Completing your section template

Last week we walked through how to build a section on CafePress.  We created a section and left it “hidden” so that we can use it as a template.  There are a couple of things that need to be done to Clean this up though.  First - we have to make sure that all of the designs fit the products.

This doesn’t really have to take place in the template since we only use that for a starting point and change all the designs anyway.  So lets start with the section that you are showing.

First, Select the section you want to work on (click it, or click Edit).

You will now see all the producs that are available on that design.  If you scroll down you will see some of the designs don’t necessarily fit correctly on the products.  We want to make sure everything looks good.  Remember that in some cases we have built 2 similar designs for each of our designs.  One was moved up to the top of the template, the other in the middle.  This is where we are going to use the second design.

Depending upon which one you loaded, you will have to select the group of products that you want to change.

For instance, I usually load the design that is high up on the template first.  This is the one I use for T-Shirts, and other apparel.  This way the printing shows up higher instead of in the middle of their ribs.  I am going to select all the products that just don’t look right with that “high” design on them. 

Scroll through and place a checkmark in their box.  The usual suspects are Dog bowls, buttons, stickers, hats, cards, prints, coasters, clocks, etc.  These are most of the office products and other paper type products.  If you think a Centered design will look better on them, then put a check in the box.

Now that all of those are checked, scroll to the top (or bottom) and choose from the Drop-down menu “Change design“.  Press Go.

Choose the design that is centered in the template (or if you had that loaded first, then you would be choosing all the shirts and then selecting the design that is high up on the template).  Save that design to all the products you selected.

You will now be taken back to the products with your design on them.  You can scroll down and see that each product is fitting correctly.  Some times the design is too long for a product and goes over the edge of the printable area.  This usually happens with buttons, stickers, clocks, and other products like that which have a finite printing area and an odd shape.  At this point you have a couple of choices.  You can either delete all the products that it doesn’t quite look good on, or you can adjust them one by one.

I usually adjust them one-by-one.  I also usually make this adjustment in the template as well so I don’t have to do it again.  But since you didn’t have a design on the template section, you didn’t know how much to adjust the picture and which products to do that for.

This adjustment / resizing will be covered next week.  In the mean time you can play with how you want to have your designs arranged.  Keep in mind that if you want to have your shop be linked to from affiliates then it is best to keep the first couple rows as shirts.  If you have specific designs that are really meant for a specific product, then go ahead and rearrange things to make that design up higher and more prominent.

Any questions so far?

Slippy

From Pink Slip - teaching you how to create a CafePress shop.