Give your ecommerce template site a name and browse to the folder you extracted the template to. (By default this should be C:\Dreamweaver Templates\DW Store Template). To get started you won't need to fill in any other information.

You'll find the package has some sample pages, the store .asp/php pages and a file called Main.dwt in the Templates folder. To make site-wide changes to the design, adding your company name, changing the menu etc. you'll need to work from this file. The news sections are often library files and these can be found in the Library folder. Once you've made the changes, save the file and you'll be prompted if you want to update all the files using this template or library file - agree to the prompt and you should be able to see the modifications you've made.

Now that you can see how the general design changes can be made, this is how you would proceed.

1. Get your general design done locally, more or less the look you need for the site - don't worry about the products and links for the moment. The ecommerce templates come with .png files in the images/extras folder, so changing colors, titles and company name etc is simple - Macromedia have a 30 day free trial available for Fireworks if you don't already have a copy.
2. You don't need to make any design changes to the files in the vsadmin folder as you'll be the only one using those pages for adding product information, shipping stuff, categories, credit card processors etc.
3. Now you can upload all your site to your Windows enabled server - you can do this through Dreamweaver itself or using a specialist FTP program.
4. This is where the fun starts - you'll probably want to get some categories and products on your store so you'll have to log into the admin section - chances are that first of all you'll need to change the path to your database in the file vsadmin/db_conn_open.asp or vsadmin/db_conn_open.php.
5. Now that's done log into your online admin control panel at www.yourdomain.com/vsadmin/admin.asp or www.yourdomain.com/vsadmin/admin.php - and the first thing to do is change the default username and password so no-one else can get in.
6. Take a look around the various options, the ecommerce templates come with some sample products, categories and descriptions and although they will need to be deleted, they should give you a good idea of how the system works.
7. That's about it, you can now start setting up your shopping cart and site in general - check the instructions for the ecommerce templates and if you run into any difficulties, take a look at the support forums.