Before we begin, it is worth noting that it is not necessary to click update each time you modify a screen/tab, unless you wish to to view the changes in your store or to make sure that your edits have been saved.  You can simply click on each tab in turn, configure any information on the screen, and move on to the next tab.  When you have finished making changes to the areas you wish to edit, click on the "Update" button once and it will save changes to all edited screens. 

Step 1

Login to your store and expand "Stores" by clicking on the blue arrow, then click on your store's hyperlink.  There is no need to expand the store first since this is the area we wish to deal with. The following screen will come up in the right frame:

The first section we will deal with is the "Identification" tab.  On this screen you will see three fields:

The "Manager" box is your login.  If you change this your login WILL be changed to whatever you type into this field.  Don't use spaces in this field and make sure that you remember your new login if you change it!

The "Store Code" is used in the URL and it is useful to have it suggesting your name.  It is best not to have spaces in it but you can use a dash.  Since it becomes part of the URL and will be included in direct links to products or categories, it is wise not to change your store code if you have been using it for a while. If someone has bookmarked a product page, or if a Miva Merchant page was indexed in a search engine, this page will include the store code and by changing it the bookmarked link or the indexed page will no longer have a valid URL.

The "Store Name" becomes the title of all pages in your store so use your FULL name, even if your domain is an acronym.  It shows in the top title bar of the browser and is  extremely important for branding.  It will also score higher in search engines that index .mv files like AltaVista and Google. You can easily change the store name in the future by simply typing a new name in this field and clicking update.


Step 2

Since you have already configured the "Owner", "Settings", and "Layout" while creating your store we will go directly to the "Maintenance Mode" tab.  It is best to put your store in "Maintenance Mode" in order to protect your database as you do updates, pack, or upload.

You can program it to take your store offline at a specific time with the "Store Activity" radio buttons.  It is nice to use the "No New Customer" field to specify the number of minutes before the maintenance mode kicks in that Merchant will not accept new customers in the store.   It gives customers who are already in the store a chance to finish shopping and will prevent new customers from becoming disappointed when store goes offline in the middle of their
shopping "trip" with no warning. 

The "Warning Message" will be the message current customers will see before your store goes into maintenance mode.   There must be data in this field if the "Offline At" button is selected.   The warning message will be displayed at the top of the page in bold and red.   Merchant has a default message setup (shown) which includes two "Tokens", the %store_name%, and the %maint_countdown% but you can configure it to your liking.   "Tokens" are strings that will call data based on your store configuration.  You will find a list of "Available Tokens" at the bottom of the page. 

The "Maintenance Message" is what customers will see while your store is offline.  It shows in red text with only the background of your store.  You may want to use HTML in this box to reference your logo so the page does not look quite so bland (e.g. <img src="thepath/to/yourimage"> ).