Adding A Static Block to Your Magento Menu

These instructions give information on how to add a Static block to the left menu template…

Firstly set up a new static block (using standard Magento CMS | Static Blocks)… I’ve called mine: menutop

Then get your 2columns-left.phtml file from: public_html/app/design/frontend/default/YOUR-TEMPLATE/template/page/

All you have to do now is to add this line in the appropriate place:

<?php echo $this->getLayout()->createBlock('cms/block')->setBlockId('menutop')->toHtml() ?>

i.e. directly above this line:  

<?php echo $this->getChildHtml('left') ?>