Set Up Your Store: Section II

Now that you have the back office set up, it's time to make the storefront your own.

In your Admin panel, select Content Manager, then click on "Define MainPage." In the Edit box you will see everything that currently appears in the middle of your storefront -- the default CRE Loaded store. Simply select everything in the box and delete it, then create your own storefront.

You can make this page as simple or as intricate as you want -- anything from "Welcome to my store" to a page (like the CRE Loaded store) with tables and pictures and all sorts of bells and whistles. You can format your text using the icons above the text box, just like in a word processor; you can use a word processor to compose your text and then copy and paste it here. (However, if you use Microsoft Word, instead of pasting directly into the box, click , then paste your text into the pop-up window to preserve your page formatting.)

Click "Save" when you’re done -- and if you're doing something involved, be sure to save your work every few minutes so you don't lose it. Remember, as a security precaution you will automatically be logged out every 15 minutes or so (unless you changed your Session Lifetime in Part 1) and any changes not saved when that happens will vanish!

When you finish with your Welcome text, click on "Info Manager" (in the Content Manager menu). This will take you to a screen where you can edit the text for your "Terms and Conditions," "Shipping and returns," and "Privacy" policies. You can also add new information here, such as a copyright notice, if you want to.

Now comes the only slightly tricky part: uploading your company logo. To do this, you will need a copy of your logo in GIF format. You will also need to be able to FTP the file to your site. If none of this makes sense to you, you’ll need to have someone else do this step for you.

If you have your logo in a format other than GIF and you have graphics software such as Photoshop or Illustrator, you can open the logo you have and "Save As" a GIF file. Also, be sure the logo isn’t too big -- 100 pixels tall is about the biggest it should be, or it will take up the whole screen and customers won’t see anything else when they first visit your store.

Once you have the GIF file, use FTP to upload it to www.mystore.com/templates/templatename/images/logo.gif (where templatename is the name of your default template -- see Customizing Your Store, Section 1.1 for information about templates). This will overwrite the CRE Loaded logo and display yours in its place.

And now you're done setting up the storefront. There's plenty more you can do to dress up and personalize the design of your site later, but this is enough to get the doors open and the customers in, so to speak. Now it's time to stock the shelves!