The Presentation tab includes a plethora of available options for controlling how your store looks and operates. Specific categories include:
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Button Settings
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Product Settings
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Product Page Settings
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Shopping Cart Settings
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Product Category Settings
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Thumbnail Settings
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Pagination Settings
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Comment Settings
Button Settings
The Hide “Add to cart” button is set to No by default. Switching it to Yes essentially disables the entire e-Commerce functionality since no customers will be able to add products to the shopping cart. Most people should keep this option set to No, thereby keeping the cart visible.
There are two options available next to Button Type, and the difference between the two is functional, not just aesthetic. The default option, Add To Cart, allows customers to add as many products to the shopping cart as they like before going through the checkout process. If you select Buy Now as the button type, you essentially bypass the shopping cart entirely – when customers decide to purchase a product or service, they are directed straight to the payment processor without the need to hold items in a cart. As of this writing, the Buy Now option only works with PayPal and Google Checkout. Again, most people should stick with the default Add to Cart option, unless you know that your customers are only likely to buy one item or service at a time.
Product Settings
WP-e-Commerce has a few product presentation settings most of these are set to “No” by default but you can turn them on if you want to try them out or use them.
Show Product Ratings
If this option is set to yes then a product rating will be shown on each single product page, your shoppers will be able to add their own ratings to products
Show Stock Availability
If This option is selected then a message will be displayed on the single product page depending if your product has stock left or not.
Display Fancy Purchase Notifications
Turning this on will generate a pop up message when a buyer adds something to their cart. They will also be given a link to checkout or a link to keep shopping.
Display per item shipping
This setting will display per item shipping on your product page. This option only works with flat rate shipping where a shipping amount has been applied to each product in the add / single product page
Disable link in Title
This option is set to yes by default, it will turn the product title displayed on your main product pages into a link to the single page for the product. You would turn this off if you just wanted to have the all your products on the main page and the single product pages disabled.
Add quantity field to each product description
turning this option on will display a product quantity box next to each product – this makes it easier for users to update the quantity required. you would want to turn this option on if your think people will be buying alot of the same product.
Product Page Settings
The products page settings relate to your main product page for your store this is where you would change things like your product display.
Product display
Unless you have purchased any of the Gold Cart upgrades, there is only one view available next to Product Display. Have no fear – the Gold Cart is not required for a fully operational e-Commerce site.
Below are examples of the three different display types (gird and List View available with gold Cart)
Note: Views may vary slightly depending on other settings selected or the main WordPress theme that is being used.
Default view:
List view
Grid View
Grid view has some extra setting options that you can configure see below for a description on each one.
Products Per Row: Change this number to adjust the amount of products you want to display per line. Keep in mind that you need to keep it to an amount that will be contained within your theme
Show images only: If this option is set then no other product information will be displayed
The image below shows the products page with the setting show product images only turned on and two products set per row. You will notice that because of the size of the product images two per row looks terrible adjusting this to three makes things look better!
Display Variations: This will display the variation drop down list in your product grid, if your products have variations and you have set to display the add to cart button on your grid view then its important you turn this on, other wise people wont be able to add products to their cart from your grid view page.
Display Description: This will display the product description in the grid.
The image below shows a grid view with product variations and the description turned on.
Display “Add To Cart” Button: This will display the add to cart button on the grid view for each product.
Its a good idea to have this setting turned on if you are disabling the single product page link in the title.
Display “More Details” Button: This is another link to a single product page if the more details link is clicked the shopper will be taken to that page.
The image below shows the add to cart button and more details link turned on.
Show list of categories
If this option is selected then a list of product categorys will be displayed at the top of your product page. If you also select the category setting use category grid view then your products will be displayed in a grid not a list.
Select what product category you want to display on the products page
The dropdown list next to Select what product category you want to display on the products page is one of the more important settings for defining how your store will look. When customers visit your online store, they first arrive at a default products page. This products page could contain a full listing of your product catalog, or only a single product category. For example, our sample music store will sell printed sheet music, PDFs, audio CDs, and perhaps a few posters. If we wish for customers to see all our items upon first glance, we should be sure to choose Show All Products from the drop-down list.
On the other hand, if we want customers to only see our printed sheet music by default, we can choose the appropriate category. Customers can view our other items by clicking the related category link later. For now, we have not yet created our other categories, so feel free to stick with Show All Products for now. We can always change this setting after we have completed our product catalog.
Sort Product By
The Sort Product By option allows for three choices: Name, Price, or Time Uploaded or Drag and Drop. Sorting is from top to bottom, therefore:
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Name – sorts your products alphabetically
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Price – sorts your products from lowest to highest price
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Time Uploaded – sorts your products from oldest to newest
- Drag and Drop – The product at the top of the list will be displayed first
Using Drag & Drop ordering: To order your products by drag and drop go to the main products menu and drag the product into its new order.
Show Breadcrumbs
Setting this to yes will display the breadcrumbs on your product pages.
Show Subcategory Products in Parent Category
If this option is selected then buyers will be able to see products in a sub category if they are on the parent category page.
For Example: You have a parent Category (Woman) and A Subcategory (Dresses) if this option is turned on then products belonging to the dresses category will be displayed on the Woman Category page.
