Hello everybody - i'm new to this CC stuff so real quick. Couple of questions - If you could point me to some posts that'd be awesome!

I have CC Designer, Cart Pro, the HTML Editor etc. A web package was purchased. I'm curious, are you supposed to use them in an order? can you create a site with designer, t hen 'click a button' to add the store in, or do you tie it in in a differnet way.

also, i read something about an estore directory ? is that were you upload the store to? or publish the store to?

I'd like to customize the site to have a unique look and feel - how do i tie the look i create to the store? can you create your own themes?

I'm REALLY sorry if these answers are out there - i've not found them based on the searches i've done. Any help, guidance or feedback would be awesome!

Thanks a bunch in advance!!

Mike, CC's software comes with many themes that can be used as is or customized using a photo editor or even better their new app Web Image Studio Lite 1.0. You can use their software in any order you like as their separate programs. My suggestion is to make your shop first then create any other website elements to match that. Have fun with you new software.

Hey E - thanks for the response - so are you saying, create the site using the shopping cart tool and then edit as needed, graphically? so there's technically no real need for the html editor if the creator does it all for you.

Can you use the creator to manage your shop? and use the editor to create the other areas? about us, services, contact us etc. I mean if you create a store and choose a theme, is that applied to any and all pages you create?

well wait, where do you create the other pages? is there a step by step guide on how to create sites using these tools? im going to go do some searching.

You can use the html Editor to create the rest of your site, outside the shop. If you choose a theme that has an edition for both the SCC and the Editor, they should be looking as one.

You find a lot of help in the Editor on how to create a site, and at this place too: http://www.w3schools.com. There is also some useful hints in the support department of this site. But a step-by-step guide is difficult since everyone want a personalized site, not one that looks like everyone else's.

Hey Mike -
The hardest part of all the web dev stuff is wrapping your head around it all. I've had that same trouble. From the varied languages and tools to the myriad of programs (incl the CC ones), there are just so many facets to it that no single answer will be right - or really answer your question. Part of it is that tools and CC products can overlap in functionality and use.
Inger's answer is probably the most straightforward: use creator to 'create' your cart/shop, then designer to tweak it - visually. You can then use, should you want to, html editor to create a wrapper or landing page for the whole thing. Each, in the order I mentioned, allows for a more granular access to the underlying code.
To get yourself online in the shortest time, the creator will get you there using a predesigned 'theme' site. After you get comfortable with the CC products, you can then use designer to either start with a blank theme to get your shop/cart completely unique or to just massage the theme you selected so it works just the way you want. Finally, once you're comfortable with both of those, you can then go in with the html editor to create a non-shop/cart home page and the 'about', 'contact' and other pages that maintain the look-n-feel of the cart itself. It's not an overnight process to get there, however.

Mike, My suggestion is based on the fact that I see a lot of users coming to the forum wanting to use the SCDP and SCCP but already have a shopping cart system set up on their existing website. They seem reluctant because it means a complete over haul of their site in some instances. It's definitely going to be easier to create the shop first and then if you want some external pages use VSD or the HTML editor to make those match. As Inger stated there are themes that match for each program that you could use for your base but you don't have to. CC's shop programs can have addition pages added right in the program and you can do HTML coding into your pages for linking to graphics outside the program and other CC program outputs such as form maker. The HTML editor is a great tool to create the code needed to insert into your shops pages.