Highlighting products
Next is a list of the different ways to promote elements of your range. There is also an explanation of each option and how to do it as well.

New products

So you have just found some […]

Time for action – adding category descriptions
Be ready with the text for all your categories or you can of course type them as you go:

Click on Catalog and then on the first categories’ Edit button. […]

Summary – Shop Fitting and Lay
We achieved quite a lot in this chapter. Specifically, we covered:

Setting up the key PrestaShop modules: With a few clicks, we can add or remove quite significant features to […]

Time for action – uploading your company/store logo
So you now have your logo graphic. Here is how to add it to your shop:

Click on the Preferences tab.
Click on Appearance. This is what you will see: […]

The cherry on top
Now let’s fix up your company/shop logo. If you don’t have one already and you don’t know where to start to create one, grab hold of my free graphics and logos guide from http://www.prestashop-book.com […]

Time for action – creating a new template
It’s really easy to create a new template. The trick to achieving something unique here is to experiment. Try some really big sizes and perhaps consider decreasing the n […]

Time for action – changing the default image size
This is really easy to do. The trick to achieving something unique here is to experiment. Try some really big sizes and perhaps consider decreasing the number o […]

Time for action – moving modules
Make sure you are logged into your PrestaShop control panel and read on.

Click on the Modules tab and then the Positions sub-tab.
Click on the Transplant a module l […]

Customizing your template
Here, as the heading suggests, we will look at customizing our chosen template. Creating a template from scratch is too in-depth for the space we have here and involves a skill I am not […]

Time for action – installing a PrestaShop theme
Here is how to do it.

Download the template to your PC.
Hold the Windows key and tap E twice. In one window, browse to your downloaded theme. In the other w […]

PrestaShop themes
Themes are what distinguish one PrestaShop from another. They are sometimes called as templates. They define the color, graphics, and even the actual ambience of your store. For example, if you […]

Time for action – creating departments to contact
We are going to divide your shop into departments to give it a more professional feel and to create confidence in customers sending you messages. Remember that w […]

Contacting your store
What if someone needs to contact you? Perhaps they need to ask a question, complain,
or just want to say hello.

Contacts

You need to have relevant contacts for the different types of […]

Time for action – defining manufacturers and suppliers
Defining manufacturers and suppliers is, like most things in PrestaShop, a fairly simple affair. If you are only defining manufacturers and not suppliers o […]

Suppliers and manufacturers
Do you use lots of different suppliers and manufacturers? Are they relevant to your product offering? What do I mean by this? As an example, if you sell technology gadgets, then the […]

Time for action – using the content management system
Having decided upon the text for all your pages, it is time to actually create them.

Click on the Tools tab. Next click on CMS.
From the list of p […]

Creating the ‘must-have’ pages
What follows is a discussion of the pages you would probably expect to find on any e-commerce website. I will go through each in turn, discuss its purpose, and make some suggestions […]

Time for action – how to add your content to your home page
PrestaShop has a really easy-to-use CMS. CMS is an acronym for Content Management System. It will allow you to create and label content and then make l […]

What goes on your home page?
First let’s discuss what goes on the home page and then it’s Time for action to actually add your new content to the home page.

Unique Selling Proposition

Every business should […]

Creating your home page
This is the page that visitors will see if they type your shop’s URL without any extra bits. There is much debate about the best way to present your home page and what type of information […]

Time for action – installing the shopping cart module
We are now going to create a shopping cart module:

Log in to your PrestaShop control panel and click on the Modules tab. You should see the same window a […]

Arranging key modules
Your shop front as it stands is quite bland. But in around 20 pages time in will
be bristling with modules, search boxes, navigation boxes, a smart header, and
much more.

In this […]

Summary – Building Your PrestaShop
We learned a lot in this chapter about PrestaShop.
Specifically, we covered the following:

Obtaining PrestaShop: Where to download it from and how to prepare the files, […]

Before we continue
It is not important to know where everything is and how it works at this stage. As I mentioned before, we will approach each topic in the likely order of setting up a new business and not in a […]

Time for action – logging in to your PrestaShop control panel
Here is how to get there.

In your web browser type http://www.yourdomain.com/youradminfoldername, where youradminfoldername is the same name that you c […]

Your admin control panel
Now log in to your store control panel. This is where 90 percent of this book will take place. This is what you will see:

Your shop-front explained
Now, at last, it is time to see your shop! Visit http://www.yourdomain.com . It should look like the following screenshot:

I have made a couple of notes to indicate a few areas that we […]

Time for action – renaming the admin folder
You should already have an FTP window to perform these steps. If not repeat Steps 1 to 3 in the previous Time for action section and then come back here.

Find t […]

Post-install security
Just a few, very quick modifications to your PrestaShop files and it’s done.

Deleting the install folder

What we need to do is delete the entire folder called install from your web […]

Pages
Pages in WordPress are for all the things that are not part of a blog. You’ll notice that your first page, About, was created for you during installation.

Simple pages are much like posts: you need a t […]

How to install PrestaShop
Now for the fun part when you get to see some results. What we are going to do is run the PrestaShop auto-installer. This will be a series of web pages where you will enter information […]

Summary – Dashboard
Once you’ve combed through all these settings, you should have a pretty good idea of how your blog is going to work. You’ve decided how you want the editor to behave when you write new pos […]

Time for action – transferring files to your web host
To make this as quick and easy as it can be, I will use a few Windows shortcuts in this short click-by-click guide. Just before you dive in, you will need y […]

Settings – Dashboard
The Settings panels give you control over almost every aspect of your site. In addition to the options below, many plugins will add settings panels with even more options. There’s a lot to c […]

The Dashboard
Once you’ve logged in and changed your password, it’s time to go exploring. You’ve probably noticed the navigation menu along the left side of your screen. Did you notice that it has two forma […]

Summary – Installing and Upgrading
In this chapter, you’ve learned how to install and upgrade WordPress. I’ve talked about things that can go wrong and how you can correct the problems, and I’ve shown you a few w […]

Moving a WordPress Site
If you ever need to move your WordPress installation from one server to another, start by reversing the installation process.

Step 1: Download the WordPress files from your server. Make […]

Site Optimization

Magento is a content management system that is commonly known to be performance intensive. Optimizing the speed of your Magento allows customers to have the best user experience while shopping […]

Installing Plugins
While WordPress includes most of the features you would want in a basic site, sooner or later you’ll probably find that you want something more. Visit http://www.wordpress.org/extend/plugins to see a […]

Installing Themes
Once you have WordPress installed, you’ll want to make it look good! You can change themes at any time. The new 2010 default theme in WordPress 3.0 is excellent. However, if you want s […]

Troubleshooting
On most web hosts, PHP errors are logged rather than printed to the screen. This is good security; it prevents you from accidentally exposing your database password or other sensitive information […]