Ever since I started to focus on Berchman.com I realized that my former “company” website, HamiltonBerchman Design Group, Inc., was no longer maintained, correct, or relevant. However, at the time I was fortunately too busy to even think about doing anything to the site.

Then one day I was doing research on a project and stumbled across a free portfolio template that stood out to me in more than one way. The template is called medifolio, by Dirk Leys who generously posted it online. I was particularly drawn to the “sliding” action when you click on a portfolio thumbnail image, and the return to the main page. There was a simple elegance to the whole thing. I looked at it and thought, “how can I do this type of page in WordPress and Thesis?” The original medifolio is a single, flat html page. How could I generate all the content, in the right order, with the right tags and syntax? I thought about it a while. A long while.

In the time since I first saw medifolio I was working on a client project requiring the listing of individual portfolio pieces, complete with images and text. It required a complete custom solution. By creatively using categories as parents I created blog posts that then occupied specific categories. I could then create custom loops to not only create a listing of the portfolio pieces at the top of the page, but I could have them link to the actual full description and image display further down the page (by using custom generated anchor links). You can see the work in action here on the website ckwrites.com. There are four custom lists generated across the top of the page after introductory text. All done within WordPress and Thesis with categories and custom page templates, and custom loops.

Since I had completed design and development of ckwrites.com I looked back at medifolio and the previous experience lent itself directly to making medifolio a reality. After some long nights tinkering with custom php and css solutions I got the basic page to work as the original static medifolio page. All the content was being dynamically generated from individual posts for each and every portfolio piece. All the tags, divs, etc. were being dynamically generated as well.

Once I had a basic working model the next thing to do was to implement. I’ve done this right now in two places where it lives, live on the Internet. The first implementation was at HamiltonBerchman Design Group, Inc.

I set out to rework, or basically remove, all the non-relevant content from the website and was left with a stripped down, single web page that tells what the current state of affairs is, and shows a sample of work that I completed in my time operating HamiltonBerchman Design Group, Inc.

Once I had this complete, I wanted to take it to another place and that was on the Dennison+Wolfe Internet Group website where I am a partner. This implementation allowed me to refine and rethink some things to how the portfolio is implemented.

I think both of these came out looking quite nice.

It will be a part of the new, upcoming Berchman.com redesign.

My next step, I think, is to clean this up, write a tutorial on how to implement this, and release it on an “as-is” basis. What does that mean? It means if you want it, download it, and figure it out.

That is what I had to do.

Let me know what you think.

I was sent this information graphic today and was struck by how effective it is. There is something that resonates with me.

It puts your brand at the center of the page and graphically shows you how everything encircles and supports said brand. The guys at the site provided this fantastic embeddable graphic below for you interactive pleasure and I just had to share.

I’m picking up where I left off on the previous post.  So far I’ve gathered adjectives 17 friends, family, and clients perceive as my personal brand. I’ve also identified adjectives I would use for my personal brand.  But what else is there that might have an influence on my personal brand?

• My opinions, likes, and dislikes
• What tools am I working with?
• Who do I do business with?
• Who is my target market?
• What are my roots, my upbringing, where I was raised, etc.
• What is my story?

My opinions, likes and dislikes

There’s no doubt that your personal opinions, the things you like, and the things you dislike have an impact on who you are and how you project yourself into the world.  This in turn impacts your personal brand.  When I speak of opinions. I’m not referring to things like personal political opinions, rather I’m referring to my personal professional opinion’s. For example, in my opinion WordPress and Thesis are the best CMS combination for any self publisher to use on the Internet.

Things you like and dislike also have an impact. For example, some things I like:

• The Internet (duh)
• Design of all kinds (graphic, information, packaging, product, typography, etc.)
• 20th-century abstract expressionist artwork (Jackson Pollock, Piet Mondrian, Jasper Johns, Franz Kline, etc.)
• Music of all kinds
• Real football (the EPL not the NFL)

And some things I don’t like:

• Bad design
• Inefficiencies
• Luddites
• Messes and clutter
• Manchester United

What this all boils down to is an exercise in distillation. You need to continuously ask questions of yourself. Simultaneously, you need to be answering questions. You should not be looking to others to tell you what your personal brand should be.  You have to decide what information is relevant and helps reinforce those qualities that are important to you.

