Now we will take a look at creating a new category in the Magento Admin

Selecting a Store

The first thing to do is select the store where you would like to add the category from the Choose
Store View dropdown menu. The default is for all stores managed by the admin panel, but you can
select to create the category in only one of the stores by selecting that store.

After that you will need to enter a name for the category which will appear on the sites selected.
You can then select the location the category will be located in. The default is Root Catalog,
meaning the category will be a top-level category. If you select an existing category the new
category will be created as a sub-category of the one you selected.

You can then enter a description, upload an image and enter meta information for the category.

Display Options

After that it really gets interesting. If you would like customers to be taken to a landing page -
instead of the standard product listing page - when they select the category, you can select
Static Block Only from the Display Mode dropdown and then select a static block from the C
MS Block dropdown. This list will contain all the Static Blocks created in the Magento CMS
(Don’t have any static blocks? Why don’t you check out How do I create and edit static
blocks?). An example would be to create a Nike static block and direct all customers to t
hat page when they select the Nike category. There are three options in the Display Mode
dropdow:

Display products only

If you don’t need this category to look particularly fancy, select this mode. It will display
the products you associated, the description you enter, and the image you upload.
(If you want an image or description - if not, just leave these fields blank.)

Display only Static Block

Have a bunch of specific content you want to show for a certain category? The “Static
Block only” display mode will not display products on the page - it will only display the
static block you select, making this page appear as a landing page to your customers.
Editing Static Blocks is done under the CMS menu, and is covered by this article. This is
perfect if you want to get your customers excited about the category before showing
them products.

Tip: Make this page an anchor category and let your customers use layered navigation
to find their products after viewing the landing page!

Display Static Block and products

So you have several category pages where you want the same content, but feature
different products? Easy - use this display mode:

Create a static block for the content you want to use between categories.

Now go back to manage categories, and find your category

Select display mode “Static block and products”

Select the static block you created in step 1. The static block will appear above the list of
products.

That’s it! Repeat for any other categories where you want to show this content.

Is Active: Yes or No

You then select whether the category is active on the site. Selecting no will hide the
category on the site.

Is Anchor: Yes or No

Finally you select whether the category page is an anchor. Anchors are used for the Layered
Navigation in Magento.

If you set the category to be an Anchor the layered navigation (see How Does Layered
Navigation Work in Magento? for a look at the layered navigation) will display the sub-categories
of this category in the layered navigation. The layered navigation then takes all the products
underneath, including ones in the sub-categories, and displays all the filterable attributes of those
products. If you do not set the category as an Anchor it will not display the filterable attributes
in the layered navigation.

Here is a look at the layered navigation for the Apparel category which is set to be an anchor.

Adding products to the category

Now you can select products to populate the category from the Category Products tab and
you have created a new category for your online store. In the Category Products tab
(accessible from the top of the category page), search for the products you want to associate
and then click the checkboxes of these products. After the products are checked you’ll be
able to control their Position in the category listing. Example in the screenshot below:

Adding customer design to the category page

You can customize the design of each category individually in the Custom Design tab. This
controls the look of the category page, including the objects on the page and the structure

of the page. Select the design you want from the Custom Design drop-down. Magento
comes with several different design options out of the box, but you can add your own. If
you leave this drop-down blank, it will automatically use the Current package name design.
This can be edited by navigating to System > Configuration and clicking the Design tab. Enter
the name of the design you want in the Current package name field, and this design will apply
to all categories for which you do not specify a different design. Select your preference
from the Apply To drop-down. This category only means that the design will only apply to this
one category page. This category and its products means that the design will apply on this
category page, and on the pages of all products associated to this category. If a product is
associated to multiple categories, each with a different design, the design displayed on that
product page will be determined by the design of the category page from which the user
navigates to that product. This category and its child categories means that the design will apply
on this category page, and on the pages of all sub-categories, sub-sub-categories, and so on.
All mean thats the design will apply to this category, its child categories, and its products. With
the Active From and Active To fields, you can select a time frame in which the category will a
utomatically switch to a design, and then switch back to the blank option when the time
frame ends. This is perfect for the holidays, so that you can create a holiday design for you
pages, and then have your site automatically switch back to the normal design whenever you
want, without having to remember to do it yourself. The Page Layout drop-down determines
the structural aspects of the page. No layout updates uses the default settings that come
with the Magento installation. Empty displays the category page without any objects, except
for the content (products or static blocks only), category name, and view options (number
to display per page, view as grid or list, and sort be options). 1 column displays the contents,
category name and view options, as well as the header, footer, search field, and navigation bar.
Column on the left adds the left column to the 1 column display, which by default includes
the currency selection and layered navigation. Column on the right adds the right column
to the 1 column display, which by default includes the shopping cart view, wishlist, compared
products list, polls, and newsletter sign-up. 3 columns displays both the left and the right
column. The Custom Layout Update is essentially a static block, with a few differences. Rather
than HTML, the structure must be in XML format. The Update will display at the bottom
of the page, below the products, whereas a static block will display above the products
(if the static block is set to display with products). The Update will display on the page
only during the dates specified in the Active date range.

Front-end

Finally navigate to the front-end and view the products. Below is a screenshot with product
images removed:

The products will adhere tohe Position entered in the admin panel