how to change the position of static block present in category to the left side

Question

In magento , The static block can be set for each category, At present it is at the top of the product listing. I need to change the position of the static block from the top of the product listing to the left side , that is below the layered navigation.

layered navigation|  custom blocks
                     ------------
                      product listing

Need to change to

layered navigation | Product Listing
------------------
custom block

I am doing this in order to display ads in the custom blocks that are related to categories

Answer 1

It isn't exactly possible to simply move the current functionality associated with the category into the left hand column, since by moving it into the left hand column you would be moving it outside the bounds of the block that renders it. That being said there are other ways to achieve it. The best approach would be by use of the 'Widget Instance' functionality in Magento.

1. Go to CMS > Widget and select Add New Widget Instance.
2. Select Type > CMS Static Block and your current theme before clicking continue.
3. Click Add Layout Update and select Anchor Categories for Display On.
4. Either select a specific category or all.
5. Select Left Column under Block Referece.
6. On the second tab Widget options select the static block you wish to inject.
7. Click Save and continue.

You may have to go clear the block cache at this point, I can't remember if that's automatic. But you should essentially have a static block in the left hand column. The main caveat being it won't appear if the templates have been modified sufficiently to remove the code for rendering them.