Changing eShowcase Settings

eShowcase makes it easy for you to change the look and feel of your eShowcase site.  One way this is accomplished is by using the Change eShowcase Settings option from the Admin Menu.

When you select Change eShowcase Parameters, you will see a screen like this:

By changing the eShowcase settings, you can control how your eShowcase looks and responds.

eShowcase Order Form Settings

This is a complete description of each of the order form settings and how they can be used.

Before making changes to any of these settings, it is always a good idea to print the parameter settings pages from within your browser so you have a record of what the settings were before you changed them.

• Mail To      The email address where you want email sent when customers request more information on a product you have listed.

• Mail Subject      The phrase you want in the subject line of email you receive from visitors to your site.  Setting this to something unique makes it easy to identify inquiries from eShowcase.  You may want something like 'eShowcase Inquiry'.

• Address Line     This is your company address as you want it to appear on your site, and on your product pages.

• Button Message  The word or phrase you want to appear on the button shown at the bottom of each of your listing pages.  This phrase might be something like 'to order' or 'to bid' or 'contact us' or any other phrase you want. The default is 'Contact us about this listing'.

• Sort Listings By     Choose the order you want your products to appear on the listings page and on the order form.  Either date the listing was entered, or the listing ID.  Choosing listing ID allows you to sort listing by product number and product category (if category code is the first part of the product number).

• Build Order Form? - Either 'Yes' or 'No'.  If yes is selected, links to the order form will be placed on all pages created or rebuilt after this parameter is set.

• Meta Tag Description - This is the description that search engines will use to describe your site.  Enter something appropriate.

• Meta Tag Keywords - these are the keywords by which the search engines will index your site.  Choose specific keywords that identify the content of your site.  (Avoid generic keywords.)

• Listing Headline Font Face - the font you wish to use on the headlines that appear on your product pages.  Usually either 'arial' or 'times new roman'.  Can be any valid font name.

• Listing Headline Font Color - Drop down list will allow you to select any valid font color.  Default is black.

• Listing Headline Font Size - choose the size of the letters of your headline.  Usually either +1 or +2 depending on the font choice.  Experiment to get best results.

• Listing Body Font Face - font used in the body text of product listings pages.  Can be any valid font name.  Usually either 'arial' or 'times new roman'.

• Listing Body Font Color - drop down list allows you to select any valid font color.  Default is black.

• Listing Body Font Size - size of font used in body text of product pages.  Usually either +1 or +2 depending on font used.

• Main Pages Body Font Face - the font to be used on the body text of main pages (index, contact us, about us, search, etc.)  Usually either 'arial' or 'times new roman'.

• Main Pages Body Font Color - Color of font used in body text of main pages (index, contact us, about us, search, etc.).  Default is set to black.

• Main Pages Body Font Size - Size of font used in body text of main pages (index, contact us, about us, search, etc.).  Usually will be +1 or +2 depending on font face selected.

• Main Pages Headline Font Face - the font face to be used in headlines on the main pages (index, contact us, about us, search, etc.).  Usually either 'arial' or 'times new roman'.

• Main Pages Headline Font Color - the color of the headline text on the main pages (index, contact us, about us, search, etc.).  Default is black.

• Main Pages Headline Font Size - the size of the headline text.  Usually +1, +2, +3 depending on font face selected.

• Color of Panel on Contact us Page - drop down list allows you to choose the color of the panels on your 'contact us' page.

• Background Color on all pages -  Drop-down list allows you to choose the  background color you want on all your pages.  White usually works best.

• Text Color     Drop-down list allows you to choose the color of the body text to be used on all pages. Black usually works best.

• Link Color -     Drop-down list allows you to select color to be used on links on certain pages.  Default is blue .

• Visited Link Color  - Drop-down lists allows you to select color to be used for visited links  on all your pages.  The default is blue.

• Active Link Color - Drop-down lists allows you to select color to be used for color of active links  want on all your pages.  The default is blue

• Listings Headings Column 1 - heading to appear on the top of column one on the product listings index page.  Usually is set to 'Item Number'.

• Listings Headings Column 2 - heading to appear on the top of column 2 on the product listings index page.  Usually set to 'Product Description'.

• Listings Headings Column 3 - heading to appear on the top of column 3 on the product listings index page.  Usually set to 'Price'.

• Extra Page #1 Name - Name of optional extra page link you wish to appear on all eShowcase pages.  If you leave this blank, it will not appear. Useful if you want a page such as 'sponsored by', or 'map' or anything else you need.  Put the link name of the page here'

• Extra Page #1 URL - if you enter a page name in the setting above, you need to tell eShowcase where the page can be found.  If you plan to use the extra pages that eShowcase provides for this, enter the full page URL.  It will look something like:
  http://www.hostsite.com/yourname/page1.html
  Replace the URL with your site name.  Note that you can enter any valid address on the Internet and eShowcase will link to it.

• Extra Page #2 Name - Name of optional extra page link you wish to appear on all eShowcase pages.  If you leave this blank, it will not appear. Useful if you want a page such as 'sponsored by', or 'map' or anything else you need.  Put the link name of the page here'

• Extra Page #2 URL - if you enter a page name in the setting above, you need to tell eShowcase where the page can be found.  If you plan to use the extra pages that eShowcase provides for this, enter the full page URL.  It will look something like:
  http://www.hostsite.com/yourname/page1.html
  Replace the URL with your site name.  Note that you can enter any valid address on the Internet and eShowcase will link to it.

• Extra Page #3 Name - Name of optional extra page link you wish to appear on all eShowcase pages.  If you leave this blank, it will not appear. Useful if you want a page such as 'sponsored by', or 'map' or anything else you need.  Put the link name of the page here'

• Extra Page #3 URL - if you enter a page name in the setting above, you need to tell eShowcase where the page can be found.  If you plan to use the extra pages that eShowcase provides for this, enter the full page URL.  It will look something like:
  http://www.hostsite.com/yourname/page1.html
  Replace the URL with your site name.  Note that you can enter any valid address on the Internet and eShowcase will link to it.
  
  

Applying Changes

To change any of the above parameters, enter the new information, or use the drop down menus to select a valid entry.  Then click the 'Change eShowcase Settings' button.

Important Note:

Even though you make changes in the settings, they will not show up on your site until your run the pages affected by the changes, through the 'edit pages' option.  Changes in settings are applied when pages are rebuilt.

This means that if you select 'yes' for build order form, you will need to use the menu option 'edit main pages' to force each of the main pages to be rebuilt with the latest settings.

Very Important!

Most Internet browsers 'cache' or store in memory Internet pages the first time they are viewed. If they are viewed a second time, the pages are usually shown as stored in memory, rather than as they exist on the web sites.

This can cause you to think a page has not been updated when it really has.  If there is any doubt, press and hold the shift button on your keyboard, and then click the 'refresh' or 'reload' button on your browser.  This will force a page reload.