Template issues/ changes -- Please help me!

I purchased this website template http://www.perfume2day.com ... and seller put it on my hosting with my domain name http://www.perfumemax.com and I am pretty much on my own to figure out making it what I want and need. Version is 1.5.1

I've used a lot of information found here to make LOTS of changes with the help of extensions and mostly information you all give ... thank you! I'm still troubled with a few things before I purchase more extensions I need.

1. Everything is purple. I was told I could change the template colors in the stylesheet.css The ONLY color that changed was at the bottom (coral). All the purple seem to be image files. I copied the image files and used photoshop to replace the color, uploaded via ftp and NO CHANGE ... how do I change the colors?

2. How do I edit the notifications that are sent out? Where are they located? Most are pretty basic and need to be personalized, but the notification for the password change is a MESS ... this is what someone receives via email if they change their password:

Perfume Max - New Password
A new password was requested from Perfume Max.
Your new password to is: ... that isn't even a sentence

3. How to I get rid of the mega list of countries shown at checkout (estimate shipping) that I do not ship to? The multi-rate shipping extension works correctly, but customers will ASSUME shipping to places I don't ship as it appears to be an option -- being listed. I don't want to delete them, as more may be added in the future.

4. I've cleaned up the duplicates, but want to prevent it from happening in the future ...
Many items are DUPLICATING:
Angel Schlesser and ANGEL SCHLESSER ... system sees these as two DIFFERENT entries and they are NOT. Same with:
JEAN PAUL GAULTIER and Jean Paul Gaultier
JESSICA MCCLINTOCK and Jessica McClintock
Oscar De La Renta and Oscar de la Renta
Succes de Paris and Succes De Paris
... the only difference is between upper case and lower case.
Is there any command or something to stop that? If so, how and where? Is this a bug?

5. Gift certificates: Currently can be purchased in amounts UP TO $1000. How do I change that figure? ... to $250??? I do NOT have Catalog > Controller > Account > Voucher file. When I click to view source it is on line 267. It is not in my FTP viewing files, nor myphpadmin. It is not to be found anywhere that I can see. I cannot go to OC admin>system>settings>option as directed in the user guide because it isn't there. PLEASE tell me what to do!

6. and lastly ... for now ... WHERE can I ADD to EXTRAS at the bottom of the page? I want to add the terms and guidelines for the reward points. POINTS PROGRAM

Thanks in advance!
Lisa P

Your site is built with a very old Opencart version and you have to think well before to continue.
A lot of bugs and security holes are not fixed. No SEO features as well. New extensions don't support old versions.Very old jquery version.
The template is not responsive and this is a very big problem because Google checks if the site is mobile friendly and gives priority to the mobile sites.
https://www.google.ca/webmasters/tools/ ... max.com%2F
1- changing the template colors requires good css knowledge.
2- changing the notifications requires programming knowledge.
3-read the documentation. You can disable the countries. You can set your shipping methods to use geozones.
4- where these duplicates appear.(different products ?)
Using a category with letter name is very bad from SEO point of view. You need an extension to add brands to the menu.
5- read the documentation.
6- adding an information page to the footer is easy and can be done from the admin.

You have to make a redirect from non www to www
Now your home page has 4 different urls:
http://www.perfumemax.com/
http://perfumemax.com/
http://www.perfumemax.com/index.php?route=common/home
http://perfumemax.com/index.php?route=common/home
This is very bad because Google consider them as a duplicated content.
And this version is not good for the SEO as well.
You have to add an extension, but the good extensions don't support old versions.

My advice to you is to start over.

agatha65 wrote:Your site is built with a very old Opencart version and you have to think well before to continue.
A lot of bugs and security holes are not fixed. No SEO features as well. New extensions don't support old versions.Very old jquery version.
The template is not responsive and this is a very big problem because Google checks if the site is mobile friendly and gives priority to the mobile sites.
https://www.google.ca/webmasters/tools/ ... max.com%2F

OUCH!!! -- I don't have a very high TRUST level to begin with, now I feel like I really got taken advantage of ... my fault for allowing it to happen.

1- changing the template colors requires good css knowledge.
For 1 and 2. I do not have any coding knowledge, but I certainly can follow directives.
2- changing the notifications requires programming knowledge.

3-read the documentation. You can disable the countries. You can set your shipping methods to use geozones.
I did disable several of the countries within admin and did set up the geozones. I purchased the multi-rate shipping as well to accomplish what I needed. It is just at checkout, the disabled countries still show up in the list. The second step is disabled, but the countries are still there, making it appear as if I do ship there.

4- where these duplicates appear.(different products ?)Assuming I have a category1 called TEST ... then I upload a new product under cat1 called test ... I get that as an additional category. ... test and TEST should be the same and not create 2 different categories.
Using a category with letter name is very bad from SEO point of view. You need an extension to add brands to the menu.I put the brands menu at the top left ............ as well, I thought the site map showed it all as it should. Many people don't know how to spell designer names and the first search is to pull up a list by letter -- this gives a drop down of 26 EACH under men and women vs. over 400 brands EACH for men and women

5- read the documentation.The documentation states ... admin>system>settings>option -- it does not exist

6- adding an information page to the footer is easy and can be done from the admin.I did that, but it appeared in the first column on the left -- I wanted to know how to put in under EXTRAS

You have to make a redirect from non www to www
Now your home page has 4 different urls:
http://www.perfumemax.com/
http://perfumemax.com/
http://www.perfumemax.com/index.php?route=common/home
http://perfumemax.com/index.php?route=common/home
This is very bad because Google consider them as a duplicated content.
And this version is not good for the SEO as well.
You have to add an extension, but the good extensions don't support old versions.
Can you tell me why I have FOUR? ... you state I need an extension. An extension eliminates that, or a NEW version of OC will eliminate that?

My advice to you is to start over.
Based on this ... I just want to cry! ... I will seek a new template, but don't want to be in this position over and over again. How will I know???

The current products are what the seller preloaded and my being an eBay seller of fragrances for many years before illness, I see that this data probably dates back to 2009-2010. I wanted to keep the product and images as inventory changes twice per day with hundreds of items coming in and out of stock as well as hundreds of price changes. So I went into the myphpadmin and set all to out of stock, price 0

Tough love doesn't come any better than this. Wow! Thank you for your honesty! -- Can I PM you to take a peak at a couple other templates I would like? Any specifics I need to consider before purchase???