How do I remove the div `col-right sidebar` from the default theme html?

Question

I want to completely remove the div col-right sidebar from the default magento 1.9 theme.

I've tried creating a local.xml file containing:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<layout version="0.1.0">
 <default>
 <remove name="catalog.compare.sidebar" />
 </default>
</layout>

But this only removes the content of the div. I want to completely remove it from the html code so the page can contain more products on a single page.

Now:

enter image description here

Goal:

enter image description here

What should I try next?

• pspahn: What does this element have to do with the number of search results? It sounds to me like you want to remove something when a simple CSS change is all you need.
• narzero: Removing the sidebar > more page space > change products-grid products-grid--max-4-col first last odd to products-grid products-grid--max-6-col first last odd = more products on a single page. I need col-right sidebar to be gone.
• pspahn: Are users not allowed to scroll down the page if there are more results than will fit on the screen?
• narzero: Why would I want them to scroll down to view more products if I can remove unnecessary space like col-right sidebar so more products fit on a single page? That doesn't make any sense UX wise.
• pspahn: If that's all you want, see: stackoverflow.com/questions/12190678/… -- Otherwise it sounds like all you need is a CSS adjustment.

Answer 1

You have to change the root template for <catalog_category_default> and <catalog_category_layered> inside your local.xml

i.e.

<catalog_category_default>
 <reference name="root">
 <action method="setTemplate"><template>page/2columns-left.phtml</template></action>
 </reference>
</catalog_category_default>

Notice page/2columns-left.phtml. The template you are using is page/3columns.phtml

Take a look inside app/design/frontend/base/default/template/page/ for default layout templates that come with Magento.

• Jonathan: It is better to edit the catalog.xml in this case, so you can set the correct template where it was intended to be defined - IMO

Answer 2

app\design\frontend\rwd\default\layout\page.xml

line 33-35 change to:

<default translate="label" module="page">
 <label>All Pages</label>
 <block type="page/html" name="root" output="toHtml" template="page/2columns-left.phtml">