In this article we are discussing about how is the most of the Magento configuration settings required for the entire  site. There are several tabs on configuration area. They are General, catalog, customers, etc. First of all we are discussing about General tab.

Login to Magento Backend as admin. System >> Configuration

General

General – In general tab there is a ‘Countries option’, This is the countries you want to allow. You can select one country by clicking one and you can also select multiple countries by pressing shift and click the counties you want to choose. If you can ship to India only, you can click on India. The next is ‘States Options’ states required for in this country. Since you already selected the only country you are going allowing is India. It doesn’t really matter anymore.

The next is ‘locale options’.

Here you can select a time zone, the first day of the week and weekend days etc.

The next one is ‘Store Information’.

Here we can give our store name, store contact telephone, and store address etc. and click save config.

Web – Let’s go to the web here, next tab and click on URL options. The first option is ‘Add store code to URLs’. There is a warning message showing under this tab ‘When using Store Code in URLs, in some cases system may not work properly if the URLs without Store Codes are specified in the third party services’. So we are leaving here. In ‘Auto-redirect to Base URL’ we are selecting ‘yes (302 found)’ and on ‘Search Engines Optimization’ tab selecting ‘No’ on Use Web Server Rewrites option.

The next tab in web option is ‘Unsecure’. The first option is ‘Base URL, this is basically your Base URL and the other options are Base link URL, Base Skin URL, etc. You can change any of these things by going ahead on this two folder names skin and media. But I am honestly not recommended. Because showing a warning ‘When using CDN, in some cases JavaScript may not run properly if CDN is not in your subdomain’.

The next option is ‘Secure’ in the case if you are not installing SSL. You can type HTTP’s in the Base URL so Your Base URL will be secure. The next option is ‘Default page’. Here Default page is the default URL is CMS. None of the steps you really need to change. The next option is polls ‘Disallow Voting in a Poll Multiple Time from Same IP-address’ we click No. This is the basic setup for this menu.

Design – In this tab we are used to edit packages themes, header, footer, etc. we can specify the package name here in package option. Template, layout, CSS, images, etc. in the theme options. Next one is ‘HTML head ‘ this option is related to html heading. Here we can set favicon, default title, site title, default description, Default Keywords. Next tab is ‘Header’ logo image and welcome text. We can change the footer information on footer tab. You can upload water mark image for you in ‘Product image Watermarks’ option. In the ‘pagination’ options we can set how many links to display at once and some other pagination options. You can set logo image on ‘Transactional Emails’. This image is going to be sent out in emails. If you want to use a specific email you can use email templates.

Currency Setup – Here we can set the Base currency, Default Display currency, Allowed Currencies and click on save config.

Store Email Addresses – In this tab there several options available related to Email address. They are General Contact, Sales Representative, Customer Support, Custom Email 1, Custom Email 2. You can change sender name and Sender Email for all the above. Sales representatives email for sales email. Customer Support email for customer supporting and rest of them are custom emails.

Contacts – In this tab we can enable and disable contact us option and an email option available for contact us. Here we can set Email templates and other stuffs. You can create email templates in the system->Transactional.

Reports – Here you can set Year-To-Date Starts and current month start for your report.

Content Management – Here you can option available related to WYSIWYG Editor. Enable/Disable.

Catalog

Catalog – This is where you can set options related to the store catalog. Including the number of products per page and setting up alerts.

Google Sitemap – Change google sitemap settings for your site here.

Inventory – Here you can manage options related to stock quantity backorders. You can change the values in Items’ Status to be In Stock When Order is Cancelled, Decrease stock when order is placed, Maximum Qty Allowed in Shopping Cart, Notify for Quantity Below, etc.

Customers

Newsletter – Setup for newsletter to customer

Customer Configuration – Configuration setup for customer. Several options are available here. Account sharing options, create new account options, password options, login options, captcha, etc.

The really important portion is Payment and the payment methods in Sales

Sales

Here are several options available related to sales

Sales – Checkout Totals Sort Order, Minimum order amount, Reorder, etc.

Tax – There are some options here related to tax calculation Calculation settings, Display settings etc.

Checkout – Options available related to check out.

Shipping settings – Here we can set shipping options. Origin address and allow deliver to multiple address.

Payment methods – Here we can configure our payment methods PayPal config etc.

Advanced

Admin – We can set up a captcha for admin, admin base URL, charts in dashboard and security for admin here.