List Box Form Control

[Heather B]

The best way to explain my question is explain my goal. I'm putting together
a website that sells products online. On one of the pages, you could enter
you want a green shirt from the drop down and then pick the size of the shirt
from another drop down on the same page. I need to create a way to submit
the information from all drop downs on one page and send it to the 'check
out' page. If anyone could help - I would greatly appreciate it!

 

[DavidF]

You would be better off using different software to produce an e-commerce
site, such as Web Expression. Publisher is a DTP which is suitable for
people who already own it and want to produce relatively simple, small,
absolute positioned and static websites, but with the convenience comes
limitations. An e-commerce site that has the dynamic functionality you seek,
is better done with other software.

With that said, people do use Publisher for e-commerce, but generally use
the insert html code fragment feature to insert code from PayPal for
shopping carts etc., or some other e-commerce package. They already have the
functionality you see built-in. Here is an example:
http://www.electronicsstations.com/

DavidF

 

[Heather B]

Can you recommend a software - Microsoft or not?

You would be better off using different software to produce an e-commerce
site, such as Web Expression. Publisher is a DTP which is suitable for
people who already own it and want to produce relatively simple, small,
absolute positioned and static websites, but with the convenience comes
limitations. An e-commerce site that has the dynamic functionality you seek,
is better done with other software.

With that said, people do use Publisher for e-commerce, but generally use
the insert html code fragment feature to insert code from PayPal for
shopping carts etc., or some other e-commerce package. They already have the
functionality you see built-in. Here is an example:
http://www.electronicsstations.com/

DavidF

 

[Rob Giordano \(Crash\)]

What kind of server is your website hosted on (Windows or Linux) and what
kind of scripting does your host support? Then you can go shopping for an
ecommerce package.



--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Rob Giordano
Microsoft MVP Expression





| Can you recommend a software - Microsoft or not?
|
| "DavidF" wrote:
|
| > You would be better off using different software to produce an
e-commerce
| > site, such as Web Expression. Publisher is a DTP which is suitable for
| > people who already own it and want to produce relatively simple, small,
| > absolute positioned and static websites, but with the convenience comes
| > limitations. An e-commerce site that has the dynamic functionality you
seek,
| > is better done with other software.
| >
| > With that said, people do use Publisher for e-commerce, but generally
use
| > the insert html code fragment feature to insert code from PayPal for
| > shopping carts etc., or some other e-commerce package. They already have
the
| > functionality you see built-in. Here is an example:
| > http://www.electronicsstations.com/
| >
| > DavidF
| >
| >
| > | > > The best way to explain my question is explain my goal. I'm putting
| > > together
| > > a website that sells products online. On one of the pages, you could
| > > enter
| > > you want a green shirt from the drop down and then pick the size of
the
| > > shirt
| > > from another drop down on the same page. I need to create a way to
submit
| > > the information from all drop downs on one page and send it to the
'check
| > > out' page. If anyone could help - I would greatly appreciate it!
| >
| >
| >

 

[Mike Koewler]

I'll be an intruder and suggest Serif Web Plus. Very much like Publisher
as far as text frames, inserting images, etc. But it has a wizard that
makes creating an e-commerce site a walk in the park.

Mike

 

[DavidF]

In addition to what Rob and Mike suggested, I think I would first identify
what ecommerce package you are going to use, and then choose the website
program. Go to your web host and look at what they may offer you. In most
cases they will have a ecommerce package, and some instructions on how to
use it. Go to the PayPal site and learn how it is incorporated into a web
site, and this will help in choosing the right program to build the site. I
would google "ecommerce software" and start reading about your options. I
would avoid anything to do with Network Solutions.

Many of these decisions depend upon the goals and scope of your site. If you
have only a relatively few products to sell, and they won't vary much over
time, then Publisher might be fine. As the sample site I linked shows, you
can use PayPal with Publisher. MSFT suggests Web Expression, that replaced
FrontPage, as its primary web design editor. You might also consider
ASP.NET, PHP or other server, database solutions. Go to sites that already
sell products similar to yours, and look at how they are doing it, and what
software they are using. Invest some time in careful research and planning
now, and you will save time later.

DavidF