OK. Chalk this up to rank newbie if you like. I'm sure that a lot of my problem is due to a) being new and b) having a hard time wrapping my head around the concept of categories, products, product displays and variations. On the surface, all this seems logical and straight forward, but in trying to put it together I keep hitting a wall or two or three. I have checked out the videos and tutorials I have been able to find, but unfortunately, they all seem to apply to Ver. 1 of Kickstart, not 2 and I'm finding they are very different. An observation; not a complaint. After all, what I'm working with is free so I won't complain.

First, I'm finding categorization confusing, because, try as I may, I can't seem to have and sub-cats. I've tried fiddling with taxonomy and I'm now scrutinizing the demo store on a test server, no joy. Following what tutorial I have found, when I create a new "product category," and start with a variation as the prompt help says one should, I get no Title and Description fields when I go to add a new product in the category. So, for example, HATS might be a main category, under which I want to have sub-cats such as BASEBALL, FEDORAS, STETSONS, etc. What's really confusing is that the Main Menu (which is tied to the Categories vocabulary in Taxononomy) doesn't seem to behave as one would expect, even if one adds the corresponding terms to the Tax or the Menu. First of all, the menu never expands, even if you tell it to always display expanded and put the block in a sidebar or something.

To really make matters worse, trying to add attributes, especially multiple attributes, (color, style, size, shape, dimensions - not shipping dims - separate dims for things like tablecloths) doesn't seem to work when there are multiple choices a customer has to make. For example: a tablecloth might be available in 5 colors, 2 shapes and different dimensions corresponding to the shape - round - 50" diam.; square - 45" x 45"; rect. - 60" x 84". And with this particular example, the only thing that really changes the price (not a big deal in the overall picture) is the dimensions.

I have been able to add attributes (one per product) but if I need more than one, things explode. The tablecloths example is the best example.

The demo store handles color choices in the taxonomy; not something I totally understand - YET. It seems to handle some other things there as well and I'm sure I'll catch on as I study more. But perhaps someone could throw me a few nuggets (or point me to them on the web) as to the proper application of categories, products, product displays and variations and how to implement them properly, including attributes.

Thanks. I promise to pay it forward and answer another newbie's dumb question when I acquire knowledge. :)

Don