Remove left nav from single category page

Question

I am looking to remove the left hand navigation from the top level category pages. I attempted the following xml in layout updates within the category section of admin panel but unfortunately it had no effect.

         <remove name="catalog.leftnav"/>

Here's the catalog.xml reference that I believe calls this nav - I've even tried commenting out the xml but the nav still displays.

              <label>Catalog Category (Anchor)</label>
    <reference name="left_first">
        <block type="catalog/layer_view" name="catalog.leftnav" after="currency" template="catalog/layer/view.phtml">
            <block type="core/text_list" name="catalog.leftnav.state.renderers" as="state_renderers" />
        </block>
    </reference>

Can anyone help please?

Answer 1

You're missing the reference there. Try:

<reference name="left">
    <remove name="catalog.leftnav"/>
</reference>

Answer 2

Please first check in your xml if the left navigation category block called: name="catalog.leftnav" and you dont renamed it. If it's ok you will remove this left category navigation in the the page that you want(the layout handle associate to this page) in local.xml like this:

<catalog_product_view> // here we remove the left catalog navigation just in product view page for exemple
   <reference name="left">
        <remove name="catalog.leftnav"/>
    </reference>
</catalog_product_view>