At present the "Default Options" apply to a top category and to all the subcategories and products below from the "Products Types" menu.
 
The "Subcomponent" option and the "Options & Components" applies to individual products not to sub-categories.
 
Can "Default Options" be provided in the "Products & Categories" menu so that any new option controls the category or sub-category selected and the products below. This would allow options to be added quickly or changed across a range of sub-category products as requested elsewhere in this forum.

That would be *very* useful

This would be great!!!

Having a rethink of this I suggest looking at the situation in a slightly different way.
 
At present ViArt is very "product centric" in that the products are supplied with options, components, relationships, accessories and releases as well as shipping and tax attributes.
 
However many of these attributes are generic in that by organising products into categories to start with you are pre-defining certain aspects of the product. For example anything in a "Books" or "Childrens clothing" category is (in the UK) tax exempt, you might be only (by law) able to ship certain product categories to certain age groups or to particular geographic areas.
 
If you think of it as a family tree you can see that grandchildren - the products - share attributes handed down by grandparents and parents - the categories and sub-categories.
 
So by re-organising ViArt to be "category centric" as well as "product centric" you get the best of both worlds in that products inherit certain predefined attributes from the categories and sub categories above them and can have their own individuality.
 
This way you can also change attributes in a more global and quicker fashion as well as change inter-category relationships.

Ned, that's very true. Being able to inherit characteristics makes much sense.
I sell food as well as beauty prods so I do have the "Std Vat" and "Zero rated" - and, having some alcohol on site, I also have the age issue.
I also keep adding products with extensive colour choices. When adding a new product in the category it would save much time to be able to select all colours currently in use in that category.
I guess this would mean setting up options for the category rather than the product (then allowing the details of the option - such as price - to be specified inside the product itself. It would make the process considerably more efficient.
 
* * *
 
There is also the issue of 'reverse application' of things like "related products".
If you need to add a new 'related' product to 20 existing products it requires opening each of the 20 existing products to add the relationship.
It would help considerably for many actions to be available in reverse (or upwards) direction - e.g. in this case open the 'new' product and check which existing products need to be shown as having this as a related product.

If the sub/category provided the inherited relationship when creating or editing a category or sub-category you could specify that products and sub-categories below the category you were editing did or didn't inherit relationships.
 
Down at the product level as you create the product you apply a new relationship (as now) or deselect ones inherited from the categories and sub-categories.
 
Agreed for existing products you would have to edit - but do this only once!

Ned - I see that it is possible to set _default options_ for Product Types - it is so frustrating having to go on a treasure hunt for features - I know that this is not categories - BUT - as I can assign products in several categories into one product type it does have use I guess.
 
I also see that "Predefined specifications" can be set. I have read about this in the manual. I know how to do it but it does not tell me why to use it!

Ive just had to duplicate an option for another 6 products!!
Ill prod support ...

Ive had the following from support
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In the latest version we have added a possibility to clone any option from one product to any other products. In 3.4.5, if you select an option of a product (Put a tick in the box), "Copy Options & Components (1)" and "Delete Options & Components (1)" links appear. You go to the first one and just select the products from the list of all your products to which you want this option to be applied.
---
I think this neatly addresses the issue and many thanks go to support for adding this feature.

I have just had a look at this Ned - yes it is an excellent development.
 
I guess, being a demanding person, I would also very like to have this the other way round - - have a list of options and, when adding a product, pick the options from the list?
 
Also - this is yet another example of a fantastic feature-filled product and I find myself missing a lot through ignorance - we must have a detailed manual; and not just the features but also the tips and tricks of using and getting the best from Viart.

I like Chris' idea of turning this around. I'd rather be able to add it by going to the products and selecting it from a statis table list

Have anyone try a new functionality when you can specify for default options a new option - 'Allow you to select this option for each product individually'.
 
So you can create some predefined options for each product type and then when you editing the product and select some type you have the ability select options for this particular product from this predefined list

That would be a static table list

I have thousands of products and options change all the time - my preference for development is as above - to create a list of options would be a mammoth task.

personally.. I think it would be nice to be able to turn off or on values for product type options..
 
i.e. I sell T-Shirts, and all of them have a color option
 
most have black, grey and white, but a few have red and blue also..
 
I can't create a product type of t-shirts with the color option and then "hide" specific values for a particular product, I have to create and recreate and recreate the color option for every single shirt.
 
if there IS a way to do this.. please let me know how! :)

Hello,
 
The enormous job on creation of multiple options for each product can be sufficiently simplified if you use Default Options for a product type. For example, you go to Administration > Products > Products Types > Product > Default options, and create a default option for a product type just as you do it for a product. When doing this, for best flexibility, you may select "Allow you to select this option with all values for each product individually" as Assign Option control. Then on any Edit product page, if you select the correspondent product type, you will see a new section where you just need to tick off the required options for this product instead of going to the Options and Components link and creating the whole option for this product. Try it!
 
Regards,
ViArt Support Team

That's really great and will dramatically improve efficiency, thank you.
 
 
There are so many features like this that we struggle to find - we really need that new manual

Thanks Denis, the default options helped me a lot today - really showcases the power of ViArt.