Title: Customising headers
Last modified: August 20, 2016

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# Customising headers

 *  [wibers](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wibers/)
 * (@wibers)
 * [13 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cutomising-headers/)
 * Hi all,
 * I am fairly new to WordPress and would like to customise my standard WordPress
   header.
 * I am using the default ‘Twenty Twelve’ them and want to modify my header so that
   is has my company logo on the left and a header picture slideshow on the right.
 * I am not sure if I need to have some sort of multi-column header for this or 
   can I use the widget function and if so, how could I select two different functionalities
   for the same header?
 * I have the ‘Header Slideshow’ plug-in installed and can get that to appear of
   sorts, however I wanted my logo and slideshow to be in-line right at the top 
   of my page.
 * Thanks in advance
 * Chris

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)

 *  [webeminence](https://wordpress.org/support/users/webeminence/)
 * (@webeminence)
 * [13 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cutomising-headers/#post-3600155)
 * Chris,
 * There may be a plugin for that but plugins aside, you’d have to edit the header.
   php file. I created [this video](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEQU0FIqhZs) 
   to show where you would add the image code to create a logo on the left side 
   of the top of the page in the Twenty Twelve theme.
 * You can use this method to create the look you want on a page and then copy the
   code into the header.php file in the appropriate spot. I’m not sure what you’re
   using for a header picture slideshow but you may be able to align the company
   logo to the left as shown in my video and then just put the code for the slideshow
   right after it. This may achieve the look you’r going for. You should save a 
   copy of header.php before messing with it in case it gets messed up.
 *  [WPyogi](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wpyogi/)
 * (@wpyogi)
 * [13 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cutomising-headers/#post-3600158)
 * Chris – you should absolutely avoid modifying theme files – especially in the
   default theme – instead first create a Child Theme:
 * [http://codex.wordpress.org/Child_Themes](http://codex.wordpress.org/Child_Themes)
 * Any changes to theme files will be overwritten and lost when WP is updated and
   it’s also crucial to have a clean copy of the default theme for troubleshooting
   purposes.
 *  [webeminence](https://wordpress.org/support/users/webeminence/)
 * (@webeminence)
 * [13 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cutomising-headers/#post-3600161)
 * Yeah, working with Child themes is the best option when needing to edit the theme
   files. There are some good plugins to easily create a Child Theme. The process
   can be a little confusing for beginners.
 * If I’m only making one little change like this to the theme files, I will sometimes
   just redo the change when updating the theme.
 *  [WPyogi](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wpyogi/)
 * (@wpyogi)
 * [13 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cutomising-headers/#post-3600164)
 * [@webeminence](https://wordpress.org/support/users/webeminence/) – thanks for
   you help here, but really, please always go with recommending a child theme –
   it’s awful to have people post here saying, “oh my gosh, I didn’t make a child
   theme and now I lost a ton of work or my site crashed and it was the default 
   theme that I modified all over the place…and someone here told me to do it that
   way, etc.” As you can understand, that’s really not a good situation – so we 
   really try to help people avoid it :)!
 *  Thread Starter [wibers](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wibers/)
 * (@wibers)
 * [13 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cutomising-headers/#post-3600211)
 * Thanks guys for your advice.
 * I went with your suggestion WPyogi and it was easier than I thought to create
   a ‘Child Theme’.
 * All I need to do now is figure out how to get the template header to appear how
   I want it to unless you have any pearls of wisdom for me?
 * Basically I want to have a logo to the left of my header and a header slide-show
   to the right.
 * Can I create a multi-column header or is it not that straightforward?
 * Would I need to modify style.css file in my new ‘Twenty Twelve Child’ theme folder
   or would I need to add a ‘header.php’ file to that folder and modify that?
 * Thanks again for your help.
 * Chris

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)

The topic ‘Customising headers’ is closed to new replies.

 * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/)
 * 5 replies
 * 3 participants
 * Last reply from: [wibers](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wibers/)
 * Last activity: [13 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cutomising-headers/#post-3600211)
 * Status: not resolved

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