posted on April 18, 2006 06:23:47 PM new
Hello. Is there any way to permanently tie a section of custom text to an inventory item or must it always be reassembled by the program on the fly? In addition to my default text which is the same in every auction, I have several sections of custom text, a different one for each type of item I sell. The item saves fine as inventory, but when I return to it the preview reverts to whatever my custom text defaults were most recently. Is there any way to avoid that? If I set my text defaults and create an inventory item how can I get that to hold after I create other inventory items with different text? Otherwise it is a one by one process with no way to create inventory items I can come back and use later. Thanks.
The Custom Listing Text section is always added when items are submitted. This way you can update your custom text section as needed without having to go back and edit it within each and every listing.
If there is text that you need to store with a particular item and you do not want that item to use the current custom listing text at all, you would need to select the 'blank' template which doesnt use the custom listing text and then add the item specific text to the description field.
posted on April 19, 2006 10:12:07 PM new
Thank you. Then what I think you are saying is that the difference between custom and default text is only in the locations of the text. That relative to the images if certain image layouts are selected the images are split between the two types of text blocks but the texts are not assembled into the template any differently. Showing or not showing custom txt sections is an all or nothing proposition. Is that correct? If so, why are the check boxes there to elect to show or not show different custom text sections?
Your suggestion to use the blank template would require me to manage all the code and background graphics for the listing and the template design just to get a fixed block of text unique to the type of item listing. If I were willing to do that, is there a way to access the code from the template designer preview so I can reproduce the template design and layout I have created there?
Thanks!
Then what I think you are saying is that the difference between custom and default text is only in the locations of the text. That relative to the images if certain image layouts are selected the images are split between the two types of text blocks but the texts are not assembled into the template any differently. Showing or not showing custom txt sections is an all or nothing proposition. Is that correct?
That is correct.
If so, why are the check boxes there to elect to show or not show different custom text sections?
Some sellers use all of these boxes to store different text's for different reasons and will only enable one or two of them at a time. That would allow you to simply visit this page in the fall and enable/disable the needed boxes to switch to your other custom text.
Or in short, so you can opt not to use them all, without having to delete your content while not in use.
is there a way to access the code from the template designer preview so I can reproduce the template design and layout I have created there?
Yes and no. There is no specific location setup to provide that information, but you can get it from a simple preview window.
Do an 'eBay preview' on one of your items with the template in question, then click to view the page source.
You could then copy the HTML code needed for the template/custom listing sections to paste into the item description field of your blank template.
posted on April 20, 2006 10:03:28 PM new
Thank you--that helps alot. I had only tried the view source in the template workshop previews where it was unavailable. Rather than using the blank template, your first suggestion is much less work. I have redefined my concept of inventory to item categories based on layout and unique text rather than an individual item inventory. I dumped the default text, and put only my well wishes in the custom section, and that now works well enough for my purposes.
The only problem is that the heading for the Custom Text sections defaults to "Policies" in the template and for the upper links even if all the sections are turned off and/or there is no text. Perhaps in a future version there could be a way to turn off the Custom Text heading completely if we need it to be invisible. Then we wouldn't have to think up unrelated phrases to occupy the heading line and last upper link on the page so "Policies" doesn't show up. Thanks again. Have a great week.
