Easy questions for you pros.

I will be creating a site initially only using VSD. Probably about 3 to 4 months after the site creation I will need to create a store front. I don't do any coding (or as little as possible).

So am I on the right track as far as using VSD first and then using Shopping Cart Creator later? When I click on a "go to store" button, would that then link to a folder that's been created with SCC?

From what I saw, VSD and SCC have totally different themes. Are the themes interchangeable?

If not, can one start from scratch in VSD and create the same look in SCC?

Thanks for your help.

Galen

Hiya Galen,

If you check the CC theme store you'll find there's a good handful (and more coming from what I understand at some point) of themes that have matching VSD and SCC themes so you can purchase them both and have them matching to start with, and alter as needed. You'll need Shopping Cart Designer to alter things in the theme such as Logo and backgrounds and anything else you want to customize your shop with.
(Pro would be the best way to go for both the Designer and the Creator for shopping cart to get the most functionality and features).

This way it doesn't matter which one you start with.

As for the menu, what you do if you have an external site that you want to attach to a shop is install your shop into the same domain, but into a /shop sub directory (you don't' need to setup a sub directory, just have the program install it to /public_html/shop of the domain of your VSD site and that should take care of where it installs.

On your VSD menu add a Shop type menu button and have that linked to your shop location on your site which would be /shop
In the SCC program have the home page be pointing to your VSD site home page.

That's it, you now have a shop with the same thing, the home page being your VSD site page so the home on your Shop menu will point there too, and the Shop shows up when you click the Shop button.

Jo Ann,

Thanks for the information. I'm going to take a look at the thems for SCC.

Thanks again,

Galen

You're quite welcome, give a holler if you need more help

Hi Galen,

I took the approach that Jo Ann recommends below, and for my purposes it works very well. My main site is in VSD, with a "Store" button linking the to shop done with SCC pro & SCD pro. I used SCD pro to make the store look similar to the main site (I'll be tweaking/improving this more in the future.) The bottom line here is that creating your own themes is really pretty easy.

I too keep coding to the bare minimum, so this combination of tools fits my needs very well. Plus, I've found that site and store updates are very easy and quick - like seasonal specials and featured images in the store.

The site and store links are in my sig. Please take a look as one example of how this can be done.

Thanks.

I am new to VSD, Shopping Cart Creator and Designer Pro versions. I do not see the theme I customized in Designer Pro available in the Windows 7 themes for VSD. I want the site to match. Can I just use all of the graphics folders and edit the index and pages in the HTML editor, which of course is not ideal give my lack of development experience, but is this the way I will have to go?

Hiya Mary,

If you have a customized theme, then it's pretty hard for you to find that in the CC store for sale That is of course unless you started with a particular theme and edited it from there. Which theme did you start with or did you start with a template and do your own design?

If you cannot find the theme you started with in the store (holler and we'll help look for it if you did), then yes you'll need to design it yourself in the HTML editor or VSD depending on which program you use for web building. If you search through the shop files you should be able to find all your images that you used on your theme to be able to use them on your site too. I would highly suggest that you copy those images to your main image directory rather than linking to them through the shop for if you remove the shop, those images will be gone too so best to keep them separate.

You can definitely use the images within VSD if that's what you use though, it may be easier for you to design the site to look the same if your a more visual type of creator. Either way will work though, just takes a lot more coding and CSS ability if you use the HTML Editor.

Good luck on it and let us know if you need more assistance.

If you have Web Image Studio, you can open all of the Shopping Cart graphics in it for editing, then "save for web" and they'll be ready to go in your VSD site. I would work with copies of the originals and save under a different name. WIS makes it very easy to change the colors and add effects as well as re-sizing objects.
You could use the same backgrounds, buttons, whatever in your VSD site as in your Cart