Replacing the default header (oh yes, I’ve searched)

  • Resolved clinth

    (@clinth)


    17 years, 8 months ago

    I see that people have been asking this question for months for different versions of WordPress, but lots of them are unresolved, and the ones that are either the solutions don’t work for me or don’t apply.

    Here’s the thing: My first step was to go to “Designing Headers” in the Codex, where I am told:

    ***********************************************

    To change only the header image reference, open
the header.php template file and look for the
styles like this:

#header {
  background: url("<?php bloginfo('stylesheet_directory'); ?>/images/wc_header.jpg")
  no-repeat bottom center; }
#headerimg  {
  margin: 7px 9px 0;
  height: 192px;
  width: 740px; }

To change the image file, replace the
"kubrickheader.jpg" with the name of the new
graphic image you have uploaded to your site to
replace it. If it is in a different directory,
change that by replacing the bloginfo() tag with
the specific address of the graphic's location.

    ***********************************************

    The problems here are manifold.

    First, I’m assuming by “header.php template file” they mean simply the “header.php” file, but this is somewhat confusing since there are in fact files listed in the theme editor that include “template.” Since such a file doesn’t show up in my list, I assumed the header.php file was the one meant.

    Which leads me to the second and most important problem, which is that the CSS ID tags given in the above text don’t exist in the default theme “header.php” file.

    So I checked in the “style.css” file. There are #header and #headerimg tags in the CSS there, so I changed the URL and size specs accordingly, then cleared my cache, and…nothing. I’ve double- and triple-checked that my image is in the images folder of the default theme. It is there.

    So my obvious question is how do I replace the standard header in WP with mine? The instructions don’t match what my files contain, and my intuition–I actually know a little about CSS and HTML–is getting me nowhere.

    Thanks,

    Clint Hayes

Viewing 15 replies - 46 through 60 (of 71 total)

  • The wrapper keeps going up into the header area, and down into the footer area. All we need is:

    Header

    Wrapper

    Footer

    Sounds pretty straight forward huh? But all we keep getting is:

    Wrapper
    Header

    Wrapper

    Footer
    Wrapper

    You probably haven’t run into this problem because you’ve used either square headers, or jpg headers. Ours is gif/png with rounded corners (so the wrapper keeps showing through underneith).

    No, I’ve used numerous other sorts of header iterations. In order to help further, I’d need a link – it’s a practical impossibility to figure out what you’re talking about without seeing it. And no, a screenshot will NOT work – I need to see the entire code plus graphics in situ.

    Thread Starter clinth

    (@clinth)

    Wow. Y’all have been busy since my almost-post six hours ago. I was ready to show how I’d almost fixed it by replacing three lines of code.

    The main offending line of code in the header.php file is this:

    <?php wp_head(); ?>

    That gives this result: my personalized header in perfect form, but puts a blue rectangle behind around it. It also leaves the WP-generated blog title and description in front of my header (which means my header IS on the background layer), but I can take that out easily enough by deleting that code inside the “headerimg” div at the bottom of the header.php file.

    That all being said, I’m ready to ditch it for a custom theme and customize that. I’ve found a few now that look promising, based on my the look and feel of my header, so I might trouble y’all to tell me which ones would be the easiest to customize.

    So the question becomes, should I show this as resolved or not? I’m thinking not, since we never did figure out how to fix the damn thing.

    Thanks again for all the assistance.

    You need that line in there, Clint. It does some backend stuff with wp – I’m not real sure what borks specifically if you pull it out, but I’m betting it’s one of those “bitecha” things – you know, the sort of thing that gets you from behind when you least expect it…. takes a hunk out of your kiester, and disappears laughing to its den, slavering over your bleeding flesh….

    Honest. Pick one of those themes that best fits what you want to do, and tweak it. And if you get stuck, post up a new thread here, and we’ll try to help. Oh, and keep my email addy around just in case.

    I’d put it in the Bermuda Triangle column :p

    Did you see this link for themes?

    vkaryl here’s your link, but I don’t know how much good it will do you since we’re trying a new theme approx. every 15-20 minutes on average….

