Customer Support

Introduction

First, all of the selections in the Category display are optional. The catalog will function without making any changes to the Category Display options. There are default values specified in the Global Information and by the EZ-Catalog system itself. You only need to make changes if you want a different look and feel to your Category pages.

Second, the options available may differ depending on the layout that has been selected in layout configuration.

Third, there are two versions of Category Display pages. One version is the displays products within the selected category. The second version displays the subcategories. The layouts will be similar. The configuration options selected will affect both versions.

Buttons at the Top and Bottom of the Options Section

Use Defaults

If at anytime, while editing the settings on the category display, you want to go back to the basic settings that came with EZ-Catalog and forget about the changes you made, you can do so by clicking on the "Use Defaults" button located in the upper-left of the page. This button will reload all of the default settings that come with ALL of the different layouts. Please note that if you have been working with different layouts, and have made changes, that all of these changes will be changed to the defaults, even though the other layout settings are not visible. This button is located in the top-left and bottom-left of each section under EZCatalog Appearance. If you want to go back to your previous settins, use the "reset" button.

Previous and Next

If you want to go back to any of the sections under EZCatalog Appearance that are previous to the Category Display section you can use the "Prev" button, or if you want to just go ahead and skip over the Category Display section then use the "Next" button. Both of these buttons are located at the top-center and bottom-center of each section under EZCatalog Appearance.

Reset

If you want to undo all of the changes you have made since you last saved your work, click the reset button. This is different from the "Use Defaults" button because the "Reset" returns the values to what you had saved previously whereas the "Use Defaults" takes the values back to those that came with the selected layout. This button is located in the top-right and bottom-right of each section under the EZCatalog Appearance.

Configurable options for Category Display

Page Layout

Items Per Page. This setting will dictate how many different items will be shown on one page, whether they be subcategories or products. So if you have quite a bit of information on each product or the picture is large, then it will be a good idea to keep the number of items per page to a minimum. But, however, if each product can be displayed in a small amount of space, then you can increase the number of items that are displayed per page.

Columns Per Page: If using a layout which supports columns, this will set the number of columns the products will be displayed in.

Image Height/Width: If the selected layout supports thumbnail images, this will set the size of the thumbnails displayed. The width and height only specifies the boundaries for the image. The image will be resized to fix within these boundaries but will maintain it's aspect ratio so that the image will not be skewed.

Category and Product Sorting

Sort Categories By. You can have subcategories within a category sorted by one of two fields; the category title or the category ID. The category title and the category ID you defined when you created or maintained your categories. If you want so sort by the category ID, you also can chose whether you want them sorted alphabetically or numerically. This only affects the sort if your category ID's contain numbers. For example, sorting alphabetically, the number 10 will sort ahead of 2. Whereas numerically, 2 will sort ahead of 10. You also have the option of whether you want sort to be in ascending (smallest first) or descending (largest first).

Sort Product By. For those categories that contain products, you can choose the order the products will appear. The options are by price, stock number, stock number numerically, title, import/add order. You also have the option of whether you want sort to be in ascending (smallest first) or descending (largest first).

Items to Display

Show global links. Indicate if you want the Global Links used on your other pages to also appear on the category pages.

Link to Order Form. Indicate if you want a link to the Secure Order Form after each product.

Use Shopping Cart. Normally you will want to select a link to the shopping cart. However in the case you do not wish to use the shopping cart, then uncheck this box which will remove the button to the shopping cart and remove the quantity field.

Show Search Keys. If you are using search keys, you can have the search keys values you have defined for products to appear underneath the other product information.

Show table borders. Select this option if you want a border around each product and product element in the category display.

Show product prices. Select this option if you do not want the prices to display in the category listing.
Title Colors. Specify the colors to be used in the category/product title bar. You can specify both the background and the text colors.

By default, the category pages will use the options you have selected in the Global Information Settings. However, you can override some of these options for your catalog options. Note: even these settings can be overridden by selections in the Category, Product, Shopping Cart, and Order Form configuration.

Background: Select the color you want for the background to the category page.

Image: Select the image you want in the background of your category page. If you select an image, it will over ride the background color you selected. If no image is specified, then the back ground color will display.

Text: Select the color you want the text for the titles and descriptions to be.

Text Appearance

Font: Select the font for the text associated with the category page. The fonts available are those that most browsers will recognize and render correctly. While there are a great many fonts available, not all browsers will display them correctly.

Size: Select the size of the text associated with the titles, descriptions, etc on the catalog pages.

Note: You select the color for the text in the Colors and Background section.

Border Appearance

Link Appearance

The default selections for link appearance are those set in Global Information.

The preview section will show you how your selections for links will appear. After you make a selection, then update the preview. The sample text will provide an example of what the links options will look like.

Normal: Specify the color that a link should appear when the page is first visited and the associated link has never been visited.

Visited: Specify the color of a link that has been visited.

Active: Specify the color of a link that is currently being visited.

Mouseover: Specify the color the link should change to if the use moves the mouse cursor over the link.