Remember though that everyone has an opinion.  People may already have a perception of what they think you are like, and that influences their thinking.  Don’t be entirely dismissive of their opinions, rather embrace the information. You may find it useful somewhere down the road.

What tools am I working with?

This may seem like a mundane question, but again, it’s a process of collecting information.  I use an Apple G5 dual processor computer as my main machine.  I do 99% of my work on this machine.  I use WordPress, Thesis, the Adobe creative suite, BBEdit, CSSedit, and a variety of other smaller software tools to help me get the job done.  I also have a PC laptop that I use primarily as a preview machine to see what websites look like to the majority of people on the Internet.

Who do I do business with?

I do business with large companies and solo entrepreneurs that are serious about using the Internet. They want to establish or increase their significance in people’s lives through the power of web-based communications. This does not mean that they are stiff and stuffy. Rather, I like to work with people who have goals, perhaps don’t know exactly how to achieve them with Internet tools, and like to have fun during the process.

Who is my target market?

Businesses and people who need expert consultation in developing their websites. They want to use smart, proven technology that works (like WordPress). Many times they know what they want and realize that its quicker to hire a professional to get the job done that much quicker. They may or may not know about the power of Thesis as a framework, but we can work on that.

What is my story?

Everyone has a story and it impacts your person brand. My story is simple. I grew up in a very small village in New York called Waterford. I lived there the first 23 years of my life. Coming from a small town I learned to appreciate people, history and heritage, and fundamentals. I left home to go to college and came back to Waterford after graduating  with 2 degrees; B.A. in Fine Arts and B.S in Information Science. I then chased my wife out to California 16 years ago and we started a family about 9 years ago. I worked for a variety of advertising and design firms before striking out on my own about 4 years ago. Now here I am today. That is essentially it in a nutshell.

So where from here?

Now that I have collected data, the next step is to articulate my brand in terms of a positioning statement and begin exploring visual ideas. That is for the next post in this series.

Since writing the first post in this series I read a great article on A List Apart that spoke volumes to me about the process I am embarking on and documenting here. If you do not read alistapart.com I suggest you check it out. To summarize–I am not so much “redesigning” berchman.com as I am “realigning” berchman.com.

I am reviewing the goals and purpose of this website and ‘realigning‘ content and design to help achieve those goals. Initially when I launched berchman.com I thought nothing of ‘goals’ or ‘purpose’ it was just my personal website. The times and purpose of this website have changed. So I have changed the title from “A Website Redesign” to “A Website Realignment” because it more accurately reflects what I am doing.

The first part of realigning this website is defining the brand of Berchman.com. Berchman is me so subjective/objective issues are very strong with taking on this exercise. Berchman does have a brand in the eyes of the beholder, but up to this point-in-time I have never done any research to get to the essence of the Berchman brand. 

Look outside yourself

First thing I did was conduct a survey (which took a while to get responses). I asked one question of 17 people using the free tools at Survey Monkey. The people I asked know me personally and/or professionally. Some have known me all their lives and one has known me only a month as my newest client. The goal was to collect data on my personal brand from a wide audience and the question was simple.

What are three adjectives that best describe me, Berchman?

I provided three empty text boxes and since the question was open ended and each of the respondents know me differently, the answers were somewhat varied, but many answers have similar meanings. For example “intelligent” and “knowledgeable” are similar enough to both indicate “intelligence.”

I took all the answers (51 replies) and placed the words with similar meaning into columns on a spreadsheet. This  exercise allowed me to do 2 things:

1. Sort and see the replies to determine the most common adjectives people use to describe me
2. Calculate a percentage based on the number of replies to measure significance

The answers surprised me because what you think other people think of you is usually very different than reality. The top five adjectives with their associated percentages of appearance are:

1. Creative – 82%
2. Intelligent – 71%
3. Kind- 47%
4. Driven – 29%
5. Fun – 29%

I’m happy that without active effort these are the attributes of my personal brand as seen by others. This is the purely organic impression of my personal brand. I think anyone would be pleased with this list. This list will help inform my decisions moving forward with my brand and website, and will help reinforce these attributes to all that visit my website and work with me.

