(Please note that at present SmartPlants only works on Internet Explorer - not Firefox.)

Swapping and selling plants with SmartPlants is easy. To get started just Add Plants - plants you want, plant you have, but wish to swap, and plants you wish to sell.

Go to Add Plants, and fill in a form for each plant.

If you wish, you can just add a plant name and leave the other boxes blank, but please note that the more information you add the more often your plants will come up in other users' search results.

Under exchange, choose as follows:

If you wish to sell a plant, select "for sale", and add a price.

These plants will be added automatically to SmartPlants' Plants For Sale List.

Under Exchange, select either offered or wanted.

These plants will be added to SmartPlants Lists for Plants Offered or Plants Wanted.

Go to Edit Plants. Press tab to move from field to field. Remember to click on "Save" (in the top menubar) before you leave this page or your changes will be lost.

You can also delete plants here. Click on the delete check box to the left of the plants you want to delete. The screen will reload each time a plant is deleted.

To add a Paypal Buy Now Button to a plant you wish to sell online, click on the form under "Add Buy Now Button" and select "yes". A Buy button will then be displayed next to that plant. For more information on setting up an account with Paypal, go to www.paypal.com.

To change or upload a photo, click on it. A list of photos appears. Either choose one or choose upload more photos - click browse and choose a picture from your hard drive. The photos you upload will be automatically resized.

Photo Format
All photos should be jpegs, gifs or pngs. Most digital cameras produce jpegs.

Missing Photos
If you have not uploaded any photos for a particular plant, a "Photo coming soon" placeholder will be displayed instead.

In addition, all plants are displayed in your own Plant List and Website, which can be seen by clicking on Preview above.

Note that must choose a template design for your Plant List and add plants before it will be displayed properly.

Templates Plant Lists and Websites are created by default with standard navigation bars (the hyperlinks at the top and side of every page). If you are happy with these, you don't need to do anything, but if they are not relevant to your plants, you can easily change them in Navigation, as well as add as many web pages as you like and build your own plantfinder.

In Navigation you can do the following:

Build a PlantFinder

Build Form Sequences

Add Multiple Prices

Add Content Pages

Add Hyperlinks to Navigation Menus

Add Mini Plantfinders

Each Dropdown Form corresponds to a plant characteristic displayed in your plant pages. For example, Hardiness or Color.

In addition, these Dropdowns define the search parameters that are available in your Plantfinder. For example, if you wish to allow searches for plants that are hardy and which grow in the shade, you should include dropdowns for hardiness and position.



You can also place Mini Plantfinders or Dropdowns in your navigation menus. See Adding Mini Plantfinders below.

Types of Dropdown Forms
There are three types of Dropdown Forms as follows:

Single Forms
These allow for only one possible value to be defined for each plant. In addition when these forms appear in the plantfinder only one value may be searched for at a time.

Multiple Forms
These are Forms where more than one value can be defined for each plant. Of these, Multi-choice Forms allow a user to choose from among many values and Multi-display forms only display multiple values - the user cannot choose them.

For example, a Multi-display Form could be used for showing which months a plant flowers - with each month of the year being defined as a separate value. Then for a plant that flowers March, April and May, for example, only those months would be displayed to the user.

A Multi-choice form could be used if, for example, different pot sizes are available for a particular plant. You could then add an option for each pot size you offer. These would be presented as choices to the user.

Editing Forms
To display a Dropdown Form's values, doubleclick it. For example, Soil Moisture (below) allows users to search for plants suitable for moist or boggy soil etc, and to allow you to display an appropriate value for each plant. You can change any of these values and also the description of the characteristic itself. For example, you may wish to change "Hardiness" to "Zones" if you are in the US. You can also delete the form completely - press Ctrl X.

To Edit a Dropdown
Doubleclick it.

The values or Options of the Dropdown appear to the right of the screen.




Options
Each Option ("All", "Climbers", "Bulbs" etc above) defines a possible value. You can add them, delete them and edit them.

Editing Options
Either Doubleclick an Option

Or

Select an Option by clicking on it with the mouse or Tab to it and then press Enter.
A grey shadow appears around the Option and the text becomes editable. (You can also edit the Form's description in the same way.)



