Managing Your Home Page Slideshow

ProductCart includes a Home Page Slideshow that can be managed via your Control Panel. The slideshow is responsive, meaning that it will automatically resize as its containing element resizes.  This allows you to use the same exact slideshow on both your Standard Home Page and your Mobile Home Page if you choose.  However, we recommend customizing your Mobile Slideshow, for optimum display and results.

Desktop Slideshow Setup: Basic Settings

In order to manage your slideshow go to the Settings menu, choose Images & Navigation, and then Upload Slideshow Images. 

Slide Dimensions - The dimensions you set here will set the upper size limit for your slide images as well as the aspect ratio.  However, since the slideshow is responsive, if it is used with a responsive design it will adjust in size according to the width of page.

If you have uploaded slides already and change the dimensions here, you will be alerted to the slides that you need to re-upload. Simply click the "Re-Upload" link to update the slide.

Transition Effect - You can choose from over a dozen transition effects, or animations between slides. The most popular choices are Fade, Fold and Random, however you can experiment to find the effect that suits your store the best.

Pause Time - This is the amount of time the slideshow will "pause" on an individual slide. If you have added text to your images you will want to make sure this time is large enough for your visit to read completely.  Note: 5000 ms translates to 5 seconds.

Animation Speed - This number refers to the time taken between the slides for your transitions.
 

Desktop Slideshow Setup: Uploading Your Slides

Uploading slides to your slideshow is incredibly easy; the Upload Tool will help you crop and resize your image based on the Slide Dimensions you set.

Step 1: Under " Desktop Slideshow Setup," go to " Upload New Slide" and click the " Browse" button.
Step 2: Browse for the image on your computer or network, then once you've found and selected the image you'd like to use, click the " Upload" button.
Step 3: The " Upload Slideshow Image" page will come up. First you'll see three optional form fields for "Slide Caption," "Slide Link," and "Slide Alt Text." You are not required to enter anything in these fields, however, adding a link is recommended.  Adding a caption will add a transparent overlay onto your image containing your caption text.
Step 4: Below the optional fields you'll see a cropping tool: 

Based on the Slide Dimensions set in the Desktop Slideshow Setup, the cropping tool will resize your slide to match the maximum slide width, and then show you what the viewable area would be once the image is cropped to the right dimensions to match your other slides.  You can click and drag the unshaded area up and down to best display your image contents. Once you're happy with the cropping, click the "Save" button.

Step 5: After uploading your image or images, you'll see them under the " Slides" section. In this section you can "Delete" the slide if you like. However, if you want the slide to show on the Slideshow, you'll need to set defined START and END dates, otherwise, your images will NOT show in the slideshow. For example, if you have a particular banner that represents a seasonal sale, you may want it to display on a certain timeframe in the future. If that's the case, you can set both the DISPLAY FROM and DISPLAY THROUGH dates to show the banner to display in that specified date range.

PLEASE NOTE:
*  Display FROM starts showing image at 12:00 AM of the date set, or the beginning of the day.
*  Display THROUGH stops showing the image 12:00 AM on the date set which is the beginning of that day. For example, if you want the banner to to show from Monday to Friday, then set Display Through to be Saturday's date, and NOT Friday. Otherwise, the image will stop a day short.

Additionally, if you plan on having a particular image in rotation indefinitely, then set the image start date to the current date and end date way into the future (like 100 years later). You can always delete the images or edit dates later if needed.

Desktop Slideshow Setup: Managing Your Slides

Once you've uploaded your slides you can also do the following to manage your slideshow:

• Drag and Drop your slides to re-order them
• Delete slides
• Update captions

When you've completed the above actions, be sure to click the "Save button" in order to save your changes.

You can also make more advanced edits to individual slides by clicking on the " More Settings" link beside the slide you'd like to update.


Here you can:

• Re-upload (or replace) your Slide Image
• Add, update, or remove your Slide's link
• Add, update, or remove your Slide's alt tag text