Return to the main menu and click the Maintain Products icon in the Catalog Managment panel.
This will take you to the category list. On this page, each category level is displayed separately rather than in a tree like the category system. Navigate to the category where you want to start adding products. Note: products are also called items.
This will take you to the category product list screen. Edit the item to which you want to add options be by clicking the edit icon next to the item as shown here:
Next, the edit screen will appear. In the left icon menu, click the Product Options icon shown here:
This brings up the Add Option screen:
On this screen, there is a single input field. This is the product option name field. The most important thing to understand is the difference between options and choices. An option is something like "color", "size", "finish", etc. A choice is what the user will select from each option. So, for example, under the option "color", choices might be something like "red", "green", "blue". Under an option like "size", choices might be something like "large", "medium", "small", etc. You can create any number of options with as many choices as you like.
To begin, type the name of the option into the field. For this example, we will use "Color" as the option. As an example, type the word "Color into the field and click the "Add Option" button. The Option Choices Editor will appear:
Here you see the Option "Color", which can be renamed or deleted. The first thing to notice is the "Show Option Choices as" selector. You can choose to display option choices as Radio Buttons or a Dropdown List. Feel free to experiment with this setting as it can be changed any time you wish.
To add choices to this option (after you have completed the steps above to create the option), enter:
1. The Option Choice Description. Note that if an option choice affects the price of the item, you should include the price difference in the description so your customers will know that this option choice will affect the price of the item.
2. A SKU (this will help you to identify which option the user has chosen - for example, if you have sizes, the choice SKUs might be "L" for large, "M" for medium and so forth). The SKU is a required field.
3. Price difference. If you need to charge more for a specific option choice (such as an extra dollar for a large size) or less for a specific option (such as one dollar less for a small size - use a minus sign in front of the lower price option -1.00 for example)
4. Default Choice. You may want a specific option choice to be the default choice. If so, check the checkbox marked "default". Only one default choice should be selected for each option.
5. Sort. By default, option choices are presented to the shopper in alphabetical order. You may override this default order by placing alpha-numeric codes in the Sort field. Note that if you are using numbers only, then you must pad to the left with zeros. For example, if you have more than 9 option choices, but fewer than 100, the maximum length of a sort code is 2 digits, so you will pad choices 1 through 9 like this: 01, 02., 03, etc. You can also use letters with the numbers like this: A1, A2, A3, A4, B1, B2, B3, B4, C1, C2, C3, C4... (or A01, A02, A03 if you have more than 9 codes for each letter).
Here is an example of the "Color" option with a few choices setup some with price adjustments:
To add another option (such as "Size") to this item, type the word "Size" into the Add Option field below the option and choices you just added. Here, you can see both Color and Size setup as options with associated options:
To add another option to this item, enter the name of the option into the Add Option field and add its choices as in the above example. You may create as many options as you need and each option can have as many choices as necessary.
