Enable/Disable some common blocks from Magento 1.8

Here, we are going to discuss how we can enable/disable some basic blocks which appear at the front-end with Magento Default installation. Most of the task can be achieved using Admin Panel.

1. Remove default Welcome Message shown at the top right corner.
   

   
   Goto System > Cofiguration > General > Design
   In "Header" section, Remove the value in "Welcome Text" field.
   
2. Change the main website logo
   
     

   
   Goto System > Cofiguration > General > Design
   
   In "Header" section, change the "Logo Image Src" field. If you remove this field's content, <img> tag will be generated with a incomplete "src" property. 

3. Change the Copyright information at footer   
       

   
   Goto System > Cofiguration > General > Design
   
   In the "Footer" section, change the content in "Copyright" field.
   
   To add any additional text below the Copyright message, enter such HTMLs in "Miscellaneous HTML" field. Here we can enter CSS style statements as shown below.
   
   <style>
   .footer { background-color : white; color:blue;}
 </style>
   
   The above CSS style would change the font-color and background-color of the DIV with class "footer".
  
   We can add new paragraph, DIV etc also. The blue string "General Tester" in the picture above was added in this "Miscellaneous HTML" section.
   
4. Remove the Footer links "About Us", "Customer Service", "Privacy Policy".

   Goto CMS > Static Blocks
   
   Click on the static block named "Footer Links" to modify its content. When in Edit mode, clear/modify the content in "Content" field. If you want to add link to any CMS page here, add the following <li> within the existing <ul>. Below, we are adding a link to Homepage.
   
   <a href="{{store direct_url="home"}}">Home</a>
   
5. Remove the footer links "Site Map", "Search Terms", "Contact Us", "RSS"

   i. Site Map, Search Term :: 
     
      Goto System > Configuration > Catalog > Catalog 
      In "Search Engine Optimization" panel, "Autogenerated Site Map" and "Popular Search Terms" can be set to "Disable"
   
   ii. For "Contact Us" :: 

        Goto System > Configuration > General > Contacts
       "Enable Contact Us" option can be set to "No" to remove this.
 
   iii. For "Rss" :: 

       Goto System > Configuration > Catalog > RSS Feeds
       In "RSS Config" panel, set "Enable RSS" to "Disable"

6.  Remove the "Help Us to Keep Magento Healthy - Report All bugs"  
   
   i. The above section appears within a DIV element <div class='bugs'>. So we can add a style statement in "Miscellaneous HTML" field as shown in point 3 above ::
          <style>
      p.bugs { display:none; }
    </style>
   
 ii. Or we can modify the template file footer.phtml within our current theme :: 
       
       <!-- Commenting the following section would do it:: 
  
  <p class="bugs">
   <?php echo $this->__('Help Us to Keep Magento Healthy') ?> - 
   <a href="http://www.magentocommerce.com/bug-tracking" onclick="this.target='_blank'">
    <strong>
      <?php echo $this->__('Report All Bugs') ?>
    </strong>
   </a> 
   <?php echo $this->__('(ver. %s)', Mage::getVersion()) ?>
 </p>
  -->  
   
7. To disable various Blocks like "Tags", "Newsletter", "Community Poll" and "Paypal Logo"
   
   

   
   i. To remove "Tags" section,
       Goto System > Configuration > Advanced > Advanced, Disable "Mage_Tag"
 
   ii. To remove "Newsletter" signup section from all layout : 
         In the same section described above, Disable the "Mage_Newsletter" module.

   iii. To Disable all "Polls" :
          In the same section described above, Disable the "Mage_Poll" module.

    iv. To Disable "PayPal Logo" :
         a. We can add a CSS style to "Miscellaneous HTML" as shown below : 
  <style>div.paypal-logo { display : none; } </style>
          
          b. Or, we can edit the following file ::
  app/design/frontend/PACKAGE/THEME/template/paypal/partner/logo.phtml
  and then comment the entire stuff.

8.  Disabling blocks like "Compare Products", "My Cart", "My WishList" and "Recently Viewed Products" ...

    

   
   i. Disable WishList :: 
          a. Goto System > Configuration > Advanced > Advanced, Disable "Mage_Wishlist"
         b. Or Goto System > Configuration > Customer > Wishlist, In "General Options" panel, set "Enabled" to "No"
   
   ii. Disable My Cart at Sidebar :: 
       Goto System > Configuration > Sales > CheckOut, In "Shopping Cart Sidebar" section, set "Display Shopping Cart Sidebar" to "No"
  
  iii. To disable "Compare Products", we need to work on the layout XML files.
          We need to open "catalog.xml" file in "layout" folder. Comment the related block as shoen below.
  
     <reference name="right">
            <!-- <block type="catalog/product_compare_sidebar" before="cart_sidebar" name="catalog.compare.sidebar" template="catalog/product/compare/sidebar.phtml"/> 
           -->
  
  iv. To Disable "Recently viewed Products"
       Goto System > Configuration > Advanced > Advanced, Disable "Mage_Reports"