Hi all well I've been playing with SCC pro & SCD pro for a few weeks now sad to say I'm disappointed. Both programs promised so much but are let down by the omission of some basic functions which came as a shock. let me explain why I feel this way, the products I sell are solar energy systems for recreational vehicles it is therefore vital that the customer can review all the technical specifications of the various systems I supply so as to make an informed choice as to which system is best for them
I started in the usual way setting up categories and products with photos of the various components and systems available. Then moved on to the details pages low and behold that’s here my problems started the text editor is so basic as to be totally useless as I need to create specification bullet lists i.e. panel size power outputs and there is no facility for me to do this nor can I create tables which is another function I need. I would have thought that the text editor would be more than just a word pad. Now onto SCD pro which I assumed would be a variation of VSD allowing you to customise the look and feel of your shop but no once again apart from some very basic formatting functions I find it very limited in its design capabilities. So my question is why are they so basic surely I’m not the only business that needs the capabilities and functions I’ve mentioned without having to resort to using a myriad of programs to produce that should be easily accomplished in a single application. It really is a shame as the paypal/google checkout functions and inventory management functions and actual structure of the programs are a god send.
My website created using MR site http://www.rvsolarsystems.co.uk/ to give you an idea of the kind of site I was hoping to create. this is so awful to use I thought your software would be a great improvement.

Without digging into my program at the moment (don't have time before work, sorry)... I'm quite certain that you can insert HTML code into the "Long Description" editor, and can create either bullet lists and/or tables via that method. NOT just a simple "wordpad" as you say. As far as SCD Pro, don't think it was ever intended to be a variation of VSD. Not sure what limitations you are finding, but consider the alternative,CC could have NOT published that software, and thus we'd only have templates available that they publish. And while there are some improvements that can/and are being made, I know that there are some really intense shops that have been published using both of these programs.

I second Phils statements. You can insert html code into the pages so there's really not many limits to what you can do especially with text. I never thought of the program as a variation of VSD before I purchased it while I was using the trial version. I know you can make a better looking site then you currently have with CC's programs, but that's my opinion.

I third it, let's send it for a vote

I have to add that I've been disappointed with some of the features (or lack thereof) as well. I keep bumping up into all sorts of issues that keep me from doing what I feel I need to do:

Maybe it is just a matter of inserting HTML, but if I wanted - or even knew how - to use HTML, I would've gotten different software! I thought the strength of this package was precisely to AVOID using HTML. My impression was that this software was directed at people like me that have a business, want to set up a website/shopping cart on their own, and simply don't have the time or inclination to learn HTML to do it.

So I don't see how offering the solution of "just insert HTML" is any sort of fix at all.

What issues exactly Bob are you running into to?

I can see your point here from a non-coders view. What I feel I must say is that with the very basic use of html you can create great description pages. I have used odd snippets of code in my own store pages and have created lists and highlighted areas to my satisfaction.

Could you not just say what odd snippets of code would be useful and those of us who are coders can just leave those here for you to pick up and paste into your pages?

It would be a shame to abandon what is in fact a great set of tools for building your store.

Yeh Peter,
I too would like to set up the product description page to make it look better, like you I am working on setting up tables or lists. I am not a coder but at the moment I am experimenting with the software I usually use to create my pages. What I am planning to do is create a basic page with a table & add my specifications into the table, got to make sure though I don't make it wider than the area on the product description page, I don't know how it would handle that, anyway, once the page is created, I will go into the HTML code view, find the code that makes up the table & copy it. Then go back to SCC Pro open the product description and press the HTML button then paste the code into the little window provided. I hope then to see that it works. Have not tried it yet, doing that tonight. The trick since I am not a coder is to find the start point of the code I need to receate what I just did. Sounds like a run around but I hope it works.
What I already have done with success, is created a separate page to the shopping cart with my web software. WYSIWYG style, no code. I made my page using the same outer background as I use in my cart & the inner background same again, I reuse the header from my cart as well as the page title. The only thing my page does not have is the menu system. Once I created the extra description or tech data, what ever you want to call it, I simply went to the product details page & added a url link to this page. However, there is always a draw back, you have to do a small amount of coding. not much, fairly simple. I just fopund a snippet somewhere around this forum to do exactly what I wanted. Save the shop & preview it. What happens is when the customer wants to see more detail or specs, they will click the link & the spec page will open in a new tab & have the look & feel of your shop. When they are finished viewing it they simply close the tab.
Mate, I have come back to this product myself & I am finding it way easier to work with than what I was doing before. It only took me 2 nights to design the shop, still doing tweeks to the design on the fly which is way cool, ie. when in SCC I don't like something in my design, I can just open the theme on the run. modify it & come back to SCC & keep going. What more can I say, keep plugging at it, I am sure there will be help coming your way if you ask for it. I will come back to you if my little work around comes off on my own site.

But that is my point I should not have to resort to yet another program to create a usable shopping cart. If I do as you say that would mean I would have to use at least 4 applications SCC SCD VSD a html editor, sorry but you can forget that as the more complicated you make it the higher the chances of errors arising. Maybe it's just me but I have always had one simple rule that was drilled into me at uni "whatever your doing don't forget the KISS principal" KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID So surly it's not beyond the guys at Coffee Cup to include a fully-fledged text editor for SCC and better design features in SCD. Do that and you would make a good application absolutely superb for small businesses like myself?

Ok, so I know this isn't going to satisfy the desire of "non-coder's" on this issue, but I have to say: I just got home from work (been up 24+hours btw ) and read this thread up to date... Within 2 minutes of reading the last post, I opened OpenOffice.org suite (writer) and created a bullet list. Exported to an .html file and then opened SCC Pro. Created a mock product and went to the "Details" tab, pressed the "Insert HTML tool" and copy/pasted the code that was created in the .html file that OOo created. Previewed said product and viola!!! There was the bulleted list.

Is this the prettiest, most ideal 'fix' for everyone? Obviously not. But I think that if you tried to make the editor so "Fully Functional" that it would satisfy the needs of even the most basic shop creator, you would do more harm than good. Possibly even limiting the abilities of the more advance "coders" that use this program.

You quote the often used KISS... I will quote another commonly known programmers mantra: If you make it fool proof, someone will make a bigger fool (and no, I am not calling anyone on this forum a fool, just making a point) you can't please everyone all of the time.

I'm not a "coder" myself (when you throw me in the mix of the folks that are on this forum). But I have learned alot from being around here. One thing I've learned, is that if there is ANYTHING that you want to know a "code" solution for, IF it can be done someone here WILL help you with it.

Give my solution a try... If you don't have OOo, either use MS Office (yech) or download your FREE copy of OOo today. Like I said, a 5 bullet list, exported to .html file then copy/pasted into SCC Pro took less than 2 minutes to accomplish.