View all products in top level category?

Well, I foxed problem #2. I cheated. I used CSS to make the "secondary" display match the way I want it to look. It's still part of the list, but I've managed to make top-level categories have their own classes, and used that to my advantage - so now it looks the wya I want it to - visually. In the code, it's still part of the list - but when you see it, it looks exactly how I want it. Cheating? Maybe. but it works.

Now I need to figure out how to do the links on the index page, and I'm good. Perhaps I can usee CSS in the same way...we'll see. I'll report back!

Take a look at my TESTSITE

Note the 1st and 2nd sideboxes on the left. Is this what you had in mind?

Do you have a URL for the site you are working on so I can take a look.

Thanks Clyde :)

That's pretty much what it's already doing. I changed what would be your Category section to a nested list (yours looks like the defualt sidebox list). But when you click on "MMN For Women", then it takes you to the top level page that lists all the subcategories beneath it. What I was looking to do was, when you click on "MMN for Women", it would take you directly to the "Bath Salts" page - since that's the first subcategory in that section.

I'm also looking to try and make the index page go directly to the "Bath Salts" page (when clicked on MMN for Women) rather than the top level category page.

I've accepted defeat on this. I cannot find a way to accomplish it, and I've contacted the designer to let them know they either 1) have to completely bypass subcategories altogether or 2) design a layout for the top-level category page. They're talking to the client now to see what they can do.

But in the end, I did get some good help with my sidebar issue - thanks a bunch for sticking with me through all this :)

And I would offer a link - because it's in the works on the server now (I did local development to start with and put it up the day before yesterday to iron things out) - but it's not a live site yet, and I'm under NDA - so I can't share until it actually goes live.

You were looking at our main shop.

take a look at my test site here: http://mysticmountainnaturals.com/testsite/