On Posted on by Linda R to Product Updates

Design an Entire WordPress Website Creating Unique Page Layouts With The Header, Footer, and Sidebar Editor

There's a powerful feature that stands out here in Visual Composer - the header, footer, sidebar editor. This is an important step in the website-creating process and gives you an opportunity to fully design your website using tools that make Visual Composer a real theme builder. 🤩

We all know that WordPress themes can be finite in their options and layouts, and off and on there is a need for a change in the header or footer requiring decent coding skills. Get to know this game-changing feature for WordPress sites letting you create your website from top to bottom!

Create Custom Headers, Footers, and Sidebars with Visual Composer

Header, Footer, Sidebar Editor

If until now, theme users were stuck with a certain theme’s header or footer design, now Visual Composer Website Builder solves this problem for all time with the new Header, Footer, and Sidebar Editor!

In this section, you will find the following:

  • What is the Header, Footer, and Sidebar Editor in Visual Composer;
  • How to create and edit custom or pre-built headers, footers, and sidebars;
  • Features and addons to combine with your headers, footers, and sidebars.

You can create new headers, footers, and sidebars with just a snap using well-known Visual Composer content elements and templates.

The Header, Footer, and Sidebar Editor is similar to the regular content editor, but its properties (width and height) are measured for headers, footers, and sidebars. The editor also offers Design Options to apply in the Navigation bar settings panel.

In addition to the header and footer editor, the sidebar editor is a real treasure for WooCommerce stores – it allows you to add products and categories thus drawing attention to their attributes (size, color, etc.). Also, a sidebar is a great place for your social media widgets, advertisement, and other CTA attributes.

Examples of headers, footers, sidebars by Visual Composer

How to create and add headers, footers, and sidebars

  1. Hover over Visual Composer in your WordPress admin panel and select what you want to create - Header, Footer, or Sidebar;
  2. Add new template;
  3. Name your new template;
  4. Use content elements and templates to create your headers, footers, and sidebars;
  5. Save your template;
  6. Add the template by opening a page with Visual Composer
  7. Locate the page settings (in the Navigation bar) and select the template you want to apply from the drop-down.

Note: Make sure you choose a page layout with a header, footer, or sidebar.

Add Header, Footer, and Sidebar Template From the Visual Composer Hub

With the Visual Composer header, footer, and sidebar editor you can create an unlimited number of templates with a unique design or download ready-to-use templates from the Visual Composer Hub – a cloud library with unlimited access for Premium users.

So, for a quick start, go with a pre-built header, footer, and sidebar template to be used as a basis for your own styling, or select the layout of your choice. In addition to choosing Header, Footer, and Sidebar, you can also disable any of these blocks.

Custom Design

Now you finally have a free hand to determine your own custom designs. This means that you can create a menu in the header or footer, add a logo or any other element of your choice. Like every element in Visual Composer, you can adjust the design of your headers, footers, and sidebars with powerful Design Options.

Create Custom Header and Footer in Visual Composer

With the Global Header and Footer option, you can create custom headers and footers to replace the theme default ones. In Visual Composer, you can overwrite headers and footers straight from the Frontend editor.

Change the header and footer and specify the particular type of content, any page or post type where they should be placed. For instance, you can apply a custom header and footer to the whole site (set as a default) or to the multiple WordPress pages (including WooCommerce).

Sticky Header

You can also apply stickiness to rows placed in the Header, Footer, and Sidebar Editor and make the navigation process more comfortable for users. Besides, it is a great feature for marketing and leading your customers straight to your sales section.

Dynamic Content

The Header, Footer, and Sidebar editor can be combined with a Dynamic Content feature! It is content that adapts to the interaction, preferences, and interests of the user. Dynamic Content is a Premium feature that allows you to use dynamic WordPress content and custom fields instead of static one. Сreate a header or footer template with dynamic content placeholders and use it all over your site.

Global Templates

Any header, footer, or sidebar can be placed as a Global Template. The addon lets you place the templates you have created as a separate element on any page. Plus, whenever you change the design of the template selected as a Global Template, the updates will automatically be shown across all pages where it was used.

Page Layouts

When you install a certain WordPress theme, it has a defined page layout where the header, footer, and sidebar usually is set by default. But what if you need a different page layout for one specific page? That’s when Visual Composer page layouts come to be a very handy tool, giving you the option to select one of the predefined layouts or proceed with the default one.

This is a sweet treat for all of you guys – with just a click, Visual Composer lets you take over the design defined by the theme, so you are no longer depending on its layouts!

Visual Composer allows to create custom page layouts

Layout Builder

In fact, there's also a feature that allows you to do all of this in one place - the Layout Builder. Simply create a layout with a header, footer, sidebar, or anything else your heart desires or designer has imagined and assign that to pages, posts, custom post types, or even archive pages. You can find the Layout Builder in your Visual Composer Dashboard, under Theme Builder. 

By being able to design your custom layouts, you become your own website theme builder! And once that goes on, you don’t need to spend your money on premium WordPress themes because now you can get a lightweight theme for free and have the ultimate freedom of how your site is going to look.

So Far So Good!

Visual Composer offers everything you need to create a full website with simple yet effective tools, so now is the perfect time for upgrading to Premium and starting to benefit from the Header, Footer, and Sidebar editor.

As always, we would love to hear from you – comment, question and leave your feedback below.

Happy creating! 🙂

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Linda R

Linda R

A marketing person who enjoys the interaction between creativity and technology.