Now on to ‘my perception’ of my brand.

Looking from within

I know that some branding experts would say my idea of my brand doesn’t matter. Its what other people “see & perceive” of my brand that matters. While I agree with the latter I don’t entirely agree with the former. I think ones personal ideas and opinions about their brand matter a great deal. How and what is perceived of your personal brand must matter a great deal to you professionally.

• What if others perception of your brand is not what you want it to be?
• How can you realign to change the public’s ideas and perceptions of your brand?

Fortunately for me my personal brand attributes are in line with most of my thinking about my personal brand. And more importantly I really don’t need to “reposition” my brand so much as I need to refine and reinforce.

The way I think about my own personal brand is slightly different than that of the respondents. While the words, or adjectives, I use are different they can certainly be classified into the broader categories of replies that came from the survey respondents. My adjectives for my personal brand would be (in no particular order):

1. Perceptive
2. Inquisitive
3. Detailed
4. Discerning
5. Refined
6. Fun

It’s easy to see how my adjectives above can fit right in to what people replied and this is great news for me. But what else can help inform my personal brand?

That is to be the topic of the next post in this series: A Website Realignment

Your thoughts and comments on this post are most welcome.

One of the things I learned from creating multiple custom page templates within the Thesis framework was how to create and modify sidebars. WordPress and Thesis provide you with a simple an effective way for implementing sidebars on your website with the use of simple syntax, options, and widgets. However beyond the basics you may have the need or desire to have different sidebar options for different types of pages.

Depending on how you’ve setup and defined your website, you may want specific items to appear in sidebars for different pages. You may want a sidebar that doesn’t contain anything the default sidebars display. The way Thesis and WordPress work “out of the box” limits your options because you only have 2 sidebars.

With this tutorial your sidebar options are limitless and the boundaries are defined by your needs.

Before I go much further if you are really new to using Thesis and customizing it you should read my little primer from my first Thesis tutorial before going further.

The Table of Contents If You Please

I will explain how to do the following:

1. Define and implement your basic, baseline sidebar(s)
2. Define and implement a custom sidebar for a specifc page or pages to show instead of the default sidebar(s)
3. Define and implement a custom sidebar to show with any default sidebar

Between these three options you WILL be able to mix-and-match and create sidebar options that will work for your needs. If you plan ahead, think it through, code, test, code, test and test again you will get it to work.

Here we go.

Basic Sidebars

Once you have Thesis installed you will want to proceed to the Design Options it offers you. It is here that you will define the basic, or core, page layout that all pages and posts will inherit. Anything NOT customized inside of custom_functions.php or custom.css will take on the layout you define in this area.

Once you have logged into your admin area you will want to go to the left-hand sidebar to Appearance/Design Options. Once the page has loaded you should see Site Layout options in the second column as seen here:

• You need to first select the type of layout that you would like to use—be it 1, 2, or 3 columns.
• Once you have selected a 2 or 3 column option in the pull down menu, you immediately will be presented with options.
• You will need to enter a width for your content column and specify a column order for your baseline design in the panel pictured here…

• Once you have made your selections you next need to populate your sidebars with the specific widgets you want to use. If you are unfamiliar with widgets check out the information straight from the WordPress source.

That’s all that is needed to activate and “install” your basic, default sidebars. This gives you a baseline to work from.

Next we will talk about custom sidebars.

Testing for Specific Pages and Inserting Sidebars

What if you want a custom sidebar, or you have a custom page template and want the standard sidebars? You may want specific content in a sidebar on a specific page, sets of pages, or specific categories in addition, or instead of the default sidebars.

If this is the case then here is the deal.

You will need to open up the file custom_functions.php file that resides here:

~/wp-content/themes/thesis/custom/

You are going to write a function that tests for the page or category, pulls in your content, and renders your sidebar how you like it.

