With Avada Layouts, you have the ability to create fully customized Header Layouts on your Avada website, using the full design power of Avada Builder. If you still want to use the legacy method of assigning a header layout from the Global Options, see the How To Set Up A Global Options Header doc.

You can build a Header Layout from scratch using the wide range of Elements in Avada Builder, or you can get a head start on your Header, by importing a prebuilt one from Avada Studio. A Header layout can be global, meaning it will display on every page of the site, or it can be conditional, and just display on certain pages, categories, or custom post types etc. In that way, you can even have multiple headers, for different sections of your site.

Read on to understand Header Layouts in Avada, and watch the video below for a visual overview of the entire design process.

A Custom Header is technically a Layout SectionLayout. See Introducing Layouts in Avada for a general overview of Layouts, and Understanding Layout and Layout Sections to understand the difference between the two parts of the Layout, but for now, let’s now look at creating a Custom Header Layout Section.

You can find Layouts at Avada > Layouts. This interface is where you create and manage your Layouts and Layout Sections in Avada. Initially, there is just a Global Layout, and by default, this is empty, with no attached Layout Sections, as can be seen below.

You can add a Header Layout Section to the Global Layout, or to a Conditional Layout, set to only show on specific custom post types, or even single pages etc. The Global Layout is already there by default, but for a Conditional Layout, we have to first create a Layout.

Creating a Layout is done on the Layouts page, by simply adding an appropriate name and then clicking on Create New Layout, as can be seen below.

If you already have a Layout you want to add a Custom Header Layout Section to, or you want to add it to the Global Layout, then you can go ahead and create a Header Layout Section.

You can do this on the Layout Section Builder page, by simply choosing the type of Layout Section, and then adding a name (in this case, Header, and perhaps a name of Global Header might be most appropriate) and then clicking on Create New Layout Section, as can be seen below.

Alternatively, you can create a Layout Section directly from the Layout you wish to add it to, as can be seen below. For a Layout Section to appear on your site, it has to be added to a Layout. And as mentioned, there is initially only a Global Layout. So, if you wanted to create a Global Custom Header, you would just add it to this Layout. But if you wanted a conditional Custom Header, you would need to create a new Layout, assign a Custom Header Layout Section to it, and then add conditions to it to get the Layout to display according to those conditions.

There’s no wrong way to do this, but it’s important to think of the circumstances. If the layout is already active (i.e. it has conditions or is the Global Layout) then any Layout Section added would also be immediately active, and at this point would still be empty. So in the example of adding a Custom header to a Global Layout, it would make more sense to add it via the Layout Section Builder page first and build it before adding it to the Global Layout.

Alternatively, if we were adding a Header Layout Section to A Conditional Layout, then we could add it in this way, and then build it. Conditional Layouts are not in use until there are conditions added. If we mouse over the Header Layout Section on the Layout, as shown below, we can then click on the edit icon to design and build our Layout Section.

When you first edit a new Layout Section, you come to the default WordPress Editor. From here, you can choose to use Avada Builder, or Avada Live. It is here we create our Custom Layout Sections.

Anything you can build in the Avada Builder can constitute the content of your Layout Sections. You can have multiple columns, background images, dynamic data… anything. The freedom this gives is enormous. The Layout Section is literally that – a section where can create the Layout. The content itself comes from the Builder, and what you can do is only limited by your imagination.

With a Global Layout, there are no Conditions. This is because it’s global, and any Layout Sections added to it will be used on every page. If, however, you wanted a Custom Header just on some pages of your site, you’d need to add a Header Layout Section to a Conditional Layout.

With any Conditional Layout, you need to set the conditions of the layout. This is best done last, because as soon as you set the conditions, the layout is active, and if you do this after first creating the Layout Section, but before editing it, the pages displayed that fit the conditions would be empty in those sections.

To add a condition, or conditions, simply mouse over the bottom of the Layout, and choose Add A Condition. This brings up the Layout Conditions Dialog. Please see Understanding Conditional Layouts for more information on Conditional Layouts.

In the example of the Pet Supplies Website, there is also a Conditional Custom Header, which only displays on one page, the Alternate Home Page. See below for the Conditions set to achieve that, and further below for an example of what that Header looks like on the Alternative Home page.

With Avada Layouts, creating a Custom Header is an unlimited possibility. Not only can you use the full power of Avada Builder to create almost any Header you can conceive of, and thanks to the power of Conditional Layouts, you can also show, or hide, the Header on any page, category, custom post type, or any combination of conditions you can think of. And with Avada Studio, adding a new Header is as easy as it gets.

Avada Layouts is a game changer in the true sense of the word. It enables such freedom of design, and gives such flexibility in deployment, that building Headers will simply never be the same again.