Custom Vantage Web™ How to Change Settings in Your Website—Part 6

 

by Becky Skelley

 

As our exploration of the Settings tab continues this month we’ll explore the value and purpose behind Site Terms, the importance of SSL Settings, Taxes, Tax Classes and the always important Themes. All options within the Settings tab are included in your site to allow full control over what your site offers to your customers.  We believe your site should be yours, which is why the Settings tab includes so many settings. Let’s not waste a moment and continue our exploration.

 

To begin, as with all Stamp Shop Web lessons, first sign-in to the admin area of your Stamp Shop Web site. Once you are logged in, click the Settings Tab. Next click the Site Terms link, once clicked you will see a table with 3 columns (Picture-1).  The first column contains the Edit button for each site term, the middle column contains the Terms and the third column contains the matching Values. A Term is the reference name within the code (behind the scenes). A Value is what is displayed for that Term on your website (what your customers see). Site Terms allow you to edit the the various texts or labels throughout your site to better reflect your shop.

 

 

An example of a site term you may wish to change would be the words “Sign In” to “Login”. To change this site term, scroll down until you see the Value, Sign In (Picture-2).

 

 

Instead of scrolling, it can be easier to use the tools within the browser you are currently using. Each browser is different, however most browser’s include a feature that will locate specific words or phrases on a page. In Internet Explorer, within the top menu click on Edit and then the feature, Find on this page. In Firefox, within the top menu click Edit, then Find. In both browser’s once the feature is clicked a window will appear where you may type words or phrases that will be found on the page.  This tool can be very helpful when locating values within the very long site term list. Hitting the Control + F keys on the keyboard in most browser’s will bring up the same Find tool.

 

Getting back to editing, once you locate the value click the Edit button located within the same row. The screen will now display a field, type the value you would like to appear inside the field and click the Update button. Your site term has now been updated. It is important to note changes to site terms are made wherever the term is used on your site. The Sign In term is used on the header of each page, as well as on the Sign In page. Some benefits of Site Terms are that you may add basic HTML code to change the color or size of the term.  Also, Site Terms are a great tool for websites that need to be displayed in a foreign language. They provide you the ability to customize your Stamp Shop Web site to reflect your voice to your customers.

 

Back to the Settings tab, below the Site Terms link you’ll see the SSL link. Click the SSL link to see the settings for your secure sockets layer (SSL) certificate (Picture-4).

 

 

When you become a Stamp Shop Web customer your site is automatically made secure during the checkout process. These settings reflect the settings to make your site’s checkout process secure. It is important to note any changes to this section could result in a broken website. If you want to make changes please contact Connectweb.  The Standard Site Root and Secure Site Root reflect URLs that have been set by Connectweb and should not be altered. The two checkboxes, Use SSL For Checkout and Credit Card Admin Pages and Use SSL for All Admin Pages?  should be checked (See Picture-4). When these two check boxes are checked your customer’s credit card information is secure and eliminates the chance of stolen credit card information.

 

Moving on, the next section we’ll explore will be Taxes. Click the Taxes link located on the far left of the Settings tab list to see the settings for your site’s tax rate (Picture-5).

 

 

The default setting upon purchasing Stamp Shop Web for your tax rate is the Massachusetts tax rate. If you do not need to charge tax in Massachusetts you would need to update the tax rate to reflect your state’s tax rate. To edit the tax rate, simply click the Edit button.  Next you will see the Edit Tax page (Picture-6).

 

 

Here set the tax settings. First set the country by choosing your country from the drop down list.  Next set the State/Region by selecting an option from the drop down list. Next you will see a field for Postal/Zip Code. This field is only applicable if you are setting up your tax rate(s) based on individual Postal/Zip Codes. We do not recommend setting up tax rates by Postal/Zip Codes because you will need to setup as many zip codes as are applicable in your state with matching tax rates. If a customer’s zip code does not exist during checkout they will not be charged tax. Leave the Postal/Zip Code field blank to charge the same rate for the entire site.

 

Next you will see the Rate field. Here you will enter the tax rate. For example, if you have a 5.25% tax rate you would type 5.25 into the field. The last option is Apply Tax to, which allows you to choose which items on your site will be taxed. Select from the drop down menu either All Taxable Items or EU Taxable Items (European Union). The default setting, All Taxable Items includes all products on your site that have not been set to Tax Exempt.  If you have made any changes be sure to click the Save Changes button located at the bottom of the page.

 

Next we’ll look into the Tax Classes feature. Click on the link, Tax Classes (Picture-7). Once inside you’ll see the tax classes that exist on your site, as well as an option to create new tax classes.

 

 

New Tax Class Name: type the name of your new tax class here and then click the "New" button.

 

Tax Class Name: the tax classes that exist on your site will be displayed within this table.

 

Edit: to edit an existing tax class click the Edit button located within the row of the tax class name. Next type any changes you would like to make and click the Update button to you’re your changes. You will then be able to edit the name of the tax class.

 

Delete: click the Delete button to delete a tax class.
 

Our final stop within this month’s exploration will be into the Themes link. Click the Themes link to see a listing of all the available themes on your site (Picture-8).

 

 

Current Site Theme, located at the top of the page, tells you which theme your site is currently using. Underneath the Current Site Theme is the Browsers Code which displays the style sheet name that could be used for Browser specific styling (See Picture-8).

 

It’s important to understand that a theme pertains to the look and feel of your site. All of the buttons, fonts, font sizes, font colors and blocks of color throughout your site are controlled by your theme. As a Stamp Shop Web customer you are given 12 basic themes. They are a variety of colors and very simple in look. We have named them Basic_. To select a theme to be activated on your site simply click the Select button to the left of the theme name (Picture-9). To see what your site’s homepage will look like with the new theme before activating it you may preview the theme. To do so, click the Preview button located to the right of the theme name (Picture-9).

 

 

This will open a new window with your homepage set to the new theme. This is simply a preview that only you will see. To view the CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) code that makes up a theme and make changes to the code you may Edit any theme. To do so, click the Edit button in line with the theme name (Picture-9).  Any changes you make to the style sheet will be applied once the OK button is clicked (Picture-10). We only advise CSS fluent customers to edit style sheets.

 

 

In addition to offering 12 basic themes, we also offer 5 premium themes available at an additional one time cost. As with basic themes, Premium themes are also shared throughout our users. For a completely unique look to your site you would need a custom theme. For a quoted price we will design and build a custom theme for your site. Custom themes are unique to your site only and can truly form the look of your brand and help increase sales.

 

As you can see, the Settings tab includes a vast array of controls for you to set. Find the best settings that reflect your store and if you have any questions along the way, don’t hesitate to contact Technical Support at 800-556-9932 or support@cwebtechnologies.com. Stay tuned for next month’s final installment of the Settings tab!