Show Search (gold cart feature)
If set to yes and the gold Cart is active then a product search module will be displayed at the top of your product pages. This search will search not only the product names but the product description as well.
The Search option also has some additional options see below for a complete list
Use Advanced Search: Advanced search will give the user extra options for displaying their search results.
Use Live Search: Live search will generate the search results in a list as the user types them.
Dynamically replace search results into product list : Using this option will replace your product page with products matching the users search.
Replace Page Title With Product/Category Name
Last, but certainly not least, is an oft-overlooked option to Replace Page Title With Category Name. What does this option do? Take a look: keep this option set to No and click on any group name for your store, such as Example Category. The title bar in your browser should read: Your Shop Name >> Products Page.
It looks, innocuous, right? While it isn’t harmful at all, it certainly isn’t very descriptive. Now go back and change the Replace Page Title With Category Name option to Yes. If you refresh the previous category page, it should now read: Your Shop Name >> Example category. Though it’s a seemingly small difference, the inclusion of the category name in the page title should provide a little boost to search engine optimization. Most users should leave this option enabled.
Display Featured Product above Product Pages
If this option has been turned on and you have featured products selected then these products will be displayed above your main product list. If you have more than one featured product then one will be displayed at random each time the product page loads.
Shopping Cart Settings
Cart Location
Unless you purchase the Gold Cart upgrades, the only available locations for placing the shopping cart are on the Products Page, within the pag, within a Widget, or manually using a snippet of PHP code.
If in doubt, stick to the Widget option. Choosing a location for the shopping cart is as simple as dragging-and-dropping a Widget from the Appearance section of the WordPress Dashboard. If you choose the Page option, take note that this does not create a separate page dedicated to the shopping cart. Instead, it embeds the cart directly into the Products Page.
For more advanced users, a third option is to forgo the Widget and Page elements and use a short snippet of PHP. The code is as follows:
[php]<?php echo wpsc_shopping_basket(); ?>[/php]
Within the PHP tags, the echo construct outputs the shopping basket information. Wherever you place that code snippet in your WordPress theme, it will reference the shopping cart. For example, you could try placing the cart in the theme header or footer.
Display “+ Postage & Tax”
Selecting this option will add the line of text “Excluding Postage & Tax” to your shopping cart.
Product Category Settings
Show Product Category Description
When this option is enabled, it displays a custom description at the top of every product group page. When customers view all items in a particular group, you can choose to set a short text description for all the items in that group. See the text in the screenshot that reads: Here is an example product category description.
Show Product Category Thumbnails
Though entirely optional, image thumbnails can bring a spark of personality and uniqueness to your store. By enabling this option, you will be ready to display a small custom image that is representative of an entire Category of items.
Show Product Count per Product Category
Turning this on will display the number of products in that category.
Use Category Grid View
If you have this option selected and your displaying your products page with categories then your categories will be displayed in a list and not a grid view.
Thumbnail Settings
Note: Anytime you update any of the thumbnail settings, WPeC will automatically resize all of your thumbnails for you. Depending on how many images you have, this could take awhile.
Here is where we can configure their global settings. In this section we can view and edit the default size for all thumbnails, depending on location. All thumbnail images are measured in pixels.
The default pixel values will likely work for most people, but you must make a decision here with regard to thumbnail proportion: do you want to display thumbnails that are square, wide (horizontal), or tall (vertical)? Yes, it makes a difference, so all of your item images should have the same orientation. The default values are set to display square thumbnails, so make any proportional adjustments accordingly.
Default Product Thumbnail Size
The Default Product Thumbnail images are what customers see whenever they view a group page or your entire catalog.
Single Product Image Size
Users see a Single Product Image whenever they click on a single item to view more information.
Crop Thumbnails
Choosing “Yes” means that thumbnails are cropped to exact dimensions (normally thumbnails are proportional)
Show Thumbnails
Set to yes by default, select this if you want to show your product thumbnails.
Use Lightbox Effect for product images
Using lightbox means that when clicking on a product image, a larger version will be displayed in a “lightbox” style window. If you are using a plugin such as Shutter Reloaded, you may want to disable lightbox.
Lightbox script to use
WP-e-Commerce comes with two different light boxes this is where you select which one you want to use.
Show Thumbnail Gallery (gold Cart only)
Setting this to yes will display a thumbnail gallery below your product thumbnail if you have more than one product image.
Gallery Thumbnail Image Size
Use this to determine the size of the gallery thumbnails.
Pagination settings
At the bottom of the Presentation page we find options related to Pagination.
The more products you have, the more likely you will have to enable Pagination, which enables the use of multiple pages per product group. When you click the Yes option, you may enter a number for how many products you wish to display on each page.
The Page Number position option controls where the links for the page numbers should be displayed: at the Top of the page, at the Bottom, or Both. The choice is up to you, but if you have many items to display on each page, your customers will find it more convenient to have page numbers displayed at the top and bottom of every page. This means less potential scrolling and confusion.
Use Pagination
Set to yes to use pagination, don’t forget to set the number of products to display per page.
Page Number position
This will determine where the pagination will be displayed.
Comment Settings
If you have an Intense Debate account you can configure it here for product comments, you can also set your default product setting for comments if you select all products then comments will be displayed on all products. If you select Per product then you will have the option every time you create your topic.