You need to:

1. name your function
2. test to see if the page or category matches the criteria
3. if so, then render the page/category content
4. THEN render your custom sidebar(s)

You can see an example here where I test for a page with the name “press” which also has a page ID of “512″

/* CUSTOM SIDEBAR TEMPLATE */

function custom_sidebar_01() {
if (is_page('press') || is_page('512')) { ?>

<div id="content">
<div class="post_box">
<div class="headline_area">
	<h2>Your Headline</h2>
</div>
...This is where your content goes...
</div>
</div>
<div id="sidebars">
<?php thesis_build_sidebars(); ?>
</div>		

<?php } }

remove_action('thesis_hook_custom_template', 'thesis_custom_template_sample');
add_action('thesis_hook_custom_template', 'custom_sidebar_01');

There is a call in the code above:

<?php thesis_build_sidebars(); ?>

This php line above is what builds the default sidebars you setup in the first part of this tutorial.

Any Combination of Sidebars

What if you want…

• one of the default sidebars to show with a custom sidebar?
• a custom sidebar with no default sidebars?
• define any number of custom sidebars for any number of custom pages or categories?

There are two key things you will need to accomplish any of the above:

1. Define a custom sidebar in custom_functions.php
2. A plugin that allows you to use widgets in more than one sidebar

Defining a custom sidebar in custom_functions.php

I will admit that I did not create the following masterful stroke of coding. The kudos for that goes to Kristarella. I was in the DIYThemes forums working on helping with some custom page templates and the question came up about adding additional sidebars. Kristarella jumped in and provided some help.

To create a third, fourth, fifth sidebar (you can create as many as you like using this coding) you need to first register the sidebar. Be sure you are working inside of custom_functions.php

/* CUSTOM SIDEBARS */

register_sidebars(1,
    array(
        'name' => 'Sidebar 3',
        'before_widget' => '<li class="widget %2$s" id="%1$s">',
        'after_widget' => '</li>',
        'before_title' => '<h3>',
        'after_title' => '</h3>'
    )
);

You can repeat the above code replacing “Sidebar 3″ with “Sidebar 4″ etc.

Once you have defined the sidebar(s), the next step is to implement it in a page, category, or post. To create a custom function that tests for a specific page, category, or post I recommend checking out my previous tutorial Multiple Custom Page Templates.

You should plan out exactly what you are after before fussing with code.  For the sake of this tutorial I have coded my custom_functions.php file to display a custom sidebar 3 which contains a specific comment, a yellow background, and calendar. The new custom sidebar 4 which contains aspecific comment and twitter comments.

You can tell if I have done this correctly by looking at the sidebar on this test page. The sidebars will be different from every other page on this website. Coolness.

The full function to test and implement custom sidebars

I first defined the third sidebar as the code above suggests. Next I created a function that tests for this specific page inside of custom_functions.php.

In the function I created I call for the page content, and call for the custom sidebars I defined previously, sidebar 3, and a new custom sidebar 4. Then I make the call for the custom template to be implemented.

/* TEST FOR SPECIFIC PAGE FOR SIDEBAR TUTORIAL */

function custom_sidebar_01() {
if (is_page('sidebar-3')) { ?>
<div id="content">
<div class="post_box">
<div class="headline_area">
	<?php the_title('<h1>', '</h1>'); ?>
</div>
<?php if (have_posts()) : ?>
	<?php while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>
			<div class="format_text">
				<?php the_content( ); ?>
			</div>
<?php endwhile; ?>
<?php else : ?>
	<h2>Not Found</h2>
	<p>Sorry, but you are looking for something that isn't here.</p>
	<?php include (TEMPLATEPATH . "/searchform.php"); ?>
<?php endif; ?>
</div>
</div>
<div id="sidebars">
<div id="show-only-3-and-4">
<?php sidebar_3(); ?>
<?php sidebar_4(); ?>
</div>
</div>
<?php } }
remove_action('thesis_hook_custom_template', 'thesis_custom_template_sample');
add_action('thesis_hook_custom_template', 'custom_sidebar_01');

Once the sidebars are working you will need to setup styling to make the sidebars have the proper width and floats to get the sidebars to behave in your layouts. In my case this is the CSS I used to get the results on this page.

div#sidebar_3.sidebar, div#sidebar_4.sidebar {
	width: 217px;
}

div#sidebar_3.sidebar {
	float: left;
	background-color: yellow;
}

div#sidebar_4.sidebar {
	float: left;
	background-color: silver;
}

A custom sidebar with a standard sidebar

In order to have one of the default sidebars show up with one of your custom sidebars you only need to change what sidebars you are calling. For example in the following snippet of code you can see how to do it by calling for the custom sidebar 3 and the default sidebar 1. To call the second sidebar you would change the number 1 to number 2.

