Order Options display

[ChrisMan]

Hello all. So, my employer is adding a new clothing item to our lineup which requires multiple options for the customer: Gender, Height, Neck measurement, Chest measure, Waist measurement, Sleeve length, and color options for several different parts of the item. All told, there will be 9-10 options. When providing the options through the Order Options box, I've run into two problems: 1) The options display horizontally, which makes the page very wide. Is there any way to force them to display vertically? But a bigger problem is 2) when testing the item by placing an order for it, when we try to import the order (via Stone Edge Order Manager) we get an error message. I don't have the message jotted down, but if it helps I can replicate the problem and repeat the message here. However, all the various options I selected were displayed in the message. Is it possible to have too many order options?

Now, I should note I'm not a webmaster (ours was let go over a year ago)...but I'm forced to fake it as we're a small company (4 employees) and I'm the only one with even a modicum of computer knowledge. So I'm very much winging it here.

Any and all help is greatly appreciated.

[ShopSite Lauren]

I am not familiar with StoneEdge, so I don't know about your second question. However, for your first question, whether the ordering options display in a column or a line depends on the template you are using. If you can provide more information (such as your store URL, or the name of the product template you are using, this is found under Products > Edit Product Layout) I could provide detailed information on how to change the template. Essentially, you would need to change the following tag:

[-- ORDER_OPTION_MENU Line --]

to:

[-- ORDER_OPTION_MENU Column --]

[ChrisMan]

Thanks, Lauren. You've actually helped me out before, I believe. The store url is http://www.wle.com. The product template we use is actually a custom template called "2009product" created by the previous webmaster (whom I can't contact as he was let go on less-than-friendly terms after some theft and other issues). I've found the line you mentioned, though, so I should be able to work it out. If I continue to have the probem on importing the order, I will contact Stone Edge's support. There are no limits to the amount of ordering options allowed as far as Shopsite is concerned, correct?

Thanks again for the assistance!

[ShopSite Lauren]

Correct, there are no limits to the number of pull down menus that you can have per product. The one setting that you may want to be aware of if you have many pull down menus is under Commerce Setup > Order System > Layout Info, there is a setting called "Columns for the product pull down menu." This will set how many columns the ordering option pull down menus are displayed in, in the shopping cart. Many merchants will just set this to one so that the product options appear in a single column like they would on the actual product pages. However, if you have many pull down options you may want to set this to 2 or 3 so that the product, when displayed in the cart, does not stretch too far on the page.

[ChrisMan]

Thanks again, Lauren. I've got the options to display in a column, however a new problem popped up. Now, the products that I use the new template for show up with a large space between where our navigation menu (located along the top) stops and where the product information starts. This is especially odd to me because all I did to create the new template is copy the one we use for our other products and change the [-- ORDER_OPTION_MENU Line --] to [-- ORDER_OPTION_MENU Column --]. Everything else was left exactly the same as our other products. Any ideas as to what is causing this?

For an example of what I'm talking about, check out http://www.wle.com/product4609.html