Remove SKU Column from Transactional Emails

Question

I would like to know how to remove the SKU column from transactional emails my store sends.

The email template contains {{var order.shipping_description}} but I don't know where this block is pulled from.

At least I assume that's what's rendering the table of info displayed in the following image:

Answer 1

You need to edit two files:
File 1:

app/design/frontend/base/default/template/email/order/items.phtml
Find the following line and comment it:

<th align="left" bgcolor="#EAEAEA" style="font-size:13px; padding:3px 9px"><?php echo $this->__('Sku') ?></th>

-----OR-----

empty the value as:

<th align="left" bgcolor="#EAEAEA" style="font-size:13px; padding:3px 9px">&nsbp;</th>

File 2:

app/design/frontend/base/default/template/email/order/items/order/default.phtml

And comment the following line:

<td align="left" valign="top" style="font-size:11px; padding:3px 9px; border-bottom:1px dotted #CCCCCC;"><?php echo $this->escapeHtml($this->getSku($_item)) ?></td>

-----OR-----

empty the value as:

<td align="left" valign="top" style="font-size:11px; padding:3px 9px; border-bottom:1px dotted #CCCCCC;">&nbsp;</td>

Hope this helps.

Answer 2

So the directive

{{var order.shipping_description}}

is for the output of the shipping description (above of the order items list).

The order items list is usually generated by following directive:

{{layout handle="sales_email_order_items" order=$order}}

So to find out where this is defined you have to find the layout-handle sales_email_order_items, which is usually set in base/default/layout/sales.xml

<sales_email_order_items>
    <block type="sales/order_email_items" name="items" template="email/order/items.phtml">
        <action method="addItemRender"><type>default</type><block>sales/order_email_items_order_default</block><template>email/order/items/order/default.phtml</template></action>
        <action method="addItemRender"><type>grouped</type><block>sales/order_email_items_order_grouped</block><template>email/order/items/order/default.phtml</template></action>
        <block type="sales/order_totals" name="order_totals" template="sales/order/totals.phtml">
            <action method="setLabelProperties"><value>colspan="3" align="right" style="padding:3px 9px"</value></action>
            <action method="setValueProperties"><value>align="right" style="padding:3px 9px"</value></action>
            <block type="tax/sales_order_tax" name="tax" template="tax/order/tax.phtml">
                <action method="setIsPlaneMode"><value>1</value></action>
            </block>
        </block>
    </block>
    <block type="core/text_list" name="additional.product.info" />
</sales_email_order_items>

So the files you need to extend or overwrite in your custom theme are email/order/items.phtml for the headline and the defined item rendereres for the different type of product types.