<div id="sidebars">
<?php sidebar_3(); ?>
<?php thesis_sidebar_1(); ?>
</div>

What about that plugin?

There is a plugin I used in combination of creating the custom sidebars because in the current model of WordPress default behavior is that you can only use a widget once in all sidebars. So, I use a plugin called “Widgets Reloaded” that allows me to reuse a core set of widgets across all sidebars. Take a look and give it a go.

Wrap Up

From the outlined code above you may see how it is now possible to create as many custom templates as you like and get the look and function you are after. Hopefully this tutorial will get you started on the right track.

Hope this helps you.

I have been working within WordPress for a few years and with Thesis since the start of 2009.

Recently I upgraded my version of Thesis to the latest ‘stable’ release, verison 1.5. I had been running version 1.4.2 just fine and had been playing around with some of the beta versions too. However, somewhere along the way things got a bit “mucked up.” My teasers were not showing on my website.

I had been writing a new tutorial for unlimited custom sidebars and ran into this issue that got me sidetracked. I thought the experience would be good to chronicle and publish as a tutorial. So if you ever need to “clean out” your Thesis install but want to keep all your settings in place, this is the tutorial for you.

What Was The Deal?

I wanted to use the ‘teaser’ function in Thesis and when I tried I would get the following error showing up on my home page wherever a ‘teaser’ should show:

Warning: call_user_func(thesis_teaser_1) [function.call-user-func]: First argument is expected to be a valid callback in /home/4395/domains/berchman.com/html/wp-content/themes/thesis/lib/functions/teasers.php on line 65

Needless to say this was a bit frustrating. Whenever things don’t just work it’s a pain.

First thing I did was to re-download Thesis and do a clean install. This did not help. Still had the errors.

I changed my theme to the default and back to Thesis, still no luck.

I went to the superb Thesis forums and was able to get the help of kingdomgeek, the Thesis OpenHook creator, who got me off on the path that provided my solution.

So What Did You Need To Do?

It was an easy solution once I figured it out. I needed to delete the entries in my WordPress database that pertained to Thesis.

You need to have access to your database. I use an application called PHPMyAdmin that allows me GUI access to the database.

Most webhosting companies have a tool that will allow you to access and edit your database.

Disclaimer!

One caveat. This procedure is not for the faint of heart. If you are not comfortable mucking around in a database then I suggest getting in touch with someone who is. You may be able to send these instructions to your webhost and have them do this for you. Again, if you have any doubts, don’t say I did not warn you!

What’s Next?

There were a total of four entries I deleted from the “‘wp-options’ table in my database.

1. thesis_options
2. thesis_design_options
3. thesis_widgets
4. thesis_widget_subscriptions

In your case I believe you will not see the ‘widget’ entries:

First step was to login to admin, go to design options for Thesis and open that in a new browser tab. I then opened Thesis options in another browser tab. This way I could see all of my current settings. (Do NOT close these tabs!! You will need them open to retain memory of your settings).

Once that is done I then go to themes and activated the WordPress default theme. I then confirmed that I had that running by visiting my live website.

Not showing Thesis? Good, proceed.

Then I log into PHPMyAdmin to manage my database . I went to the WordPress database . Then to the table wp_options.
Then browse the table by sorting the option_name(s) so that all the thesis_[name] options show up together. I checked the boxes then clicked the red “X” button and deleted those DB entries.

After that I went back into “themes” and activated Thesis. Visited the blog to confirm that Thesis is indeed running. Yes!

Then I went back to Thesis options and compared the new options page to the previous settings I have opened in the tab from the beginning. I went through step-by-step and re-activated all the settings as I had them previously. I then repeated the process for the “design options” tab as well making sure that all the checkboxes and pulldown menus matched what I had previously.

Everything checked out as it should and I am now running properly. I now have my teasers and features showing as they should.

Hope this helps.

