Building
This is the section of the interface that is used to create your mall. All the buildings and items that can be used to build your mall can be accessed via this submenu. Clicking on any of the buttons in this menu will open up a new sub menu for that category.

Floors
The floors menu gives you a selection of floor textures that you may choose from when creating your floor. Left click on any texture to select it. Note the arrows at the top and bottom of the panel which allow you to scroll through the large selection of floor textures that are available.
Once you have selected a floor texture, if you move your mouse pointer over the building plot, you will see that the square underneath it is highlighted. The color of this square will vary depending on whether you are allowed to build there or not. A green square is a legal square to build on, whereas a red square is not.

To place your floor blocks you can either click the left mouse button once, which will stamp down a single floor square, or if you hold down the left mouse button and drag the cursor you can drag out a large area of squares that will be covered by your chosen floor tiles, when you release the button.

Whenever an area of floor tiles is placed it will automatically be surrounded by a wall, this 'auto wall' feature will help you build a basic mall shell in very little time.

Note when building floors on higher levels you can only build when there is a floor block or shop unit directly below the area you want to build on. Also you may not delete upper floor blocks if they are directly over a store on the floor below.

Walls
As well as 'auto wall' to create walls, you can build walls using the 'Wall' button. Clicking the wall button allows you to select a wall texture by opening an almost identical menu to the 'Floor menu'.

Walls are placed in a similar fashion to floors, but to choose which direction the wall will be built, simply move the cursor towards the edge of the highlighted square where you want a wall to be built and click the left mouse button to place it. You may also hold down the mouse button and drag to place walls the same as you can with floors.

As well as being used for building walls by hand the 'Walls' submenu is also used to select the texture that will be used during 'auto wall' when floors are placed.

Units
The units menu allows you to place empty store units into your mall, which you can then fill with the contents and products of over 60 different types of stores.

There are four different sizes of store unit:-

Single - a single 3x3 store unit. This can take a single store type and its products. It is the smallest and cheapest unit to build.
  Double Wide - a 6x3 store unit. This unit can be filled with all the same store / product type, or two different types.
  Double Deep - a 3x6 store unit. This unit can be filled with all the same store / product type, or two different types.
  Department Store - a large 6x6 store unit which will take four store / product types to fill it. This unit can be filled with the same type, or any selection of up to four store / product types.
To place an empty unit, simply left click on the desired unit and it will appear attached to your cursor. Like walls and floors, the floor tiles of the unit will be colored green or red depending on whether you can place it in the chosen area. Move the unit until it is in the desired location, then simply click the left mouse button to place it into the mall. It is also possible to rotate the unit before it is placed using the 'Navigation' panel in the bottom left of the screen or the < and > keys.

Shops
The store category sub menu allows you to fill empty store units with your chosen store / product types. The menu list contains eight store categories. There are scroll arrows to allow you to access all the categories.
Apparel / Clothing Food and Drink
  Electronic Goods Entertainment
  Health and Beauty Household
  Public Services Sport and Leisure
Clicking on a store category will change the store category sub menu to the store type sub menu. This menu shows all the stores that are currently available within that category. Note that some categories contain more stores than others. Also some stores may be unavailable at the start of the game as they need to be researched. Unavailable stores will be tinted red and you will not be able to select them until they are researched.

To place a store type and its products into an empty store unit, simply left click on the appropriate store type from the list. This will become attached to your cursor. Move the cursor over the desired empty unit and the store type will drop into place. Click the left mouse button to place it permanently into the unit. When placing products into double or department store units, you have the option of placing the same store type and its contents repeatedly until the unit is full, or you may place different store types next to each other.
Shop Info Pop up
Once you have built stores within your mall, you can get information on a store by clicking the right mouse button over the store. This will bring up the store information pop up which will allow you to view and change various details of the store.

The 3D window shows a spinning view of the selected store, with two boxes to the left of it that allow you to alter the textures on the walls and floor.

The right of the panel shows statistics of the store's income, its profit and number of customers during the month to date, year to date and since day one.

The date in the top right next to the builder's hat shows when the store was built. Below the statistics are two sliders which allow you to alter the sales cut and rent you take from the store.

If you alter the settings for the store, you must click on the green tick to apply them and exit the panel. Clicking on the red cross button will close the panel without applying any adjustments you made.

Specials
The specials sub menu contains a variety of different items that may be placed within your mall. The placing of special items is the same as placing units. It is also possible to rotate them using the navigation panel.

Atriums - The 'Atriums' sub menu will give you a selection of various 8x8 atriums to place within your mall. These large areas act as focal points for your mall. They become particularly important when you develop promotions which will allow the running of special events within your atriums.

  Entertainment - This gives access to special buildings such as cinemas and amusement arcades, which will increase the popularity of your mall and help to bring in more shoppers.
  Restaurants and Bars - Are your customers getting tired of fast food? If so you need to build some licensed restaurants and bars. That's what this sub menu offers you, providing you have researched them first!
  Service - The service sub menu gives you access to facilities such as nurseries, customer advice, restrooms and banks.

Objects
The objects categories sub menu presents you with a selection of object groups such as tables, lamps, plants etc. Clicking on any of these category buttons will change the sub menu into the objects menu which lists the various objects available within that category.

For example clicking on the benches button brings up the benches sub menu which gives you access to the various styles of bench that you may place within your mall.

To place an object, click on the desired icon then move your cursor (which will have the object attached to it) to the desired location, then simply left click to place the object. Objects can be rotated before they are placed by using the navigation panel.

Certain objects have specific functions as follows.

Entrances - These can only be placed in an external wall and are essential to allow shoppers access to your mall. To place them you must select the entrance then move it over an external wall. It will then appear to snap into place in the wall. As with floors, there will be highlighted squares which show if an entrance may be placed. Green means yes, red means no. Simply left click to place the entrance.
  Stairs, Escalators and Lifts - In order to build a multi storey mall you will need stairs, escalators and elevators to reach higher floors. Stairs will be the first of these objects that will become available (although they must first be researched). Place stairs as you would any other object, but remember to put them in areas where shoppers may gain easy access to them, or your new mall floors may not get the amount of business you would like.

When a stairs object is placed on a floor which has no floor above it you will be asked whether you wish to create a new floor. If you say yes, then the stairs will be placed and a new floor will be created. If you say no, then the stairs will not be placed and no new floor will be created.

Elevators work in almost the same way as stairs, except that once you place an elevator in the mall it will automatically build a shaft connecting all existing floors. If any new floors are added after an elevator has been placed, then the elevator and shaft will extend to the new floor.