Installing Prestshop Locally in LAMP First

[tonyawards]

I want to do a new installation of prestashop (the software looks great in the demos) and will be converting over from osCommerce. It will be a full site re-do, so I'd like to build it offline on my computer inside lampp (I use Linux and have it at: /opt/lampp).

How best to structure the initial offline database so that I can do a smooth upload into my web host? I know that the installation instructions recommend that I download a finished site locally as a test environment, then upload it back.

Can I easily do the reverse?

And will there be any other issues to be ready for besides the database matching?

Thanks for your help and patience for a newbie...