One of the tools that I use is Chris Pearson’s fantastic Thesis WordPress theme framework.

In an effort to contribute back to both the Thesis and WordPress communities I have documented how to embed the Next-Gen Gallery plugin to your header, or banner image and place your logo above it. This functionality allows you the ability to have your banner image change how you like it beneath your logo at the top of your website.

Why Would You Want To Do This?

If you would like a variety of images in your header beneath the logo/type and manage them in a central location. Once the initial programming and configuration are setup it’s all image management after that.

You may have clients that would like the option of changing their header image on their own and this gives them that option.

Things you will need to perform this tutorial:

• WordPress
• Thesis (optional. You can do this without Thesis but we are using it here)
• Next-Gen Gallery plugin for WordPress
• Photoshop (or other image editing software)

First Things First

You will need to have WordPress, Thesis, and Next-Gen Gallery (NGG) installed before proceeding.

Dimensions

Once everything is installed we are ready to go. First you will want to determine the size of your image, or header. What is that dimension in pixels? You will need this for both creating the image and for settings inside of Next-Gen.

Once you have the width and height of your header determined it is time to create/optimize your images that you intend on using. For our purposes of this tutorial the size of our image/header is 857 pixels wide, and 150 pixels high.

Preparing The Images

We used Photoshop to create a layered file containing all of our images so that we can position and scale them within the size constraints and save out the multiple versions of the file. You may want to import your logo, or typeset your text now, to position it on top of all the images so that you can determine the static position that the logo/type will present itself.

Once we have all the layers in the proper positioned its time to save out all your files. In our example we created 5 different images to use. We used smart naming conventions to make sure we can tell these images from others just by their names. We titled our images:

• header-01.jpg
• header-02.jpg
• header-03.jpg
• header-04.jpg
• header-05.jpg

Now that the images are prepared its time to prepare the logo/type.

Preparing The Logo/Type For “floating” On Top

We should have our logo/typesetting in place from our previous step of getting our images sized and positioned. We need to do the following steps:

1. Make sure logo/type is in correct position
2. Ensure that we have a drop shadow created
3. Turn off all image layers
4. Check transparency
5. Trim the logo/type down to size
6. Save out proper format of file

Make sure logo/type is in correct position

You want to make sure with each and every image layer you have saved out that your logo/type is in the position you want it to appear on all images.

Ensure that we have a drop shadow created

Select your logo/type layer then select the layer/layer style/drop shadow inside the menu options of Photoshop.

Adjust the settings to your liking and you should see a drop shadow from your logo/type on top of the image.

Once you are happy with the shadow its time to save out the logo/type image.

Turn off all image layers

You should turn off all image layers so that you only see your logo/type and shadow.

Check Transparency

Once all images are turned off and the only layer turned on is your logo/type you should see transparency behind the image. In Photoshop—you should see the checkerboard pattern—it should look like this:

Trim the logo/type down to size

With only the logo/type layer displayed you will want to trim out all the uneccessary image data. In Photoshop you want to select Image/Trim

You should now have a much tighter logo/type that still has the shadow present.

Save out proper format of file

You want to select File/Save For Web and Devices

Once presented with the save dialog window you will want to set the following parameters for your file.

• Image type: PNG
• Colors: perceptual
• Number of colors: (depends on what looks good and how large the image file is. Play with this setting)
• Dither: diffusion
• Dither %: 88%
• Transparency: check box ‘yes’
• Matte: None
• Transparency Dither: Diffusion Transparency Dither
• Amount: 88% (Play with setting to get desired result)
• All other settings default

Here is what my settings looked like:

Once your settings are how you like them, save the file with a distinguishing name.

Save it to the custom image folder inside of Thesis: ~/wp-content/themes/thesis/custom/images/

You can now FTP that image to your webserver.

Now that the background images are created and uploaded into NGG, and your logo/type image is uploaded via FTP its time to get busy with the custom.css, custom-fuctions.php, and NGG settings.

Getting Next-Gen Gallery Settings Dialed In

The method presented below is our “hack” to making this combination of plugins and technology work. If you have an easier/simpler way to do this, please share! We are always open to more efficient approaches—who isnt? That being said, here is what we did.

