Once you have opened the file and can see the graphic image on the screen, enter text onto the button that will correlate to the appropriate page in your eStore. Next, save the image as either a .gif or .jpg file. Repeat this process for every page for which you would like a button, changing the button text to match the desired page.

Once you have created and saved the various buttons, log into the "Admin Menu" of your eStore. Click "Change eStore Settings" and scroll down to the form section that lists your eStore pages. Click the Browse button next to the field corresponding to the pages for which you want to upload a button. Find the file through the upload file screen and then click OK.

After you have found all the buttons you wish to upload, click "Apply Changes." When the upload is complete, click Refresh to see the new images.

How to Remove an Existing Button
To remove an existing button, go to the "Change eStore Settings" screen. In the "Image Upload" field, key-in the lower-case word remove. Click "Apply Changes."

Note: As soon as you remove a button image, the link phrase for that page will be displayed instead.

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