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About Categories

In Miva Merchant you group products into categories to organize your store for easier shopping. A very simple store with just a few products might use only one category. Larger stores, with a variety of products, can create many categories and subcategories.

A product can be assigned to multiple categories. For instance, a musical instrument store might categorize products both by type of instrument (guitars, keyboards, etc.), and by manufacturer.

Categories are the primary way of organizing and displaying products. Products that are not assigned to any category only appear on the Product List screen, which the shopper can access from the top navigation bar in your store.

Categories are also used to assign sets of products to Availability Groups.

Category Sorting

You can now sort categories by assigning numerical values in the Admin. To sort categories manually (bypass clicking up and down arrows), click the Categories link in the left menu, and click SHOW next to “Category Order.”

You can also re-sort categories quickly by assigning a new number to any category and pressing enter. This will move a specified category into a new position on the list and the category that was previously in that position will then move down one position, with all the categories that follow it reordered accordingly.

NOTE: Only the categories listed on the screen will be sorted. All other products not listed on the existing listing will not be affected.

Category Column Display

You can now set category pages to display products in columns across the screen. In order to do this, you must be in expanded mode instead of line mode.

To set the number of columns (for example, three products across), go to Pages > CTGY > Category Product List Layout. You must be in Point + Click Mode (not Advanced mode). From there you can choose either Default (one product per row), or “Display products in X columns”.

After making this change, you can return to Advanced Mode and make further edits.

NOTE: Multiple column display is also configurable for product lists on the Product List and Search Result pages.

Additional Uses for Category Screens

In addition to displaying groups of products, category screens can be used for other information, such as an "About Our Company" screen, or directions to your brick-and-mortar store.

To create these screens use the header, footer, and images just as you would with any other category, but do not assign any products. You can use HTML to create nicely formatted screens, including graphics and links. Use the Up Arrow and Down Arrow buttons in the list of categories to make these screens appear where you want them to in your store category tree, such as before or after the product categories.