Create A Header Gallery and Upload Images

You want to be logged into the admin area of your website, http://www.[yourwebsite].com/wp-admin/

Once logged in you want to proceed to the gallery management tools near the bottom of the left hand side of the page:

You want to select Add Gallery / Images from the menu choices. On the next screen you want to give your new gallery a name, in my case it was appropriately “header.”

The next step is to upload the images you previously saved. These are the background images, not the logo/type you saved. If you look at the set of tabs at the top of the screen you will see an Upload Images option. That is what you want to select. You need to click on Choose File and proceed to navigate to all your images and upload each one. Once you have all of the images listed, you should then select the proper gallery from the pulldown menu where it says Choose Gallery in the pulldown menu.

Once all your images are listed, your gallery is selected it is time to click Upload Images. This may take a few seconds depending on how large your images are so be patient.

Once the upload is complete you will see a confirmation at the top of the screen.

Manage The Gallery

Now click on Manage Gallery under the Gallery admin menu on the left side of the page. You should see your gallery listed under the Gallery Overview page. Click on the title to proceed to edit the gallery content. At this point you want to make sure that all the images you uploaded are present. If not, go ahead and add what you need.

Tweak the Settings

Now you want to confirm that the slideshow and the technology needed to run it are in place. You do this under the Gallery/Options menu item.

Of primary concern is the tab titled Slideshow. You need to look at the first option under this tab: Path to the Imagerotator. If the path is not already filled in, click the “search now” button just to the right. This should take care of things. If not, you may need to get JW Image Rotator from Jeroen Wijering. Follow the instructions and return here and click the “search now” button again.

Testing The Show

Now that you have uploaded the images and checked the slideshow technology is in place you should test out your slideshow to see if everything is working. This tests the slideshow, and if its working well, gives us some key code that we will need for custom_functions.php

The way we tested the slideshow was to create a test page, insert the slideshow, then preview the page.

I created a page by clicking on Pages/AddNew

I then give the page the title of Gallery Test in the title bar, then I click and icon in the top row, right. You can see it here in the screen capture.

Once I click that button I get a dialog box that lets me select from the pull-down menu the slideshow I want to insert, and lets me determine how I want to display the images—in this case a slideshow.

Once you have clicked insert you should see something like this showing up in your content area:

[nggallery id=5 ]

This is the code the NGG plugin uses to insert the slideshow. Now the code is in place I click publish, then I click preview to see the page and if the slideshow is working as I want it to. If its not you need to go back and double check your settings and that you have to get JW Image Rotator from Jeroen Wijering.

Assuming the slideshow test is working as you intended in your web browser, the next step is to look under the hood at the code being generated to display the slideshow. You will need to find this code, copy it, and then paste it into custom_functions.php to help build your new header. Fortunately I will show you my code here and you can copy/paste to make things work.

When you are looking at the webpage with the slideshow working as it should, you should “view the source code” to see the syntax that is making everything tick. One thing you may have noticed is that your slideshow is a different size than the header you want. Don’t worry, we will change the size in the code.

What Is The Code?

The code you are looking for in the preview page source is this:

<div class="swfobject" id="so5_1" style="width:857px; height:200px;">
<p>The <a href="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outbound/article/http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer');">Flash Player</a> and <a href="http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outbound/article/http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/');">a browser with Javascript support</a> are needed..</p>
</div>
<script type="text/javascript" defer="defer">
var so5_1 = {
	params : {
		wmode : "opaque",
		allowfullscreen : "true"},
	flashvars : {
		file : "http://www.YOUR_DOMAIN.com/wp-content/plugins/nextgen-gallery/xml/imagerotator.php?gid=1",
		linkfromdisplay : "true",
		shownavigation : "false",
		showicons : "false",
		rotatetime : "6",
		transition : "fade",
		backcolor : "0x000000",
		frontcolor : "0xFFFFFF",
		lightcolor : "0xCC0000",
		width : "857",
		height : "200"},
	attr : {
		styleclass : "slideshow",
		name : "so5"},
	start : function() {
		swfobject.embedSWF("http://www.YOUR_DOMAIN.com/wp-content/uploads/imagerotator.swf", "so5_1", "857", "200", "7.0.0", false, this.flashvars, this.params , this.attr );
	}
}
so5_1.start();

