Original poster apparently solved his own problem, but was not community minded enough to share his solution.
So for anyone following this thread, here is a solution that you can use. I have tested it for just a couple of days so if you find a glitch please post it here.
This is only for version 1.3.x:
You should be using the override system and have a folder for your template files in the locations where you are altering files.
custom will be the folder for this example:
In your /includes/templates/custom/ folder create another folder named 'templates'
find the tpl_index_categories.php file located in the /includes/templates/template_default/templates/
folder and ftp it to your PC.
Use your editor, notepad or? and open the file and locate this code:
<!-- BOF: Display grid of available sub-categories, if any -->
<?php
/**
* require the code to display the sub-categories-grid, if any exist
*/
require($template->get_template_dir('tpl_modules_category_row.php',DIR_WS_TEMPLATE, $current_page_base,'templates'). '/tpl_modules_category_row.php');
?>
<!-- EOF: Display grid of available sub-categories -->
and delete all of this code from the BOF line to and including the EOF line.
Save it and FTP it to your custom folder: /includes/templates/custom/templates/
Now when you select a category, there will be no display of the sub-categories that reside under it. Use this only if you do not want them to display.