    Okay, right now you’ve got Simple Lavender up there. It looks fine, it scales perfectly to 800×600, it’s not great at 3 upclicks in FF but not too many are….

    What’s not to like?

    And now you’ve got wordpress-lemon-neon-10 – which is ditto the above. I’m not understanding what it is you’re looking for. You keep saying “wrapper goes into header area” but so far I’m not seeing that these two themes overlap anything from the wrapper area into the header.

    Maybe you need to state exactly what it is you’re seeing on your end that’s causing you to think the wrapper’s overlapping the header, ’cause right now, those two themes are displaying exactly the way they’re supposed to.

    Hi all,
    I was puzzled over the same header image problem with the Default theme – I was searching the forums for a solution when I came upon this thread.

    I think the answer is to delete (a bit drastic!) or rename (preferable, I think!) the file called functions.php within the wp_content/themes/default/ folder. I believe this is the culprit which creates the extra style tag within the page header and which overrides the header image.

    I’ve tried it here. Now, maybe something has been missed out in recent versions of WordPress (or maybe something has been added in!). Whatever, you can get around it this way.

    “You keep saying “wrapper goes into header area” but so far I’m not seeing that these two themes overlap anything from the wrapper area into the header.”

    This last one (so far) is not doing that, BUT we’re not using a wrapper image yet either. Let’s see what happens when we upload an actual wrapper image. If it still aligns up then we’re making some progress, but by far the lemon-neon-10 is the best so far, we just need to widen it a little.

    Clint I think I found a good theme for you to try. It’s called ‘wordpress-lemon-neon-10’. HERE is a link. The only way that I found to download it is to use their search engine HERE for the term ‘lemon’. You should get 5 images, one will be blacked out. That’s the one you want ?? Get rid of their ugly green background, rename your images and you should be set. The CSS is very bad but you can clean that up later, or I can send you a cleaned up copy. The main thing is that the images are working like they should. The only problem that we’re still having is that the wrapper is covering up the top of our footer, but that’s probably part of their bad CSS. If you need more information about this let me know ??

    Clint – I know I’m late coming in on this – but please, listen to vkaryl. Kubrick sucks. (LOL). I’ve *never* used it. When I install WP, the *first* thing I do is get rid of Kubrick.

    You say that you have some experience in HTML and CSS…how about creating your *own* theme? I have a tutorial on how to do it on my site. I get lots of emails thanking me for it, so it must be a good one LOL But maybe that can help you. I always fin it’s easier to code my own than to wade through someone else code and try to fix it to my liking.

    Just saying. But yeah, Kubrick sucks. Why they use it? Dunno.

    [offtopic]

    ??

    Doodlebee I notice where you also love the “PHP for the World Wide Web” book. It is an excellant book and we recommend it for all those just starting out. Larry Ullman also has a good book on MySQL. For HTML and CSS “Spring into HTML and CSS” is a great book.

    OK, back to helping Clint ??

    [/offtopic]

    Thread Starter clinth

    (@clinth)

    Doodle:

    Your tutorial looks very good. In general, yes, I prefer to create stuff on my own, if only because I know what I did and why, thus making it easier to fix. On something as large in scope as this, though, as long as I can figure out the nuts and bolts enough to do what I need to do, I don’t mind using a template.

    That being said, these three themes have everything that I like and want. There are aspects of each that I like. I like the colors and layout of the Painted Desert, I like the page links on Andreas, and I like the calendar and subscribe features on TripleK. If I could combine those three things, I’d be a happy camper.

    Thread Starter clinth

    (@clinth)

    Web,

    Thanks for the link to the themes viewer. You’ll note above that I’ve found some that I like. Being able to select the features I like was very helpful.

    Incidentally, what is the wrapper?

    It can mean different things for different software but generally it keeps everything together. Some of the themes that I’ve seen call it content and some call it page, but technically I think it should be called the wrapper (or rap as one theme called it). I would find one of those three themes that you like and get it set up the way you want, then add the features from the other two themes to it.

Viewing 15 replies - 46 through 60 (of 71 total)
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