Theme Customization – Blog Header

After setting the layout and background, the next step is to customize the blog header. The header is the top section of your blog pages that includes your blog title, tag line, and can include an image or logo.

Here is the step-by-step for customizing the header in Twenty-Eleven theme which came with your WordPress install. If you’ve already chosen a different theme there may be similar options available through your theme. Look under Appearance for Theme Options or similar wording.

The default header option for the Twenty-Eleven theme is to randomly rotate the eight included header images. To customize the header, log into your dashboard and click on Header under the Appearance category in the left hand menu. You’ll be directed to the custom header page.

The first option on the page is to upload your own image. We’ll get back to that; for now let’s look at the options for using the included headers. You can choose to leave the default setting of showing random images, or if you prefer to have the same look on all of your pages, you can select just one of the images. (After making your selection, don’t forget to click the Save Changes button at the bottom of the window.)

To upload your own custom header image, click the Choose File button, navigate to the folder where the image is stored on your computer, and select the image. Click Upload. For the best results choose or design an image that is at least as big as the default header image. In this theme after you click Upload you will be directed to crop the image to the correct size.

Here’s an example of an uploaded image (it’s one of my own photographs):

You can also choose not to display any image by clicking Remove Header Image.

The Display Text option determines whether or not your blog name and tag line are displayed above the graphic on your pages. If you’ve included your blog title and tag line in your custom image then you don’t want to duplicate them in text. If you choose to display the text separately you can also choose a color for your text. The title and tag line were set when you installed WordPress and can be changed in the General section under Settings in your dashboard.

Now that you have a custom header you can move on to customizing your menus.

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• How to Find and Install WordPress Plugins
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