This is an old one: I talked about this just after product templates were introduced. My suggestions were ignored, but I’ll try again.
The product template feature is great–it does need to be extended for double-sided designs, but it does make things go a lot faster. However, the product templates include colors and colors are design-dependent (the product choices are more marketing-dependent).
Here’s my recommendation: You can leave product templates just as they are since people are already using them, but add a color template override. Here’s how it would work:
- Display the design over a background of every possible color for all the products you sell.
- Provide a select all/none option.
- Provide a “load selections from color template” option.
- I would then select colors I wanted (or deselect ones I didn’t).
- Allow the current selections to be saved by name for future use (see third bullet above).
- Provide an Apply Exactly option. This enables/disables colors to match the selections,.
- Provide an Enable Colors option. This only enables colors to match the selections.
- Provide a Disable Colors option. This only disables colors to match the selections,
After finishing this step, the next step could display product problems:
- If a product no longer has a color, it could be deleted or the allowed colors could be modified.
- If the default color is removed and more than one color remains, ask for a new default color.
I don’t know about everyone else, but color management is my biggest problem. I realize that it’s not a big deal with many designs, but I have to check my design against every color, which takes forever. I’ve limited the products I offer to a bare minimum because of this.
