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Zen Cart: Building an Online Store the Zen Way
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List Price:
$37.95
IdealReferences.biz Price: $37.95
Subject To Change Without Notice
Availability: In stock soon. Order now to get in line. First come, first served.
Manufacturer: Trafford/On Demand Manuals
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Average Customer Rating:   
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Binding: Paperback
EAN: 9781412066457
ISBN: 141206645X
Label: Trafford/On Demand Manuals
Manufacturer: Trafford/On Demand Manuals
Number Of Pages: 269
Publication Date: 2005-08-15
Publisher: Trafford/On Demand Manuals
Studio: Trafford/On Demand Manuals
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Editorial Reviews:
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This comprehensive and easy-to-use manual covers everything a beginner-level store owner needs to know about installing and running their own online business using the powerful, easy and FREE Zen Cart software program, including:
* Pre-Setup Checklist
* Domain name registration, finding a good web host
* Downloading your FREE copy of Zen Cart
* Easy installation by users with BASIC COMPUTER SKILLS*
* Initial set-up of your store
* Using free or cheap tools to make your job easier: FTP, HTML Editors, WinZip, Browsers
* Using your web host's admin panel, cPanel, or phpMyAdmin
* Filling your stores catalog
* Editing pages with the built-in "WYSIWYG" editor
* Using the built-in templates for a fully-customized look and feel
* Easy linking to credit cards and shipping
* Setting up and managing promotions, coupons, & gift certificates
* Sending colorful rich text or html newsletters and emails
* Using the built-in Search Engine Optimization tools
* Ongoing store management, records management, and maintenance
* Customizing your store, and
* Much, much more.
*Recommended User Requirements: Web Browser Experience. No other experience required.
CO-WRITTEN BY THE AUTHOR OF THE OSCOMMERCE MANUALS SERIES AND A LEADING ZEN CART CONSULTANT. See also: osCommerce Users Manual, osCommerce Technical Manual, and CRE Loaded Version of osCommerce Users Manual.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: definitely for beginners, and not just to Zen Cart
Comment: Like the subject line says. The readers the authors have in mind must be very (very!) beginner-level computer users. Here's two examples of this hand-holding from one page:
"Zen Cart's drop-down menu works in 2 ways: 'hover' your mouse pointer over an Admin Category to see a drop-down menu or click on a menu item..."
"... we will use the following convention '->' to indicate the steps... Thus, if you read (Click on Configuration -> My Store' - this means: First - click on the 'Configuration' link and then Click on the 'My Store' link."
If either of those points was new to you, then this is the book for you. (But, should relative newbies be venturing into Zen Cart?)
Also, I opted for the download version. I wish I hadn't! Two problems. The digital book runs as a (clunky!) executable, which prompts the user for a security code. Fair enough. But, when I tried to read it at work, the office firewall (I guess) would not allow the executable to access the internet -- and, not being my office's SysAdmin, I couldn't alter the permissions. So, I can only read this book at home. Fair enough, again. Cause there's a print-out option. But, that's the second problem. When printing some of the book's tables, right-most columns get cut off. I tried different settings on my printer, but, no go.
Anyway, the other reason I'm writing this, is to direct people who are not so new to PC's as to not know what "PC" stands for that there's a better set of online guides. Have a look at the Zen Cart section of "www. madmumbler.com". I wish I'd known about them before I plonked down my hard-earned yen!
Again, this book is not bad -- except for the printing problem with the digital version, which is bad. It's just too simple.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Definitely helpful
Comment: I am finding this book very helpful. I am not exactly a new user. I messed around with a number of oscommerce like cart systems before I settled on Zencart to actually use. I think you need a book to help describe all the ins and outs and this book helps with that. I choose between this book and the other one promoted on the Zen website more less randomly. I skipped most of the begining part about installing the program and use it to look up different features. I think it does as good a job as possible leading someone through the installation process. I'll say however, that setting up a Zen cart is not something a rank beginner should try if you need a store running quickly. This book does not cover add-on modules or the template system but either does the other one. Almost everyone will need to mess with addons and the template to some degree so you are pretty much forced to seek help through the forums. I have a store running now and this book helped. There have been some very frustrating moments and the process is quite time consuming.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Don't waste your time!
Comment: This book is an over priced, overly simplified guide to Zen Cart. There is nothing here that any reasonably knowledgeable person wouldn't already know or could learn in the help file. No insight at all. The graphics and layout are decidedly low tech making its relatively high price a poor value.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Not worth the money
Comment: I was opening an ecommerce store and debating between zen and oscommerce so I sent for two books this and another. When this book came I was highly disappointed. The printing was large to expand the book. The content was poor and over-priced. Baby Einstein Day On The Farm Gift Basket
Customer Rating:
Summary: good for the ecommerce beginner
Comment: First, if you're a beginner to ecommerce and you have no idea what you're doing, I recommend this book wholeheartedly. That's what it's for. Well, four stars-- see below.
If you know what you're doing, or you want to do anything semi-technical like migrating from another store like oscommerce, using EasyPopulate, importing from databases et cetera, I still give this book three stars.
I felt like it was missing a short appendix on data imports. They aren't all that hard, but they are semi-technical and it seemed like the author wanted to shy away from that to avoid scaring people. So put it at the end of the book where the newbies don't have to look at it.
Finally, as someone else here said, the layout is extremely ugly.
All in all, good book, and if you're going to be working with ZenCart you should probably have it. If you're new to ecommerce or not skilled with web tech stuff, you should definitely have it. But it's lacking in a couple of respects. Perhaps, guys, this could be corrected in a new edition?
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