Deleting Options.
Click or Tab to an Option.

Square handles appears around it.

Press Ctrl X.

Adding Options
Click the Add option button.

New Options appears which can be edited as above.




Single and Multiple Forms
To change a Single Form to a Multiple Form, select either multi-display or multi-choice below the Options. To return a multiple form to a Single Form, make Multiple Forms blank (the top option).



Deleting Dropdown Forms
If you do want a plant characterstic to be listed in your catalogue, delete its dropdown form.

Select it by Clicking on it once.

Press Ctrl X.

Adding New Dropdown Forms
Click on "Add New Dropdown "

A dialog box appears.

Type an ID into the ID box.

Type in a description.

Add Options and edit them. See Adding Options, Editing Options and Deleting Options

Select the type of Form - Single or Multiple.

Press OK to add the form.

Click close to close the dialog box.

Note: The forms for flowering months, flowering color, foliage color, height and spread cannot be deleted or edited.

Building Form Sequences
Form sequences can be used to build interdependent series of forms.

For example, if you sell plants in difference formats, such as bare root and pots, and in addition you offer different pot sizes, you could do the following:

1) Build two forms, one for format, with values for "pot" and "bare root", and another for "Pot sizes", with values for different pot sizes.

2) You must then link the forms together so that when a user chooses "pot" in the Format Form, the next form in the sequence (ie Pot Size) appears. To do this you must drag the Form for Pot Size into the Sequence Link Box to the right of the Option for "Pot".

First select the Pot Size Form by clicking on it once, keeping the mouse button held down. Then drag it to the Sequence Link Box (with a dashed outline) to the right of the option for "Pot" - as below. Release the mouse button.

When you release the mouse button, the words "link to Pot" appear in the box. This indicates that the value "Pot" is now linked to the form "Pot", in which different pot sizes are defined.




Separating Linked Forms
To do this select the appropriate box and drag the mouse away from it. The link will be deleted.



Adding Multiple Prices
If a Form Sequence results in a unique Price, drag the Form for Price into the last value in the Sequence. For example, if, using the example above, you wish each pot size and bare root to be priced differently, you should drag the Price Form into the Sequence Link Box for each pot size and for bare root.

Adding Content Pages
To add new content pages, such as About us, Contacts, Location etc, click on the "+" next to "Pages". A form will appear. Fill in the Page Title, the Page Filename, and the Page Type and then click "add page".



Editing Page titles
To edit the the page title, double click on the page box and edit the text inside with the cursor.



You cannot edit the content of pages here. To do so go to Pages and click on a link to the page you wish to edit.

Adding Hyperlinks to Navigation Menus
There are three types of pages in your website, Content Pages, Plant Pages and Plant List pages. Content Pages can be added as described above, Plant Pages are added when a new plant is added in Add Plants, and Plant List Pages are generated automatically as required.

You can drop links into the navigation menus to both Content and to Plant List Pages as follows:

Adding Links Leading to Content Pages
Click once on a Content Page so that square handles appear.




Then drag the box to where you wish to place the link and release the mouse. Note that links can only be placed in this way in the navigation menus. A symbol indicates that the the mouse is not over a valid link location. When it is, a will appear and the area may be grayed out. When the mouse is released a hyperlink will appear.



Adding Links Leading to Plant List Pages
You can also add links to Plant List Pages, as defined by your Plantfinder Dropdown Forms. For example, you could add a link to a page with a list of only Blue Plants or Climbers or Special Offers or Plants that flower in the spring and so on.

Doubleclick one of the dropdown forms, so that all its Options appear.



Each of the options can be selected, dragged and dropping into the navigation menus to create a link in the same way as dragging Page Titles creates links (see above). For example dragging the Option of "Bulbs" above will create a link to a page listing all Bulbs. (The page of bulbs is automatically generated when you click on Save in the top Menubar.)

Editing Links
If you wish to edit the content of the link doubleclick it so that's its borders are shaded. You can then edit the text within it.

You can also make the text italic or bold. Select some text and press Ctrl I or Ctrl B.

