HowTo: Disable Category without Disabling Items?

[Jeff_Mash]

I'm sure this is easy and discussed elsewhere, but I have products which are linked to two different categories. Is there a way to disable one of the categories without automatically making the products in that category disabled?

For example, I may have 100 products that are listed in my store, but also linked to a "Christmas Magic" category. If I want to disable the Christmas Magic category so that it doesn't show up on my menu list, I don't want all items within there to be disabled throughout the rest of my store, know what I mean?

Is there a mod or something which allows you to easily unlink multiple items from a category, or at least disable the category while leaving the items enabled on your site?

[kobra]

f I want to disable the Christmas Magic category so that it doesn't show up on my menu list, I don't want all items within there to be disabled throughout the rest of my store, know what I mean?

If I am grabbing what you seek correctly - you do not want the Xmas category displayed year around....but have items there that are linked elsewhere.

I know not eloquent - but maybe they way it should have been upfront:

remove all links for these first then move these items in the admin to another category to live. Then link them to the Xmas category. Now you can disable the xmas cat without breaking the link status as you will have no products that exist there that are linked elsewhere.

[Jeff_Mash]

I was hoping there was an easier way. For example, when you ENABLE a category that has been previously disabled, you have an option which asks if you want the products to also be enabled or disabled.

However, in doing the opposite, when you want to DISABLE a category that is enabled, you don't have the option to keep the products enabled. It seems to automatically disable anything that is underneath that category, regardless of whether or not it's linked to something else.

I was kind of hoping that there was a way to just click the category to disable it, while not disabling all the items underneath it (especially since they are still linked to other enabled categories).

[gilby]

I was hoping there was an easier way. For example, when you ENABLE a category that has been previously disabled, you have an option which asks if you want the products to also be enabled or disabled.

However, in doing the opposite, when you want to DISABLE a category that is enabled, you don't have the option to keep the products enabled. It seems to automatically disable anything that is underneath that category, regardless of whether or not it's linked to something else.

I was kind of hoping that there was a way to just click the category to disable it, while not disabling all the items underneath it (especially since they are still linked to other enabled categories).

Its a small inconsistancy.
But for a hundred items you can do it the hard way in about 3 minutes, quicker than writing this post
Disable the category.
Go to the first page of items. One after the other click the column of red buttons without waiting for the page to refresh. After the last button on the page wait now to check that all have turned green.
Repeat for the following pages.

100 items less than 3 minutes, if you had to do it a lot it could be more of a pain
but its a lot less painful than unlinking each item before deleting the category.

[Jeff_Mash]

I didn't think of that. I will definitely give it a try! Thanks for the excellent work around!