How to customize the left side-bar in Magento 1.9 category view

Question

I am trying to customize my left side-bar in Magento when the frontend shows a certain category. For example I want to remove the Newsletter box and a custom block which was added by the theme developer.

However I am not able to find the correct file to edit in order for being able to customize apropriately.

Answer 1

You should do this with XML, by updating your local.xml file.

 <catalog_category_default>
    <reference name="left">
       <remove name="left.newsletter"/>
    </reference>
 <catalog_category_default>

Refernce for removing common items in Magento: http://myphpinformation.blogspot.in/2015/05/remove-default-magneto-block-like-news.html

Answer 2

you can get better idea about how block is rendered in frontend by just setting Template Path Hints => yes,you find it at in adminpanel under configuaration menu in developer tab.

Remove corresponding block file or just commenting it in layout file and make clear cache in order to reflect your change.

Thanks