How to create custom option that is common to all products

Question

There is a dropdown list on product detail page, That can be select-able by the user,

After the user selects an option from dropdown list and after he adds this product to the cart,

this selected option should be displayed in cart as well as checkout page, and also displayed on transaction emails.

How can I achieve this ?

As I am new to magento, please a hint will also be helpful to me,...

Answer 1

The easiest, I think, would be to implement custom options, Catalog -> Manage Products -> product page -> Custom Options tab, if you're looking to add options that is "common to all products." These will show on your order pages, cart, checkout, etc. by default. I don't know about transactional emails, but I'm sure you can if you want to.

I'll need more information to give you a more detailed answer.

The suggestion by Mr_Green also works.