Updated August 3rd,2009 » So You Want A NextGen Gallery Slideshow as a Banner(!?!)
Learn how to add more sidebars to your theme and be able to use widgets in any part of your theme. Confused? Well, many plugins provide widgets and if you want to use them they have to go into the sidebar(s). But what do you do if you want to use a widget in a part of your theme that isn’t a sidebar?
I’m going to tell you how to make any part of your theme into a “sidebar”. So you can put widgets in it and be happy!
What is a WordPress sidebar? It contains PHP and HTML, right? Well then, a sidebar doesn’t have to be a long skinny rectangle on the side of your blog or website. It can be a banner with rotating images(or whatever you want) and that is what I am going to show you how to do in this post. You can use these steps and your own ingenuity to stick widgets from other plugins wherever you like. It’s not limited to nextGen Gallery slideshow widget. I’ve used this technique to add Random Quotes, the WP-E-Commerce Shoppingcart widget…etc. If it has a widget it can go anywhere. That is my point. Anyone who is very comfortable hacking their templates and themes can follow this post just fine.
Read on to follow the tutorial on adding more sidebars and getting the nextGen slideshow widget in the header/banner of your theme.
Continue reading A Fully Widget-ized WordPress Theme