</script>
<div class="ngg-clear"></div>
<div id="logotype">
<img src="http://www.YOUR_DOMAIN.com/wp-content/themes/thesis/custom/images/typeface.png" alt="">
</div>

Get your width and height

There are a few numbers you will want to change based on your design and your domain name. The first line of the code above is this:

<div class="swfobject" id="so5_1" style="width:857px; height:200px;">

You want to replace the width and height with the values of your banner graphics. You should know this from creating the graphics previously. There are 2 other places in the code above where you need to replace the width and height. One place is inside the flashvars declaration:

flashvars : {
	file : "http://www.YOUR_DOMAIN.com/wp-content/plugins/nextgen-gallery/xml/imagerotator.php?gid=1",
	linkfromdisplay : "true",
	shownavigation : "false",
	showicons : "false",
	rotatetime : "6",
	transition : "fade",
	backcolor : "0x000000",
	frontcolor : "0xFFFFFF",
	lightcolor : "0xCC0000",
	width : "857",
	height : "200"},

The last place is in starting the function here:

swfobject.embedSWF("http://www.YOUR_DOMAIN.com/wp-content/uploads/imagerotator.swf", "so5_1", "857", "200", "7.0.0", false, this.flashvars, this.params , this.attr );

NOTE: Be sure to change the domain to your domain name in the paths above.

So all together the code inside your custom_functions.php will look like this. We are first moving the main navigation below the header (this is optional for you) then inserting the banner:

/* MOVING NAV BELOW HEADER */

remove_action('thesis_hook_before_header', 'thesis_nav_menu');
add_action('thesis_hook_after_header', 'thesis_nav_menu');

/* Next-Gen Gallery into Header */

remove_action('thesis_hook_header', 'thesis_default_header');
function ngg_custom_header () { ?>

<div class="swfobject" id="so5_1" style="width:857px; height:200px;">
<p>The <a href="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outbound/article/http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer');">Flash Player</a> and <a href="http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outbound/article/http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/');">a browser with Javascript support</a> are needed..</p>
</div>
<script type="text/javascript" defer="defer">
var so5_1 = {
	params : {
		wmode : "opaque",
		allowfullscreen : "true"},
	flashvars : {
		file : "http://www.ojaigetaway.com/wp-content/plugins/nextgen-gallery/xml/imagerotator.php?gid=1",
		linkfromdisplay : "true",
		shownavigation : "false",
		showicons : "false",
		rotatetime : "6",
		transition : "fade",
		backcolor : "0x000000",
		frontcolor : "0xFFFFFF",
		lightcolor : "0xCC0000",
		width : "857",
		height : "200"},
	attr : {
		styleclass : "slideshow",
		name : "so5"},
	start : function() {
		swfobject.embedSWF("http://www.ojaigetaway.com/wp-content/uploads/imagerotator.swf", "so5_1", "857", "200", "7.0.0", false, this.flashvars, this.params , this.attr );
	}
}
so5_1.start();

</script>
<div class="ngg-clear"></div>
<div id="logotype">
<img src="http://www.ojaigetaway.com/wp-content/themes/thesis/custom/images/typeface.png" alt="">
</div>

<?php }

add_action('thesis_hook_header', 'ngg_custom_header');

CSS and Your Logo

Now that you have the rendering of your banner in place, the thing to do now is get your logo to appear on top and in the position you would like. The code we added to our custom.css file is this:

div#logotype {
	background-color: transparent;
	margin: 0;
	padding: 0;
	display: inline;
	z-index: 2;
	position: relative;
	top: -84px;
}

The key here is to position: relative; and to use negative top margin. This is what will get your logotype to appear on-top of the banner. Be sure to add the z-index in for good measure.

Be sure to save your custom_functions.php and custom.css file and upload via FTP and test, test test!

Wrap Up

This has been one looonnnnggg tutorial and if you have read to this point, you are both patient and persistent. You can see the banner that I have based this tutorial off of here at OjaiGetaway.com which is a web site in progress.

Do let me know if you have any questions about this process. I will help as best we can.