The Describer duties are assigned to one or more individuals
by the administrator. The describer prepares individual
items released by the manager for listing on eBay’s site. The
Describer Module is the area of the program where the contents
of individual listings are entered, and they are readied
for posting to the web. The describer fulfills these duties
by logging in using the assigned password and ID, and then
accessing the describer menu option. Upon accessing the Describer's
menu, the Describer home page is presented
From the Describer home page, there are four options available. The
first is "Setup Auctions". Selecting this option
brings up the following page. This page presents a report
of all items that the manager has entered into inventory,
and that are now ready for description and posting to the
web. By clicking the Item Number associated with any item
in this table will take you directly to the portion of the
program where the item is described. We will discuss that
shortly.
Selecting the "Last 100 Items" menu option brings
up a table that shows the last 100 items described and launched. This
is useful for editing auctions now running, or for adding
additional information when permitted and where appropriate. Again,
clicking any Item Number associated with any item in this
table will take you to the Describe Item portion of the program
which we will discuss shortly.
Selecting the "Search menu option brings up the screen
appearing below. The single field contains a context sensitive
search item that will match text or numeric strings entered. Using
this field allows you to search for all items containing
the word "Printer" as shown here, or to search
for a specific Item Number which would return only the item
matching the number entered. After completing the search,
clicking the Item Number associated with an item in the table
will take you directly to the portion of the program where
the item is described.
The "Describe Item" screen is where the description
for an item is completed and made ready for posting. The
top part of the screen contains items relating to the description
of the item. The description fields that relate to inventory,
duration, and pricing are pre-filled by the manager, and
these generally cannot be changed by the Describer. Note
the copy button which allows you to use a previously described
item as a template for a new item which saves your staff
time and effort. Also note the tabs along the top of the
blue box toward the middle of this screen. Clicking any
of these tabs changes the fields displayed to those appropriate
for the Tab's title. Thus, clicking the "Shipping" tab
shows fields related to shipping for the Describer to complete.
The next portion of the "Describe Item" screen,
recreated below, shows the input areas where the Describer
enters the actual description for the item, and assigns the
images to be associated. The Describer enters the physical
description of the item in the box labeled "Description". Note
it is necessary to use the HTML tag <p> to begin a
new paragraph. However, this is the only HTML that is necessary
to use in the entire description process unless you want
your listing to have a custom appearance. In that case,
it is necessary for you to create custom templates for your
auctions. Otherwise, the computer coding necessary to create
a listing is automatically generated for you by the program.
Under the label "Images" there are four image
lines, expandable to 10 lines as shown by clicking the "More
Images" icon. Note that the image path and file name
that are entered in the first four available fields. Clicking
the underlined number to the left of the field enters the
default path to the FTP directory or folder that was automatically
created for you by the Setup Wizard. The image names were
input by the Describer.
If you do not use EZLister.net's image hosting, or if you
store your images on a local drive or use your camera's memory,
it is possible to search these local drive by clicking the "Image
Search" icon. This changes the screen to the one shown
below. Clicking the "Browse button next to any image
will bring up a Windows style search box for you to designate
the appropriate folder to search. Once you have found the
image that you want to associate with your listing, double
click it and the path and file name are filled in on the
Describer page. When complete, click the Upload button and
your images are now associated with this listing.
After you have selected your images, it is possible to
input highlighted or bulleted items. Clicking the plus sign
to the left of the "Item Features and Reference Links" label
brings up the screen appearing below. To enter special features
about the item or the auction, simply enter the descriptive
text in any of the "Feature" fields. Text entered
here will appear as bulleted text in the description portion
of the listing on eBay. In the event that you want to link
to another web page, the fields in the right hand column
allow for this. When properly completed, the desired text
will flow logically with the links properly highlighted and
color coded without the Describer inputting any HTML coding.
The final menu option available from the Describer's home
page is the support option. This takes us to the learning
center on our web site where there are additional resources
to help you use the system.
This concludes our brief overview of the describer function. You
may continue to tour the system or obtain more detailed information
on how to use the program by following the links listed below.