Deleting Links
To delete a link click on it once so that its square handles appear and press Ctrl X.



Adding Mini Plantfinders
You can also use Dropdown Forms as mini Plantfinders, making it even easier for users to navigate your website and find plants.

Select a dropdown by clicking it once and then drag it to a location in either the top or side navigation menu. Forms in the top navigation menu form part of the top plantfinder - a search isn't performed until "GO" is clicked. In the side menu dropdowns become Jump Menus - a search is performed immediately.

To see how they work go to Preview.



(Note that all Mini Plantfinders are converted into Single Forms.)

Deleting Mini Plantfinders
You cannot directly delete a mini plantfinder Form, but you can overwrite them with other Forms or with page links and then delete them.

If you delete or edit or delete a dropdown form and you you have used it to generate links or Mini Plantfinders in the navigation bars, you must overwrite the old ones (ie redrag the new ones sinto position) or remove them.

Note: remember to click on "Save" (in the top menubar) before you leave the Navigation page or your changes will be lost.

Editing Content Pages
To edit content pages go to Pages. Your top and side navigation menus will appear below various editing tools. Click on a link to the Content Page you wish to edit. (To see how to add links to navigation menus go to Navigation).



New pages are automatically created containing placeholders, dummy text and photos styled in line with your website template. You can do the following:

Edit Text

Format Boxes and Text

Add Tempate Blocks, Picture Boxes and Text Boxes

Edit and Upload Photos



Editing Text
To edit text place the cursor inside a page element and type.



Adding Hyperlinks to Page Content
You may wish manually to add hyperlinks to other pages on your website to other websites . To do so, select some text by dragging the cursor across it. Click on the hyperlink button ..

A dialog box appears.



Make the "Type" http: and fill in the URL of the page you wish to link to. Click OK.

Note: you cannot edit text in your navigation menus here. To do that you must go to Navigation.

Formatting Boxes and Text
Although new pages are created using the template you have chosen, you can still customize the look of many page elements.

Select one or more elements.

Hold down the left mouse button and drag the mouse.

The element will move across the screen.

Deleting Elements
Select an element and press Ctrl X.

Resizing elements
Select an element.

Position the cursor over one of the white square handles until a double-ended arrow appears.

Note: not all elements can be resized.



Hold down the left mouse button and drag the mouse.



Release the mouse button when the element is the required size.

Aligning Elements

Changing the Background Color
Select one or more items.

Click the Background Color button



Changing the Border Color
Select one or more elements.

Click the Border Color button



Removing a Border
Select one or more elements.

Click the Clear Border button.



Making Elements Transparent
Select one or more elements.

Click the Clear Background button.



Aligning Text
Select two or more elements.

Click one of the Align Buttons.



Making Text Bold
Select one or more elements.

Click the Bold button.



Making Text Italic
Select one or more elements.

Click the Italic button.

Underlining Text
Select one or more elements.

Click the Underline button.



Adding Strikethrough to Text
Select one or more elements.

Click the Strikethrough button.

Changing The Font Size
Select one or more elements.

Click the Font size menu in the Toolbar and select a size.

Sizes are in pixels.

Changing The Font/Typeface
Select one or more elements.

Click the Font Menu in the Toolbar and select a font.

Select a box by clicking near the top left corner. Handles will appear.



You can then drag the box to a destination by selecting it and holding down the mousebutton. Boxes can only be placed in certain locations on the page and within other boxes. This is so that the style of your website is consistent. When a suitcable location is reached the icon changes to . Release the mousebutton and the element will be dropped in to the page.

Editing and Uploading Photos
To change a photo on a page, doubleclick it. A dialog box appears.



Click on a photo to select it or click Upload Photos to upload photos from your hard drive. All photos are automatically resized to fit your template design.

Previewing Your Website
Go to to see a Preview of your website.

Hosting your website
Your website is hosted by SmartPlants for free.

If you wish to host your pages on your own server, you can simply download the html pages here, and then upload them to your server.

Troubleshooting
If you have a firewall activated, the Plant Editor may not work properly. At present, SmartPlants' will only work properly in Internet Explorer.